Chapter 24

Brynley

There are miracles.

And then there are miracles.

Kirk not dying on that ice planet in the Star Trek movie…miracle.

Kirk running into old Spock, getting over to the outpost, and then beamed back onto a moving Enterprise?

Miracle .

The difference is noticeable.

And significant.

And life altering.

Just like this is.

“You know these episodes of Maury are a lot less fun when no one flips over a chair in excitement,” I juvenilely joke between bites of my chocolate, peanut butter cookie. “Or frustration. Or sadness. Or really just at all.” Another nibble is taken as I lean back onto the couch I’m occupying. “Our life needs more chair flips in it.”

Evie covers the receiver to her phone and hisses at me, “No, it doesn’t.”

“You’re biased.”

“You’re a headache.”

“But a beautiful one, especially in yellow,” Jenni compliments prior to ushering me and Wes’s personal publicist to the other side of the room to resume PR damage control.

You know, you’d think finding out he doesn’t secretly have a sibling would be a dream come true for her, yet it isn’t.

Apparently, it’s just a new nightmare she wasn’t prepared for.

And she hates not being prepared for shit.

The woman is basically a doomsday prepper for public relations.

This was not on her approved disaster list.

She’s pissed.

But my future husband?

He seems…perplexed.

Perhaps even a little disheartened.

Puppet Boy drops down onto the seat cushion beside me at the same time he asks, “Wanna talk about it?”

Wes abruptly ceases his pacing to meet his best friend’s stare and reply, “Yes.”

The two of us brace ourselves for listening.

“ But not with you. ”

“Ouch?” J.T. retorts, clearly confused regarding the right response to have.

“I think we need to go talk to Monica.”

“I don’t think so!” Evie screeches in the background.

Ignoring her is fairly easy considering how often I do it. “When you say we do you happen to mean like the royal we?”

“No.” His hands casually slide into his pockets. “I mean the actual we. As in you and me.”

“As in you, Wes, and me, Bryn?”

“Say it in an octave lower and that shit would sound like Tarzan porn,” Puppet Boy impishly points out under his breath.

My mouth twitches a smirk when the man standing definitely states, “ Yes. We as in the two of us. Together. United.” Wes lets his head angle slightly to the side. “I want you there with me.” He briefly presses his lips together before correcting. “ I need you there with me. ”

“For an alilie?”

“ Alibi ,” corrects the male beside me.

“Depends on what he plans to do to her once we’re inside her room.”

“ Talk. ”

Pursing my lips together in disgust can’t be helped.

“Look, putting aside the test results-”

“We should not put those aside,” I swiftly interject while shaking my head. “We should definitely focus on those. On the fact you are not related. That that fucking head hunting Hirogen isn’t going to be an aunt to our unborn child.”

“ Ooph, ” mumbles Puppet Boy. “She brought out Voyager . That’s a new level of hatred, dude.”

Wes struggles not to smirk at the comment prior to sighing, “I understand where you’re coming from, little prey-”

“Then this conversation should be over.”

“ However- ”

“I hate that word almost more than that show.”

“ However… Monica and I are still connected.”

“A restraining order will take care of that.”

“Despite those test results, my father did have an affair with her mother.”

Chomping on my cookie is the only rebuttal I can make.

“My father was around for her birth.”

Another harsh bite is executed.

“And he cared enough about the two of them to go to extreme lengths to ensure they were well taken care of, literally until her dying day.”

Slowly chewing what remains in its entirety becomes my wordless surrender.

“She’s most likely hurting, Bryn.” The sight of his shoulders falling prompts my own to do the same. “She has no one else in her life. She most likely feels abandoned. Helpless. Hopeless. Isolated. Like the only thing she has left in this world is work.” Undeniable sympathy invades his stare. “ I know exactly what that’s like. ”

Loud, theatrical moans and groans and grumbles precede my huffed proclamation. “And let this serve as another example of why the sexy, leather clad jewel thief was hesitant to hook up with the superhero in the comics.”

