Four Brothers and a Bride-Chapter 54

ASHTON

"You never told me what happened to your arm." Mila voices as she pulls me away.

"What?"

"Your left arm. Did you hurt it two weeks ago? I noticed you grimacing each time I touched it, even while we raced together last week. I saw the arm cast in your room too. You didn’t bring it up and I didn’t want to be the first one to ask."

How considerate of her. I flex my arm. "It’s all good." We get in the elevator. The moment the doors close, she clasps both hands behind my neck.

"You owe me two truths and one dare, remember? Tell me the truth about what really happened to your arm, please."

"You wouldn’t believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

Sighing, I proceed to tell her about the club fight and Josh stabbing me but I leave out details of the bone of contention. She goes pale with shock. The elevator stops and we step out.

"That snake! He had the guts to call you guys bullies and play the victim. I can’t believe he lied through his teeth. Gosh, I hope he gets fired for that."

"From your mouth to God’s ears." She chuckles and resumes her walk.

"Don’t you mean from your mouth to your dad’s ears? Why wait for God to do something you can easily sway your father to do? Josh hurt you and he lied about it! He further attempted to defame you and your brothers. Does Brett know the whole truth?"

We are on the second floor now. She pauses to look me in the eye with arms crossed on her chest. "There’s no way he would know about it and let that prick off without legal action."

"It’s fine. Josh already apologized to me so I let it go. He was drunk when he acted. It wasn’t malicious or anything. Besides, other than when he lets himself get lost in a bottle, he’s a fine employee who knows his onions."

Mila rolls her eyes. "Whatever you say."

Where are we going?" She flashes me a seductive smile.

"Where else? My room of course."

Last night was crazy and we had no choice but to accommodate a few personal guests in the spare bedrooms in the mansion.

"Come on!" She tugs at my arm and pulls me all the way to her room. "Don’t be a prude."

Inside, I run my hands through my hair and jam them in my pocket. When I turn to face her, she’s locking the door and stripping off her robe. I flash a palm and turn away.

"Mila, what are you doing?"

"Trying to confirm that you’re still THE Ashton Rollins and man enough." ƒгeewёbnovel.com

"Man enough for what? Stop." Her hands are streaking across my body. I can feel the warmth from her naked skin. Her perky boobs are bouncing in her lacey bra. "Mila, seriously, cut it out." Instead, she tries to unbutton my shirt.

"Why? I get it that you were tired last night but you look really refreshed this morning. I just want to feel you."

"STOP!" I grab her hands and gently move her away from me. "Stop it, please. I am not in the mood for this."

Her sultry eyes fade to bewilderment. She sinks on the bed and shakes her head. "What is it, Ashton? What? Am I not pretty enough for you? You don’t find me sexy?"

"Of course not. Look at you."

"Is there someone else?"

"No."

"Then for the love of God, tell me why you invited me to the birthday party and couldn’t keep your hands off me last night but when I tried to pull you in here, you claimed fatigue. And this morning? What’s your excuse for this attitude right now? Am I a joke to you? Someone you can call on whenever you’re bored or need a woman on your arm to impress your father?"

That end part snaps something in my brain. "Don’t say that." I grind my teeth in annoyance.

"Which part?" Mila asks cockily, crossing one leg over the other and leaning back on the bed to glare at me. "Which part, Ashton?" She clucks her tongue. "You’re a selfish prick. You said you just wanted to be friends and I was down with that. Then you switched things up like last night, flirting with me like you were desperate to touch me. Why? Why did you lead me to believe you wanted this?"

I cover a hand over my mouth and shut my eyes. She’s right. That was selfish of me. To be frank, I did use her. The moment mom decided to throw Demi a birthday party and I caught a glimpse of the dress Ashley had picked for her, I knew I wasn’t going to be okay riding solo for the night.

I called Mila to serve as a distraction. Then Demi came down the grand staircase looking so good she knocked the breath right out of me. Suddenly, it wasn’t enough to just flaunt Mila. I had to kiss her to forget how good Demi looked and how jealous I felt of my brother.

I went too far, kneading Mila’s ass, kissing her face and chest all the while imagining someone else. Then I backed out when she tried to herd me to her bedroom. She didn’t deserve that.

"I’m so sorry. I had too much to drink..."

"You weren’t drunk, Ashton. You knew exactly where you were and what you were doing. You also knew exactly who I was but you clung to me wishing I was someone else, didn’t you?."

