Hamilton frowned. I could see the way his beautiful mouth turned sour. “Vera is off-limits.”
Saint rolled his eyes. “You get a taste of pussy and grow weak. I thought we were going to bring down Jack for our mother?”
“Your mom. My mother is dead. I’m not doing this for the woman that gave me up. I’m doing this for—”
“Nikki. Yeah. I know. We all know. I tried, okay?”
Silence greeted me as I processed it all. Saint was Hamilton’s half-brother? It was all a lie.
It was all a motherfucking lie.
I stepped out of the shadows and toward the two of them in disbelief. “Was I just a joke to you?” I asked, my voice wavering with anger and disgust. At my words, Hamilton snapped his gaze to me, his determined face falling at the sight of my tear-stained cheeks.
“Petal.” My nickname sounded like a plea. A prayer. A cry for help.
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped. “Don’t you dare.”
Saint stood up and let out a sigh. “Hey there, Vera. I’m so sorry for my role in this. It’s nothing personal, you see. Just trying to do right by my mother.”
“You’re brothers,” I commented.
“Only by blood,” Hamilton explained.
“Only by any way that actually counts,” Saint replied. “I’ll let Hamilton explain everything. I can’t stay in one place for too long. Ever since the faked pregnancy exposé, Jack’s put the pressure on the police to have my head. I’m not yet sure if I mean that figuratively.”
Saint got up, wiped his hands on his jeans, and whistled while walking away. “You sent him?” I asked. “The man who has been stalking me—harassing me—the man who wrote an article painting my mother and me out to be gold diggers is your brother. Someone you hired.” I was in shock. I clutched my chest while staring at an uneasy Hamilton. I couldn’t tell if he wanted to hug me or run from me. “The night at the club. With Jess and Infinity. You set that up, didn’t you?” Though my tone sounded like a question, it was rhetorical. I already knew the answer.
“Vera. I’m so sorry—”
“Were you just going to kiss me? Share our fuck fest scandal and let the world gossip about us?”
“I decided that night not to go through with it. I swear I didn’t want to hurt you,” Hamilton rushed out.
“Right. How can I believe you, Hamilton? And you’re the person that leaked my mother’s fake pregnancy? You knew? All this time you fucking new.”
“Colleen told me the night of the wedding,” he explained. “She was drunk and feeling chatty after we had sex. I wasn’t expecting to find anything out. I went there to stir up some drama, get drunk, and remind Joseph that I knew the truth. I never planned on learning what your mother was doing. It just kind of snowballed from there. I started talking to you because I thought maybe you had some insider information I could exploit. I saw an opportunity.”
I nodded and wrapped my arms around myself. “So I was an opportunity? Even better. Were you thinking about revenge when we fucked, Hamilton? Were you thinking about destroying the Beauregard name when I was riding your face? Was I an easy target?”
“No. No. Maybe at first but—”
“Fuck you. Tell me why. Tell me what was so important that you took my heart and stomped on it.”
“Joseph was on drugs,” Hamilton cried out. “Probably still is. He’s gotten better at hiding it now. You can put addiction in a designer suit, but it’s still addiction. I hate him. He used to beat the shit out of me. Every fucking day. Jack was juggling two monsters. Mom’s depression and Joseph’s demons. I was caught in the crossfire of his image, and I hated it.”
I refused to soften my heart at his story. I refused to feel empathy for the man who used me.
“I’m sorry he beat you up, but what does that have to do with my mother and me?”
“I saw him at the wedding. I saw the smug look on his face. I saw the way he held her close. Jack looked so fucking proud. He looked like a real family man. I knew the truth. He doesn’t deserve a happily ever after. He doesn’t deserve his dream job. He doesn’t deserve any of it.”
“So you want him to be miserable?” I asked. “You missed your mark, Hamilton. The only people suffering are my mother and me.”
“Jack started focusing more on Joseph. His anger issues. His sociopathic tendencies. He considered Mom a lost cause.” Hamilton looked like he was on the verge of tears. His hands were balled into fists at his sides. “The drugs Mom overdosed on? She got them from Joseph. She stole them from under his mattress. Jack had to cover it up to save his precious son from being at the center of it all. She even left a fucking note. She said that she couldn’t stand to look at the psychopath she birthed, the bastard she was raising, and the cheating husband who resented her.”
I knew that something was inherently wrong with Joseph, but to hear that Mrs. Beauregard’s last words were calling him a psychopath just increased my concern for my mother. I tried to remain calm. “You have every right to feel the way you do, Hamilton. I have a lot of sympathy for you, okay? But this doesn’t make up for the fact that you used me. And for what? What did you accomplish here, Hamilton? You wanted to make them look bad? The only people you hurt
