“Bambino, this is a paternity report.  I was the stranger who spent the night with your Mom, and it shows that I’m really your biological father.”

Jamie took the paternity report and looked at it.  He read it and handed it to Jess.

Jamie looked at Ben, and balled his hands into fists; through clenched teeth he seethed, “So what you’re telling me is that you knocked my mother up twice and abandoned her both times.”  He stood and pushed past Ben as he made his way to the window overlooking the lake.  “At least this time you married her, so you only have one bastard.”

Since Jess knew what the report said, she barely glanced at it before handing it to Jake. She stood and walked toward Jamie.  “Okay, Boysenberry, take a breath.”

Even in her trademark five-inch heels, she was half a foot shorter than he was.  Jamie spun to face her. The muscles in his arms rippled as he clinched and un-clinched his fists.  “Believe me, Sis, I am breathing.”  He practically snarled at her.

Lane looked at her son, tears glistening in her eyes.  “I’m afraid we’ve handled this badly, Jamie.  Ben and I haven’t known very long.”

“Oh, crap.  Boysenberry.  It’s not quite what you think.”  Jess put her finger in his chest.

Jamie moved his sister’s finger away from his chest.  “There are rules, Jess.”  He pointed toward Ben.  “He taught them to me a long time ago.”  He counted them off on his fingers. “Rule 1:  No means no and stop means stop.  Rule 2:  never have sex with a woman who’s too incapacitated to say no or stop and Rule 3:  Always, always, always wear protection.”

His hazel eyes were slits as he glared at his father and seethed, “How many rules did you break that night, Dad?”

Ben ran his hands through his hair as he looked at his son.  “God, Bambino.  How the hell do you think I came up with the rules to begin with?  I left your mother the next morning and went to get breakfast and aspirin. When I got back to the room, she was gone.  I waited in the room until checkout time, thinking she’d gone to get food and or aspirin but she didn’t come back.  I spent a week looking for her.”  Ben reached for Lane’s hand. “Jesus, I was 19.  But, believe this, I have always loved your mother.  I would never have abandoned her.”

Jess still stood next to her baby brother.  “I figured it out last month when I was here. I stole your toothbrush and Ben’s and sent them in for testing.” She motioned toward Ben and Lane.  “They had no idea. He didn’t abandon her.  He spent a week looking for a woman named Angie Valle and he had no idea she was pregnant.”

Lane stood and approached Jamie.  “I’m sorry.  I never meant to lie to you.”

Jamie let his mother hug him, and perhaps out of habit, he put his arms around her too.  “I need to think.  I’m going for a drive.  No protection detail.  Alone.”  He stated firmly as he released his mother and stormed toward the garage.

Jake stood up.  “Not in this lifetime, Jandy.  I don’t care who your father is, you’re still my baby brother, and I’m coming with you.”

Jess ran after her long legged brothers.  “If y’all think you’re going anywhere without me, you’ve got another think coming.”

Gabe Greer sat in the kitchen, his mind spinning from the scene that had just played out in the hearth room.  Fellini couldn’t have written or directed it any better.  He grinned.  This is going to be the best Thanksgiving ever.

Chapter 16

Jamie opened the door to his Chevy Colorado pickup and climbed in.  He was vaguely aware that his siblings had piled in through the passenger doors as he started the engine.  Neither Jake nor Jess said a word as Jamie slammed into reverse and backed out of the garage barely pausing as he slammed the manual five-speed transmission into first gear.

Okay, Jamie is pissed off, that much is crystal clear, but he’s going to have to talk about it eventually.  Jess thought as she settled in the back seat.  If she were taller, she’d have been uncomfortable, smashed into the half seat. She pulled the seat belt across her lap and snapped it into place.  She and Jake were both waiting for Jamie to blink first.  Regardless of whose genetic material he carried, he was one of them and it looked like they were in for a long ride.

There was no music, no sound except the tires on the pavement as Jamie drove south on State Line Road.  His whole life had been a lie.  Yeah, there was good news.  Philip Parker, the father he thought had rejected him even before he was even born, wasn’t his father after all, and Ben Bellini, the man who had taught him everything he knew about how to be man, was.  Still, everyone he loved had been lying to him.  It didn’t matter whether they knew they were lying or not.  He glanced into the rear view mirror at Jess then glanced over at Jake.  Jess had said she’d figured it out last month, but Jake hadn’t known anything about it at all.  Sure, some of them had known longer than others; like his Mom, Ben, and Jess.  He wasn’t sure it mattered how long who had known what.  Lies, it was still all lies.  What was he supposed to do with this new information anyway?  Was he going to have to change his last name to Bellini?  Mom’s last name was Bellini now and the baby would be a Bellini from birth.  Jake and Jess were only half siblings to him, but he would share both parents with the baby.  He shook his head.  Even if he didn’t have to change his last name, maybe he should.

Crap! He shook his head again and glanced in the back seat catching Jess looking back at him.

“You ready to talk yet, Jams?” She said as she locked eyes with him.

“As ready as I’m going to get.”  He replied, his voice sounding calmer than he felt.  “Tell me everything.  What you know, when you knew it.  How you figured it out.  Don’t leave anything out.” He commanded.

Jess took a breath.  “Last month Joey Bellini was acting as my protection detail and pretending to be Pauli.  We were in Ben’s kitchen playing a romantic scene for the paparazzi, who were by the lake with telephoto lenses.  I was sitting on the island and Joey was standing in front of me.  I was staring into his eyes, thinking how familiar they were. But, before I could figure anything out, you called me and said Ben and Mom were back together and wanted everyone to come home for dinner.  It was really at dinner when I figured it out.”  She looked at him through the rearview.  “You know, your place at the table is directly across from mine, and I looked at you.  You had Joey’s eyes, then I looked at Ben and they were his eyes too.  I just put it all together.  I didn’t know how it could have happened; I just knew you had the same eyes as the Bellini brothers.  So I stole your toothbrush and Ben’s and, after I was back in L.A., I sent them to a lab I found online. It only took about a week to get the results back, and I wanted to talk to Mom and Ben to give them a chance to explain.  It just didn’t seem like a conversation that I wanted to have over the phone, so I waited. I was sure neither of them knew; you know Mom couldn’t pull off a deception like that for all of these years, and I wanted them to be able to talk through it.  I wasn’t sure when or how I was going to spring it, but then I got home today and heard about what you’ve been going through this week. I decided to talk to Ben right away.”

She paused and looked at his reflection in the rear view mirror.  “I talked to Ben before we went to Papa’s.  He must have talked to Mom when she and I got back from shopping.” She shrugged.  “That’s it, you know everything I know.”

Jake looked at his brother. “You know, Ben would have moved heaven and earth to protect you before, because he thinks of all of us as family, but now that he knows you’re his biological son, I’m sure it’s gone to a whole new level.”

Jamie blinked.  He was Ben Bellini’s biological son.  Dante and Teadora Bellini were his grandparents; suddenly he had a Nonno and a Nonna but no Nana Evie.  He felt like his world had tipped on its axis.  Hell, his world had tripped on its axis.