Healed (Scarred #2)(31)
Author: J.S. Cooper

“Luke.” I squealed as I pulled away from him and he laughed.

“Yes, Lexi?” His eyes crinkled and I studied his jawline. It’s so strong and sturdy, just like him. I knew I would never get tired of staring into his eyes and seeing the love reflected there. There would never be too many soft but intimate touches between us, melding us together. Sometimes when we hugged I didn’t know where my body ended and his began. It felt like we were one. One big cosmos in the universe, joined together for life.

“You’re going to Boston you know.” I spoke softly but firmly, changing the subject.

“No Lexi.” He shook his head. “I’m not.”

“You have to go to MIT. That’s your dream. You’ve worked so hard for it.”

“That’s not my dream, Lexi. You are.” He pulled me towards him and kissed my nose. “You’ve always been my dream.” I felt his hand creep up my shirt and, as much as I wanted to make love to him and forget all the worries and concerns that were crowding my brain, I couldn’t.

“Luke, I want to know why you went to see a lawyer today.” I shot out, unable to keep it inside anymore. “I want to know why you never told me you were adopted. I want to know why you bought this house. I want to know how you can lie to me and love me at the same time.” I pushed him away from me and felt bereft as his hand left my breast.

“Lexi.” He frowned and shook his head. “I don’t even know what to say. How, how did you find out?”

“Bryce and I went to the attorney, David what’s-his-face. I saw you earlier. I wanted to know. He wanted to know.” My words jumbled together, confusing and choppy.

“You were with Bryce?” He frowned. “You didn’t tell me.”

“Yes, I … we … we needed to talk. I wanted to make sure he was going to be okay. I owed it to him.” I took a deep breath, trying to remain calm.“And I know about Shelby.”

Luke’s face showed me that he knew what a big deal it was to keep Shelby a secret from me. “I didn’t want to keep her a secret from you, Lexi. But you never told me about your mom and the Mayor. I didn’t want to take that from you.”

“I was embarrassed.” I felt my face flush. “I didn’t want you to judge me or my mom. I just wanted to keep it a secret. I don’t even know why now.”

“You didn’t want it to define who you were,” he said, softly. “You didn’t want her affair to make a difference to your persona and your life.”

“Yeah.” I looked up at him with unshed tears. “I didn’t want to add on another thing to the ‘that poor girl’ list. I just wanted for us to be us, without that. We’ve always just been us. I wanted to keep it normal between us. Equal, you know.”

“I understand, Lexi.” He sighed. “Sometimes there are things that you just want to keep away from your real main life. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah. I didn’t want to think about it or even acknowledge it. But you know it never left my mind. I just dealt with it internally. Or at least I tried to.”

“You tried to displace it from your mind because you knew there was nothing positive to it. You knew that your parents loved you with every fiber of your being and that was all you needed. Sometimes hidden secrets and heartaches just need to stay hidden.”

“Yeah.” I looked at him suddenly. “Wait, what did you say?” I frowned. “Are you talking about me or you, Luke?”

He sighed and sat on the grass and I joined him, glad I hadn’t worn a pair of white trousers. “So, I only found out a few years ago.” He played with Bongo’s ears as he spoke. “I was volunteering at the orphanage. I had created some new software to streamline all the files to make it easier for everyone. That’s where I first saw Shelby’s file.”

“Oh, so that’s how you knew.” I nodded my head in understanding.

“And then I saw my file.” He looked at me with wide eyes. “And I felt a yearning I never knew I felt. You know? My parents, they’re the best. But I guess I had always, somewhere deep inside, wondered what had happened to my birth parents. Why they had given me up.”

“Oh Luke.” I felt my heart go out for him.

“And so I looked in my file. My mom died, giving birth to me. She had been young, barely out of high school. She was beautiful.” He smiled. “I saw her photo in an old Jonesville High yearbook.”

“You’ll have to show me.” I brought his hand up to my lips and kissed it. “I’d like to see what your birth mom looked like.”

“But then I turned the page and I saw who my mom had listed as my dad. I felt like the world was crashing around me. I wanted to scream and shout. I was so angry!” he shouted.

“You know who he is?” I looked at him in surprise.

He nodded and closed his eyes. “When I realized who my birth father was, I thought I was going to breakdown.”

“Who is it?” I stared at Luke with bated breath.

“Lexi, Bryce is my brother. My half brother.”

“What?” I frowned. “Wait, your dad is the mayor?”

He nodded and I felt like I was frozen in a dream. How many people had this guy f**ked up? “And it all made sense to me. He has many illegitimate kids that he has made women give up, Lexi. I saw the files. You wouldn’t believe how many women listed him as the father of their child.”

“OMG.” I stared at him in shock and as I looked at him I could somewhat see a slight resemblance. I’m not sure if I’m imagining it but if I forgot the cosmetic differences, like hair and eye color, Luke and Bryce had quite the physical resemblance.

“So then I realized that Shelby was also my half-sister and I started to spend more time with her. And that’s how Mrs. Evans and I became close.”

“She knew as well?”

“I think she suspected,” he sighed. “She knew her husband was a dog. She was going to divorce him and adopt Shelby. But she always made small comments to me about having such a wonderful family and things happening for a reason.”

“Wow,” I gasped.

“And I realized that the best thing that happened to me was being adopted by my parents. I had always had this hole, wondering why my birth parents didn’t love me enough to keep me. But the best thing that happened to me was not having the mayor as a father.”