"What?"

"Look, I don’t care if you’re in love with someone else. I’m cool with us being friends and having casual sex like you are used to. I just don’t appreciate being used as the next best thing till you get your dream girl. That’s disrespectful."

I go to her and crouch on one knee. I cup her face with my hands. "I’m sorry I made you feel that way. I’m an asshole for that. I’ve a lot on my mind lately." It’s true. I’m still grappling with the truth of father’s adultery, having a step-brother and getting stabbed. It all happened in one day! It’s been a lot on me.

"I promise to make it up to you."

Mila holds my hands on her cheeks when I try to pull away. Her eyes stare into mine intensely. "You’ve been apologizing a lot and making promises to me. That’s easy to do. How about you keep your word for a change? I’ve got one truth and a dare." She leans close to my face till our noses touch. "I dare you make love to me, here and now."

***

While Mila is sleeping soundly, I grab my shirt and sneak out of the room to join my brothers in the gym. When I get there, I find that we are one brother short.

"Look who finally decided to show up." Asher yells the moment I walk in. Ashal stops doing bench presses and sits up to smile at me.

"Where’s the fashion wiz?"

"With the wife, I presume. Demi didn’t take it well learning that Nicola spent the night here. She made a small scene when Nicci showed up for breakfast. Even mother couldn’t convince her to stay for her meal. Then there’s Will."

"Will?" I repeat in surprise.

"Yes, William." Asher continues. "He went to the same university as us but he was a year younger. He and Ashley are close friends. I think our parents and his dad were friends since our childhood."

I remember William faintly from school. He had sometimes accidentally mistaken one of us for Ashley. I remember him greeting the family this morning.

"What about him?"

"Well, Ashley is the one who invited him here. For some reason, his presence also unsettles Demi. Ashley has been in hell all morning trying to pacify Demi for his guests and also torn between entertaining the three. He’s been shuttling from one bedroom to another and trying to keep each one from running into each other." Asher’s smile turns mischievous as he watches me. "Apparently, you don’t have that problem. You and Mila were all over each other last night and this morning, I could clearly see lust in her eyes. Is that why you two disappeared for a whole hour? I’m sure you two weren’t just ’talking’."

I smirk at him. "You seem to have a lot of free time on your hands which is why you’ve been watching other people a lot. I can’t wait to watch your own show when Demi learns that the reason she couldn’t find her best friend at the party last night was because you whisked her away to your room to talk." I end with air quotes around the last word and wink at my brother.

I stroll to a treadmill and give it a onceover. I am not really feeling up to it right now. My mind has been reeling with thoughts lately. "Can we head to the game room? I need to show you all something, Ashley too."

Ashley manages to join us in the game room. It’s just as Asher had said, the former’s countenance screams of a person who hasn’t been having a great day. He strolls in with a drink in his hand and plunks on the couch.

"Is Nicci gone?"

"Nope! Father is having a field day seeing Demi squirm. Nicci too." I totally understand him. Father was also glad to discover Mila had passed the night here. It’s all part of his scheme. Both ladies and their well-connected families will come in very handy to him in the future.

"Do you want Nicci gone?" That’s a different question, I think. Ashley’s eyebrow wings up at me. "If father wasn’t interfering to keep Nicci around, would you have wanted her to leave still?"

"Yes, I would."

"Because of Demi?" Ashal asks.

"Because Nicci and I messed around last night while I was drunk and she’s making it very obvious in front of Demi. I dislike how bold she’s being. I suspect she’s trying to find a way to break my marriage so she and I can be official again." He sips from the bottle in his hand. "It’s crazy trying to keep my two worlds from colliding."

"Tell me about it." Ashal mutters. We all turn to stare at him, me especially. I also need to ask him a few questions.

"Ashal, I could have sworn I saw you being cozy and romantic with a female guest last night. Care to share with us who that lady was?" His eyes flash at my directness. We all know that he seldom entertains women since Olivia entered the picture and the few he did allow himself to touch, it was always casual with no flair for the romantic. Asher and Ashley suddenly get my drift and their jaws drop.

"Don’t fucking tell me you brought her here." Asher’s voice is cold and clipped.

"Oh, shit." Ashley says with a lazy smile. I go over and wrench the bottle from his hand before he gets drunk and out of control.

"Fine. That was Olivia."

"Are you kidding?" I ask him. "How could you bring her to the mansion?"

