“I think you need to have a talk with Jacob. There’s much to discuss.”
I was about to call that son of bitch. He knew who I was the moment he saw me in the VA hospital and didn’t bother to tell me. “Before you go off on him, he didn’t know who you were that day. He saw your face and thought you resembled his uncle who he met as a baby and your name was Anthony. He thought it was fate to help you.”
“Well…” I muttered, running my hand through my hair. I felt the tears in my eyes, but I didn’t know how to absorb what she was saying.
I walked out of the house after learning more. Now I had to go meet with Jacob and, apparently, the rest of my family.
~~~~
I arrived at the estate of James Middleton Sr., my grandfather. I did my best to look worthy of the Middleton family.
Standing at the door was Jake. My boss and cousin. He looked at me with a sad expression, waiting for the storm that was going to come. He wouldn’t get it. As much as I wanted to snap at him. It wasn’t about that. I wanted to meet my grandfather.
“Tony.”
“Not now, Jake.” I walked right past him into a house of about twenty Middletons.
This large strapping older man approached and without a doubt I knew he was my grandfather. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a bear hug. “My God, you are real.”
“I am,” I said, removing myself from his hold.
“Jacob said he wasn’t sure until the test was run.”
“You did a DNA test on me? When, and when were you going to tell me?”
“I didn’t know if you were related, but I did it before you left Oregon.”
“Why did you take so long? Three years?”
“Man, I thought you resembled him, but he was young and I didn’t know he had a girlfriend when he died.”
Mr. Middleton, Jacob’s father, interjected, “He mentioned that his head of security looked like my brother that died and your name was Tony. I didn’t believe the image he sent me was new. I thought it was my brother. You really look just like him. I asked him to find out who your parents were. When he told me, I didn’t need a DNA test to know you were Anthony’s son. Your mother and my brother were dating for a short time, but he told me that he was going to marry her.”
“In fact, this, I think, should belong to you,” my grandfather said, handing me a small box. “When he died, this was in his pocket.” I opened the faded box to see a stunning diamond ring.
“He planned to give this to your mother. It destroyed her, but I couldn’t give it to her knowing she was going to marry someone else two weeks later.”
“Why would she?”
“It’s complicated, but she was forced into that marriage. They thought you were a product of an early birth.”
“Wow, so you’re telling me that I’m, in a way, a Middleton?”
“Not in a way. You are a Middleton. I hate that you have your mother’s husband’s name, but you belong with us.”
“Is that why you gave me the opportunity?”
“Yes and no. When I offered it to you, I had my suspicions, but I wasn’t sure. I really thought you could use a break even if you weren’t related.”
“Do you have a special woman to give that ring to?” Harley asked with a knowing stare.
“You know I will when I find her.”
I was introduced to the rest of the family in the large house. Before calling it a night, my grandfather asked me into his office.
“My boy, come in here. I’m not as wealthy as my grandsons, or even my son, but I want you to know that I have had this ranch for sixty years. It’s successful, and well, I want you to have it when I go.”
“I can’t.”