“Because he was a better person than she was?” Puppet Boy teases at the same time he stretches his arm along the back of the couch.

“ Obviously ,” I sassily snip, rise to my feet, and cross over to the man I know I’d cross galaxies for. The second I’m within reach, his hands circle around my waist prompting me to playfully whisper, “Being first officer on this mission is going to cost you, Captain.”

“Expected.” He doesn’t hesitate to smirk. “Name your price.”

“A trip to see Steven tomorrow after couple’s therapy.”

“Fine print?”

“We spend the night with him.”

“And?”

“And…you…arrange for me to do his feeding the next day.”

I’m given another crooked grin. “ We have a deal, Brynley. ”

“ Pleasure doing business with you, Weston. ”

Our agreement is sealed with a soft kiss that encourages Puppet Boy to grouse, “You two make me hate being single.”

“Remember,” my fingers lovingly fold with Wes’s, “Number One found love.”

“Eventually.”

“Eventually is better than not at all, Riker.”

J.T. gives me a half-hearted shrug. “I suppose.”

A friendly wink is shot in his direction prior to allowing my fiancé to lead us out of the suite with Holmes for protection against all of Evie’s objections.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think my capeless vigilante is actually enjoying watching her panic.

Maybe I’ve rubbed off on him more than I realized.

I definitely enjoy rubbing him off more than he realizes.

Then again…he might have an idea after this morning’s rub and tug in the shower.

Our journey several floors down to Monica’s room occurs in silence.

Assuming Wes is using the time to properly collect his thoughts is what keeps me quiet, yet my own urges to unleash my inner bull shark for the shit she put me through threaten to have me nulling this arrangement.

Just because you’re hurting doesn’t give you the right to make others hurt.

Or unhappy.

Or fucking miserable.

Which…is exactly what Wes did to me over the Penny situation.

And again with this one.

Huh.

Perhaps he is exactly the person she needs to talk to.

The ghost of Christmas Future that convinces her to stop making it fucking snow discontent.

Wes’s first knock on her door is expectedly ignored.

As is the second.

And third.

But by his fourth, understanding in me begins to waiver.

His fifth?

Patience is sent to med bay leaving outrage to control my emotional ship.

Furious, heavy pounding is attached to a far from idle threat, “You open this door right now to talk to my fiancé or I will march my pregnant ass down to the lobby where I know there are at least a handful of tiger sharks hoping for chum and give it to them in the form of revealing your ugly bribing and blackmailing ways that have destroyed the lives of many, many people.”

It’s no surprise to me when we hear heavy stomping almost immediately.

I flash the men around me a smug smile and fold my arms firmly across my chest.

You know what?

I think I’m gonna take that job.

I know I can get shit done.

Real shit.

More shit than Species 8472 ever did.

Monica aggressively opens the door revealing her puffy, makeup smeared face alongside her severely disheveled hair. “ What can I do for you Wilcoxes? ” A loud sniffle is stolen. “You want a public apology? She tucks strands behind her ear. “A copy of my resignation letter?” Her hand falls defeatedly onto her dark green pants. “For me to relocate at least fifty miles away from your family to save you the trouble of having a restraining order drafted and filed?”

“Yes,” instantly leaves me. “ To all of that. ”

“ Bryn ,” Wes hisses in disapproval forcing me to seal my lips shut.

Oops.

Didn’t realize they were rhetorical questions.

“May we come in?” he politely asks.

“Why?”

“To talk.”

“You mean to gloat?”

It’s damn near impossible to bite my tongue, yet I do.

For his sake.

“I mean what I say,” Wes emotionlessly announces. “I understand that you’re accustomed to having to manipulate speech in order to collect information or achieve the desired results you seek; however, this is not an investigation or an interrogation, Monica.”

“Then what is it?”

“Simply a request to speak candidly between one another.” His expression tightens at the same time he leans slightly forward. “ Completely. Off. The. Record. ”

At that, she slightly nods, steps back, and wordlessly ushers us inside, leaving Holmes on the outside to do his job.

