Page 52 of Unlocking Ruin

“Don’t defend him.”

“I’m not. He was absent from your life.”

“How do you know all this?”

He crosses his legs, getting more comfortable. “You still haven’t asked for his name.”

I know. I’m not sure I want to know his name. Knowing would make him real.

I get to my feet and start to walk around the room. I pause and acknowledge the part of me that desires to know the man who helped make me.

“Just tell me.” I sigh as I walk back to the couch. I collapse, feeling like a fly hitting a windshield. Closing my eyes, I brace myself.

“Frank got a job at BANKS Corp. BANKS stands for Baine, Astor, Narravo, Knight, and Santos. You are Alister Baine’s daughter.”

My head shakes with conviction. I keep my eyes closed. “My last name is Eckelson.”

“That’s your mom’s maiden name.”

Baine. My last name should be Baine. “What about Alister? Does he have a family?” I ask. I know his name; everyone does. But beyond that, I never looked into BANKS Corp, aside from the hacking of course.

“Three months after Alister and your mom hooked up, Alister got married; it was an arranged marriage, and his wife got pregnant right away.”

“What does the man have, super sperm? Ugh! Gross. Don’t answer that.” I feel a burning sensation of acid ascending my throat.

“You have a half sibling, a brother only a few months younger than you,” Steffen admits.

My mind starts to paint a picture of a little boy. Would he look like me? What parts of me look like Alister?

“It doesn’t matter because I was never acknowledged.”

I have a half-brother—a brother who had a decent home and billions within reach his whole life. More importantly—he had a father.

“You were in our circle,” Steffen argues, “but not publicly. Those who mattered knew about you.”

My gaze meets Steffen’s. “You said our families are close. What’s your last name?”

There’s a smile in his eyes. “Knight,” he replies.

“You’re part of the founding families.”

“So are you.”

“A family is a group you grow up with. I’m not part of your circle.”

He nibbles his lip again and looks me over. “The other heirs and I were curious to see who the hidden heiress was, and jealous.” He mutters the last. “You have no idea what we went through to prepare us for our world. I know it sounds callous, but you should consider yourself lucky Alister kept you hidden.”

My gaze falls to his scarred knuckles, his combat pants, and his boots. Billionaires aren’t supposed to look like this. He’s carved from volcanic rock, not polished fancy Italian marble. He’s sharp, dangerous, the kind of predator who hunts his own prey while other rich boys send someone else.

My eyes drift up to his black shirt, stretched over hard muscle. I wonder if there are more scars, more evidence that he’s telling the truth.

Steffen goes on. “For some reason, you were exempt. At first, we all hated you for it.”

“Was it because I was a girl?”

“No, we have a sister. Genevieve Narravo.” He blinks and quickly corrects himself. “I mean, all the heirs, we consider ourselves tight-knit. We call each other brother and sister, but we are not biologically related. We were forged in fire, not blood.”

“So you won’t be calling me sister,” I mutter, regretting it instantly because the look in his eyes darkens to lust.