"Why shouldn’t I? You all brought your women; even Ashley’s ex was here at his wife’s birthday party so why shouldn’t I have invited MY wife to a family party? It was a mask party with lots of security. I had my eyes on her too. She was sick of the penthouse and wished for some fresh air. I couldn’t think of a better place for the two of us to hang out without worrying that someone might see. We both had a swell time before I dropped her off at the penthouse."

"You had your eyes on her the whole time?" I repeat, recalling Olivia trying to make small talk with me last night. I had suspected that the voice was oddly familiar but didn’t pay too much attention to it. Then, I had seen Demi coming in from the driveway and Olivia had been right outside. I have no idea if they had met or spoken to each other.

"You couldn’t have had your eyes on Olivia the whole time because I recall her trying to make light conversation with me. Coupled with the low hum of the music, the drinks I had had and the face mask she had on at night, I couldn’t place her voice but I swore it was familiar." I tell everyone about seeing Demi and Olivia outside talking.

"In that disguise, she could have tried talking to anyone at the party. ANYONE!" Ashal refuses to doubt his wife.

"I might have left her by herself once or twice to attend to other things but that’s because I trust her. Olivia and I are at a good place, okay. Even if she tried mingling, I am sure she wasn’t trying to stir up any trouble like you suspect or Demi would have said something by now. She was probably bored of my absence during that time at the party and wanted to socialize. She didn’t do it out of malice."

"How do you know that?"

"She told me about speaking to Demi. She told me everything. Why would she if she’s plotting something?"

Asher runs a hand over his beard. "Look man, we are all happy for where you and Olivia are right now but I think you’re being reckless by trusting her completely so soon."

Ashal scowls up at him and Asher lifts both hands in surrender.

"Just hear me out. When you talked about Olivia agreeing to give your relationship a shot, I naturally assumed that she did it to resign to her fate since her Asher" He says with air quotes, "had disappointed her and broken her heart. She turned to you, the next best option. You can’t be sure she’s genuine about her feelings and commitment to you as Ashal until you test her."

"Test her?"

"Yes." Asher concurs. "Show up as me and give her a convincing lie about why Asher denied her the last time. Show her a glimpse of hope of the two of them having a good life together because his plans for them have finally crystallized. With Asher as a viable option, let’s see if Olivia will stick to Ashal or welcome Asher back into her life. You’ve got to know the truth man especially since you trust her so much. That only seems fair."

It’s strange hearing Asher talk about himself in third person but even worse realizing that he has a point.

"Think about it, Ashal. He has a point." I concur. Ashal reaches for Ashley’s drink and guzzles some.

"With all that out of the way, I do have something to show you guys. I’m sorry I haven’t brought it up since the night I was stabbed. I didn’t take it seriously but lately, it’s been on my mind."

I have their attention now. Wordlessly, I forward the strange message I got about finding our biological father to them.

"Did you have the number traced?" Asher asks with a scowl.

"I just told you I didn’t take it seriously."

"Who could have sent something like this?" Ashley shakes his head in wonder. "Could they really know about our biological parents?" Something in Ashley’s eyes is hopeful like mine have been for some days now. Asher recognizes this and leaps to his feet.

"This could be Josh trying to throw us off his scent long enough for him to manipulate us."

"Or, it could be someone with actual intel on who our biological parents are." Ashal adds.

Asher disagrees. "C’mon now, how did this person suddenly know we’ve come to know about our adoption? Don’t you smell a rat here? Why reach out to us now?"

"We’ll get the answers to your questions if we try to find out if this person really has the information they claim." Everyone else aligns with my reasoning but Asher still seems skeptical.

"I don’t like this."

"We’re checking it out." I decide in favor of the majority. Asher drops back in his seat in resignation.

I know it’s typical for him to be skeptical of things like this. Still, I can’t get over the hump of suspicion in my gut. He kept huge secrets from my brothers and I for years. It’s not abnormal for me to suspect he might know who our biological parents are.

I just found out recently and I am burning with desire to know the whole truth especially given how badly our father has failed to execute his parental role. Asher must have been curious at some point.

"Asher?" He wheels his eyes towards me. "This is purely out of curiosity and not distrust. I just want to know if you have any idea who our biological parents might be. Did you ever try to look into them? Do you know anyone who might know?"

Ashley and Ashal also turn to Asher with keen eyes. Sighing, Asher sits up.

"Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve never tried to look for them. You know me, I am more concerned with the future, our future. I didn’t think it was worth looking into the broke bums that possibly sired us. Why else would they give up four healthy baby boys for adoption if they had the means to raise us?"

He exhales in frustration. "What’s the point of finding them, really? Are you guys feeling hollow and need validation from our biological parents that you’re worth it? Is that it? I really think we should move on. We are Rollins now, legally. That last name is tied to everything we have right now. We can’t afford to lose it or bring into question our worthiness of it. How do you think mother will feel about us digging into our birth parents? Huh?"

"We are not doubting who we are. We just don’t want anymore surprises and want to know something as basic as the identities of our birth parents. We have no way of knowing how far Josh would go to expose this truth and get the public acceptance he desires from father. We can’t afford to be in the dark about anything anymore."

Asher shrugs his shoulders. "It’s not being in the dark; it’s not giving a fuck and moving on with the life we have now."

I can tell from Ashley and Ashal’s faces that they are starting to see reasons with Asher.

"He’s right. It’s not the worst thing to be adopted. If anything, we should be grateful for father and mother for taking us as their own. I don’t think now’s the time to start snooping around for answers. Our parents might take that to mean we don’t think they’re enough." Ashal says. "Mother has been exceptional. She doesn’t deserve this."

Ashley concurs. "I am also getting the feeling that the texter might be Josh looking for a way to lure us into this mission so he can prove to father that we don’t consider him our father and have been digging into our birth father."

"Exactly. And what if we don’t like what we find or worse, the ugly truth comes to the light?" Asher joins me in the center of the room. "It’s just too risky, Ash. Please, let it go. I’m certain that the majority is now against this idea. Please drop it and let’s focus on saving our family from the outside forces trying to tear us apart."

He is right. They’re all right.

"I’m sorry. I’ve been overthinking lately. You’re all right. I’ll just ignore it."

"That’s better." Asher pats my shoulder. "We’ll pull through. We always do."

To clear my head, I make a beeline for my room to change and go for a drive. I plan to take Mila with me if she’s up for it. After changing, I grab my keys but I can’t find my second phone. I always have both on me. I start searching around my room when a knock on my door interrupts me.

"Hey." I say to Mila once I open the door. I’m glad she’s all freshened up and looking radiant.

"Hi. You were gone when I woke up."

"Uh, workout with the boys." Her face is difficult to read.

"Oh. For a second I thought you couldn’t get out of my room fast enough."

I fluff my hair and resume my search. "I’m off for a drive. You are welcome to join me." She stays silent as I open and close drawers.

"Looking for this?" When I look up at her, she’s holding up my second phone. "You left it in my room."

"Oh. Been looking all over for it." But she pulls back her hand when I reach for it.

"A very interesting message popped in for you by someone named Dee. Before you get the wrong idea, I didn’t mean to read it. The notification dropped seconds after I found it while making my bed." I grab the phone from her hand. "She’s the one with whom you had your last date as Will with, right?"

"Mila, we’ve talked about this."

"Yeah, it’s none of my fucking business because we are just friends, right? I get it and I was prepared to mind my own business but then that message seemed oddly familiar."

I pull up the message and read it.

[Will, I am sorry about last night at the champagne fountain. I didn’t mean anything I said or did after the drinks. I was out of my mind. Thank you looking out for me and taking me up to my room. I really hope we can move past the awkwardness of last night. I can’t stand it when you ignore me.]

Mila steps up to me. "You are allowed to have as many women as you please, Ashton Rollins. However, please tell me that the woman that’s been stuck in your brain and keeping you from enjoying casual hookups or even touching me despite a dare isn’t your goddam sister-in-law! Tell me Dee isn’t short for Demi." My steely stare astounds her.

"I can’t tell you that." The shock in her eyes fades to embarrassment and then anger.

"Are you in love with your brother’s wife?"

"I’m off for that drive."

She grabs my wrist. "If you don’t want this out, I’m afraid you’re going to fulfil another dare of mine since you refused the last one."

"Are you threatening me now?"

"No, it’s just a warning necessary to save you from yourself. Trust me, this is me being nice when I can spin this in a plethora of ways to my own advantage." I can tell she isn’t bluffing. She’s pissed but trying to keep herself from acting like a crazy, jealous wannabe girlfriend.

"What’s the dare?"

"You refuse and I won’t promise to keep your secrets anymore."

"What’s the dare, Mila? Spill it out!"

She leans to whisper it in my ear and my hands go limp by my side.