Her eyes lit up. “Could you bring them to the penthouse tonight? We could look at everything, have some dinner, relax. What do you think?”
My mouth parted, no words leaping out. This was the platonic girl version of Netflix and Chill. Something like Notebooks & Gush. But really, I saw this for what it was: a chance to make a friend. It was so hard to meet people, which was ridiculous considering how many of them lived in this dang city. But Cora wanted to see my designs, and she wanted to do it in a place Damian called home.
How could I say no?
“I’d be honored,” I blurted.
“Oh, this is excellent!” Cora squeezed my wrist again, her eyes sparkling. “I honestly can’t wait. I have a feeling I’m going to like what I see.”
My mouth flapped uselessly as I processed the comment. A virtual stranger believed in me more than a single soul in my family. How did that make sense?
As if on cue, the snarky voice of my older sister floated through my head, the words she’d said to me the day before I left for New York:This is so stupid, Jessa. You’ll see it soon enough.
But I couldn’t sit in that for long. The door to the conference room across the hallway opened. The first one out was Axel, his face drawn, lips a thin line. He stormed down the hallway, not even glancing at us.
“Uh oh,” Cora murmured. “I better go see what’s up.”
I nodded, watching as she floated away after him. Damian exited the conference room next, followed by a man I’d never seen before, and then Trace. Francis beelined toward me from the conference room, his mouth turned downward.
“Jessa,” he began, the tone of his voice leaving no room for confusion. “You need to pay extra attention to Damian today. The brothers received some difficult news, so be attentive.”
My mouth went dry. I couldn’t imagine whatothernews could be waiting for them. “What was it?”
Francis lifted a finger and shook his head, which made my stomach pitch to my toes. “Not now. Damian will fill you in when he’s ready.”
CHAPTER SIX
DAMIAN
The air of my office became sepulchral and stagnant as the three of us stared at each other, saying nothing. We’d all practically fallen into our respective chairs the moment we were behind closed doors.
“He says he’s a blood brother of yours,” Axel repeated after an eternity of staring and thinking and processing. His gaze slid like a boulder over to Trace. The office was so quiet I could actually hear the throbbing of my own head.
“He has to be lying,” I said. “There’s literally no other option.” I wanted that to be the truth so badly. We couldn’t handle another explosion like this. Not when life as we knew it was already crumbling.
A man named Ian Fairchild had turned up during our regular Monday meeting and claimed he was Trace’s biological half-brother. No amount of scoffing or judgement or questioning could deter him. He’d been completely fucking convinced, which only made this whole thing weirder. More curdling. Moreuncomfortable.
Silence descended once more. Trace’s eyes flitted between me and Axel.
“Right, Trace?” Axel pinned Trace with a stare.
Trace cleared his throat.
Axel didn’t move.
Something deep inside my gut started to pulse.
“I’ll start doing the research.” It didn’t even need to be said. I’d have a full report on the man within an hour, and then we could start piecing together the details. But a lot of things weren’t adding up. Ian had come from Kentucky, all the way toNew York, just to visit us at Fairchild Enterprises and inform us he was Trace’s long-lost brother.
Why the fuck hadn’t he called first? And why now? Did it have something to do with the investigation?
“I don’t know who that guy is,” Trace finally said, expelling a deep breath. He ran his palms up and down the arm rests of his chair. “Never seen him.”
“He kind of looks like you,” Axel mused. “Maybe heistelling the truth.”
I gritted my teeth. I’d thought the same thing but didn’t want to admit it in front of Trace. They had the same gray-blue eyes as our adoptive father Gary…which was probably just a coincidence.
Because there was no fucking way Trace had a secret biological brother.