A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [115]
“Tell me, April.”
Making her decision, she glanced up at him. “Fine. You want to know then I’ll tell you, but you have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone and, no matter what, you can’t confront Karen Sanders about it.”
He lifted a brow. “What does Karen Sanders have to do with it?”
“I told you that she would stop at nothing to break us apart. Well, she succeeded. Only sad thing is that we should appreciate that she did, or things could have been worse in the end.”
An irritated look touched his features. “Baby, what are you talking about?”
Instead of answering him she walked off and went to the table to pick up the book she’d been reading and, squaring her shoulders, she returned to where he stood in the middle of her living room.
She handed him the book. “Here.”
He took the book from her, read the title and then glanced up at her with an even more confused look. “Forbidden World of Incest? What does that have to do with us?”
She fought back the sob that threatened to tear through her throat, but she couldn’t help the tears that were determined to fall anyway. A part of her knew before it was over there would be even more tears. Tears she would shed for the rest of her life.
“April, what does this have to do with us?” he asked again.
She drew in a deep breath and said, “I’m your sister.”
Griffin could only stare at her for a few moments and when she burst into tears and began crying uncontrollably he couldn’t help but pull her into his arms, ignoring her attempt to resist him. A part of him was shocked by what she’d said, but another part of him was angry beyond belief. He was fighting hard to contain his rage, especially when he felt the wetness of her tears through his shirt.
“Did you hear me?” She pulled back to look up at him.
He reached up to tenderly sweep a strand of hair back from her face. “Yes, sweetheart, I heard you. Now, I want you to hear me. You are not my sister.”
She jerked away from him. “Denying the truth won’t help the situation, Griffin.”
“Only because there isn’t a situation. You are not my sister and Karen Sanders will pay dearly for lying to you this way. And the sad thing about it is that it almost worked. Trust me, we don’t share the same father.”
She stared at him for a moment and he saw the look of hope in her eyes. “How can you be so sure? Everybody knew your dad fathered outside children,” she said softly.
“Yes, but he is not your father. And the reason I’m certain is because I know who your father is and he isn’t mine. I promise you.”
April’s heart nearly stopped breathing. Could Griffin be telling the truth or was he refusing to accept the reality of what she had revealed to him? “How do you know who my father is when I don’t even know?”
“I never knew that you didn’t know the identity of your father, April. I overheard your father telling mine what happened one night while he’d been drinking, how he forced himself on your mother and how she’d gotten pregnant as a result of it. He admitted to my father that you were his daughter, but that no one was supposed to know. He’d offered your mother money for an abortion but she refused to take it. He was pretty pissed about that. And he had forced her to tell no one what happened and that he was the father of her child.”
April didn’t say anything. She just sat there and stared at Griffin. Was he telling the truth? As if that question shone in her eyes, he said, “I’m telling the truth, April. Honest. I was sixteen and the two men thought