My fiancé waits until his non-sister has flopped onto the edge of her mattress to sincerely state, “I offer my deepest apologies that the test results were not favorable to you.”

Her eyebrows pull together in obvious puzzlement. “ What? ”

“Obsessing over this…over you…over our parents…it almost ruined my entire life, and I only had to deal with it for a few weeks. I can easily see how having to deal with it for months … alone on top of it all …could drive you insane.”

She barely nods as she crosses her ankles.

“I understand the agony of having more questions than answers. Of having more accusations than those to hold accountable. Of feeling completely alone because the person you had been counting on in your life died before you were truly ready.”

New tears begin to line the rims of her lids.

“I also understand the anger…that… deep seated rage …the one that you swear won’t be sated until someone else… hell, everyone else …is experiencing the same pain that you are.”

“ Your life just seemed so fucking perfect. ” A single tear falls in tandem with her whispering, “ And I hated you for it. ”

“My life Monica, has never been perfect.” An almost amused beam is delivered. “Money doesn’t make it perfect. It never has. I learned that from a very early age.”

“Same,” slips free from me.

“You just…you seemed to have this magical, fairy tale life, with the world’s greatest father, who could do no wrong, who had never done anything wrong – according to everything my mother ever said or wrote – and I couldn’t accept that. I wanted him to fall from grace. I couldn’t accept that this man…this perfect man…that the entire world claimed to love…refused to openly be there for both of his children. To keep one a dirty secret. I couldn’t accept that the man my mother claimed to be the most important one to ever be in her life could just…abandon one child over the other for the sake of his legacy.” She slowly shakes her head before defeatedly shrugging. “But he didn’t. Because I was never really his. I was just… there. ”

“You meant more to him than you think,” Wes unexpectedly claims. “He paid for all of your education – including college – through a shell corporation hidden so well that I had no idea it even existed until you brought their…affair to my doorstep.”

It’s her turn to look shocked. “ He did that?”

“That same shell corporation was also used to fund you both with top dollar medical care and covered the cost of operations and taxes for the ranch you grew up on.”

“I didn’t find any record of that.”

“My father was clever .” An almost admirable expression graces his face. “ Resourceful. ”

Her jaw lowers a smidge further.

“ And I. Am. His. Son. ” The proclamation is filled with so much notable pride and adoration that I can’t resist wrapping my arm around his lower back. “Which is why I’m going to have Park arrange a meeting for you with Nedi Fernadez, a highly recommended investigator that specializes in locating and reconnecting separated relatives.”

The wide mouth look remains.

“I’ll cover the costs for you up to a year while you reevaluate your life.” His arm drapes around my shoulder as he continues. “I suggest redirecting your impressive journalism skills to do something perhaps more positively productive behind the camera like highlighting injustices or hidden dangers in certain industries rather than destructive in front of it as you agreed to retire from.” My thumb gently strokes his side in additional support. “I also highly suggest grief counseling or talk therapy to explore some of your unresolved resentment regarding me, my father, and the absence of yours.”

“ Why? ” Monica brushes away another tear prior to further investigating, “Why are you being so kind to me in spite of what I put you through?” Her gaze latches onto mine. “What I put you both through?”

“Because despite the way you’ve spent your time portraying my fiancé, he’s actually not a monster.” Our grips tighten in tandem. “He’s kind. And generous. And maybe a little overprotective at times but just the right amount at others.”

“I learned those things from my father,” Wes warmly compliments, “and my godfather. They’re the same things I hope my son – or daughter – learns from me.”

Beaming up at him is attached to a loving coo, “They will.”

“I’m sorry,” she abruptly fumbles out, tone still stricken with thick tears. “ To both of you. ”

“Hurt people, hurt people my psychiatrist often reminds me,” compassionately escapes the man I can’t wait to spend forever with. “And healing people…have the power to help heal people.” An off-kilter grin grows on his face. “I’m choosing to use my power for good, Ms. Simmons. I hope one day you choose to do the same.”