“I can’t imagine him treating anyone terribly.”

“He was different then. A lot like Dale, as I’ve told you.”

“Dale doesn’t—” I stop.

“Dale doesn’t what?” she asks.

“I was going to say Dale doesn’t treat me badly. He doesn’t. But there have been a few times when his words weren’t the nicest.”

She nods. “I understand.”

“Jade…”

“Hmm?”

“I know you don’t talk about these things, but maybe if you can tell me how you were able to finally reach Talon…”

She inhales deeply, her expression resigned. “I want to tell you everything, Ashley. I do. But the truth is that it’s not my story to tell. I will say this much. Don’t give up. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to my son. I can see how much you cherish him just by your expression when you say his name. He may not know it yet, but he needs you. Maybe even more than you need him.”

I run my finger over a drip of condensation on my juice glass. “It always seems what Dale needs most is his solitude.”

“Solitude is important to him. It’s true. But you’ve touched something in him. Something I never could, and Lord knows I tried. Something even Talon never could. He’s a little less walled-off since you came along, and that’s a very good thing.”

“How is it a good thing, if solitude is what he craves?”

“Because in the end, we all—including Dale—yearn to belong to something bigger. Being alone can be wonderful. We all need it sometimes, but at the end of the day, we all want to belong to someone else.”

“Not Dale,” I say.

“He does, and you’ve begun to prove it. He just doesn’t know it yet.”

“I don’t know whether to feel good or bad about that,” I say. “I don’t want to change him. I fell in love with him the way he is.”

“Oh, there’s so much to love in him,” Jade says. “So much that he doesn’t even know he has to offer. He’s brilliant, of course. And genuine. He’d take a bullet for his father or me in a heartbeat. Or any of his siblings. But mostly, somewhere inside him is a soul that needs to heal. I could tell from the first time we talked, Ashley, that you’re attracted to that part of him. The same thing that attracted me to Talon.”

“How did you get through to Talon?”

“It took time. Though looking back, we met at the beginning of summer and were married during the fall. Crazy, but it seemed longer.”

“Dale and I haven’t known each other very long either.”

“No, you haven’t.” She sighs, shaking her head and smiling. “I’ve said this before, but I see so much of myself in you, except that you’re more together than I ever was.”

“I don’t feel very together sometimes,” I say.

“No one feels together all the time.”

I nod, though I have a hard time believing Jade doesn’t feel together constantly. She’s a wonderful mother, a brilliant lawyer, and gorgeous as all get-out. Plus she’s just nice. Such a nice woman, and I’m privileged to know her.

“Thank you,” I say.

“For what?”

“For letting me stay here. For the opportunity you’ve given me.”

“That was Ryan,” she says.

“I know. But I feel like you guys all function as sort of a unit, you know?”

She chuckles. “I suppose we do. Talon and his brothers and sister are all very close.”

I gather my nerves. “Is that because of their father?”

“In some ways.”

“I asked Dale about him,” I say.

“I doubt Dale could tell you much.”

“No, he couldn’t. Just that he was in prison for tampering with federal evidence, and that he died within a year of his incarceration.”

“There’s a huge story there,” Jade says, “and to be honest, I never agreed with Talon and the others to keep it from the kids. Ruby and Melanie agreed with me, but the rest, including Marj’s husband, Bryce, wanted it kept quiet. I was outvoted.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Brad Steel was a very good man. He was also a very bad man.”

“What about his wife? Talon’s mother?”

“She was mentally ill for most of her life.”

I touch my lips, remembering what Ryan told me about the Steel Foundation. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“She lived out her life in full-time care, in a dreamworld where her children were still small. It’s very sad.”

But Brendan said she committed suicide. Maybe he meant later. “I had no idea.”

“I know. We don’t talk about it, and as I said, there’s a lot the kids don’t know.”

“I get it.” And I do. My own mother didn’t tell me the truth about who my father was until recently. “But they’re adults now,” I continue. “Don’t they deserve to know the truth of their history?”

“I wrestle with that. But look at it this way. Do you think Dale is better off now? Knowing his birth father?”

I stare down at my now-empty glass.

I don’t know whether the answer to Jade’s question is yes or no.

Chapter Fifty

Dale

“Get on with it,” I say. “Rich Uncle Fred.”

“Uncle Fred was really rich,” he says.

“Well, lawyers tend to do well in big cities.”

“Oh, he was way richer than most lawyers. He had outside investments.”

“Great, great. He was a damned millionaire. Who cares?”

“He wasn’t as rich as your father, but close.”

I stop my jaw from dropping. Does he have any clue how much the Steels are worth? Because if this guy was close, he was a billionaire. Or close to being one.

“What kind of outside investments?” I ask hesitantly.

“I didn’t know at the time, but I found out. They were mostly illegal.”

“So your uncle was a crook. So what?”

“I didn’t know that at the time,” he says, his voice cracking. He begins to pant and then he wipes at his face, knocking the nasal cannula out of his nose.