Chapter 98: My Dark Prince: Chapter 97

Trial Day Thirty.

The idea of spending another second without Oliver horrified me.

But the minute we landed at LAX, the production team announced a meeting at their Burbank headquarters tomorrow morning, effectively ruining any possibility of spending the weekend in Potomac.

I opted to lug my duffel bag into The Grand Regent Beverly Hills myself, trudging into the lobby. The automatic doors whispered shut. Trace, the doorman, greeted me with a nod.

The scent of citrus and leather welcomed me home, though I’d hardly call it familiar. I’d spent all of fourteen hours here thirty days ago and barely managed to unpack some of my things before I headed to the Caribbean for filming.

Exhaustion clung to my sleep-deprived limbs. I was just about set down my duffel on the freshly polished marble when something small and solid collided with my legs, wrapping around them with fierce determination.

The little girl grinned up at me, still clutching my legs as if I’d float away if she let go. “Hi, Sissy.” She was a tiny thing with curly hair the color of white-sand beaches, hot-pink travel sweats, and chunky light-up sneakers.

I bent down to pry her fists off me, then rested a palm on her shoulder. “Are you lost? Are you looking for your sister?”

“You are my sister, silly. My big sis.”

I blinked, a little stunned. “I’m sorry?”

She swept her eyes up and down the length of me. “Okay. That’s fine.”

“What’s fine?” I looked around for help, but there was no one tucked inside the little elevator alcove but us.

“Your face.”

“Umm … Huh?”

“Mommy says people look like their family when they grow up.” She patted my cheek with her tiny hand. “I want your face.”

“It doesn’t work like that, stupid.” That came from a boy her age as he rounded the corner into the nook. “We don’t have the same mom. You’re so dumb, Rose. I can’t believe we’re twins.”

Rose crossed her arms, finally backing away from me to confront him. “You’re the dumb one, Brian. We have the same dad as Briar. Duh.”

She knew my name.

She. Knew. My. Name.

A wild thought flickered in my mind. It didn’t make sense, and yet, it did. Brian and Rose. Briar Rose. Holy crap.

Brian matched Rose’s stance, almost identical to her, save for his cropped haircut and furrowed brows. “But he didn’t make her alone.”

“Whatever.” Rose flicked her curls over her shoulder. “You think you know everything just because teachers like you better. They only like you because you kiss their butts.”

I straightened, stumbling back into the wall, ignoring the elevator when it dinged. “Your names are Brian and Rose?”

“Yup.” Rose beamed up at me. “Daddy said he named me after you.”

“He named us after her,” Brian corrected, poutier than a reality star starved for screen time. “Every day, it’s always Rose, Rose, Rose. I’m so freaking sick of it.”

“Oooooh. I’m telling Mommy you said a bad word.”

“Brian. Rose.” A gorgeous redhead panted as she stepped into the alcove, planting a hand on a closed elevator door to catch her breath. “You two can’t run off like that. It’s dangerous.” When she caught sight of me, her eyes lit up. “Oh, Briar, sweetheart. There you are. You look every bit as beautiful as your photos. Cam is at the reception desk, trying to find you.”

Cam. As in … Cameron Cooper? My father.

“Mom.” Rose stomped her foot, triggering pink and purple lights on her sneaker. “Brian said a bad word.”

“Oh, honey. You must be so shocked.” The woman ignored Rose, gathering my shaking hands into hers. “Why don’t we head to the library? Mr. von Bismarck reserved it for us for the whole day. I’ll send Cameron a text to meet us there.”

You look just like your father.

Philomena’s words bounced between my skull. I remembered them, clear as day, just as I remembered every word she said at the cafe. Most notably – Cameron is dead.

Yet, he blinked back at me from the couch across from mine, sliding stylish prescription glasses up his sharp nose. And no, he looked nothing like me. Not with his big green eyes, or flat brown hair, or heavily freckled cheeks.

All these years, he’d always been a figment of my mind. Like an oversized cloud, unable to form a distinct shape. I never settled on a height, or size, or hair color. Only the idea of him. Someone who would love me unconditionally, no matter what life threw at him.

My stomach knotted as I stared, unable to form a single word. He kept his gaze steady and unflinching, allowing me to soak him up like a sponge.

Finally, I managed to break the silence. “You’re alive.”

A grin hiked up his cheeks. “Fortunately.”

“Philomena told me you died. That you killed yourself.”

“She certainly wishes.” He reclined on the sleek leather sofa, an arm propped up on the rest, surprisingly relaxed. “Phil always had a mean streak. I see it’s still alive.”

We sat alone in the giant library. Cooper’s wife, Melinda, had taken the kids – my siblings? – to the aquarium while we talked. For the most part, I’d spent the past half hour simply staring, inking every inch of my father into memory in case I never saw him again.

The tattoo peaking past his navy Henley. The laugh lines bracketing his cheeks. The air of quiet strength that rolled off him in heavy waves. If I hadn’t done the math beforehand, I wouldn’t believe that he could be 52 or 53.

I toyed with the boba in my milk tea, stirring them with my straw. “I think she said it to rattle me. As payback for not playing along with her scheme. Now that I think about it, I was stupid to take her word on it.”

“You weren’t stupid, Briar. She’s your mother, and you believed her.”

When he said it like that, so confident and matter of fact, I almost agreed.

“Well, I shouldn’t have.” I moved on to the pastries, keeping my hands busy with matcha cookies that crumbled at the touch. “How did you find me?”

“A private investigator reached out to me last night.” Cooper waved off the waiting staff when they approached with menus. “He said his client sent him to search for me, and we hopped on the soonest flight when he mentioned your name.”

“His client?”

“An Oliver von Bismarck.” His eyes twinkled again, and I wondered how he could be so relaxed in this situation. “I Googled him on the flight over.”

I winced, rubbing the back of my neck. “The articles are mostly lies.”

Obviously, I didn’t need Cooper’s approval to date Oliver, but I wanted it. Something about the way he stared at me – with real, genuine affection – stirred up emotions I thought I’d buried.

And Oliver. He’d never replied to the text I’d sent when I landed in LA, but the second he did, I planned on rewarding him with anything he wanted. He did good. Real good.

Cooper waved me off. “Even if they aren’t, I’ve done far worse.”

I matched his grin. “Like what?”

“Like slept with a married woman.” He scratched his temple, punctuating his words with a shrug. “By then, Phil already made her way around the building’s tenants, and I suppose the only option left standing was me. The lowly doorman.”

My eyes widened to saucers. “You weren’t her only affair?”

For all that fuss Philomena had made over Jason’s constant flings, she never once mentioned hers. But it made sense. At the café, it sounded like my mother had admitted to intentionally getting pregnant through an affair. Jason couldn’t have kids of his own, so she sought them elsewhere. Perhaps to trap him in the unhappy marriage.

Cooper finished off his English tea and set the saucer back on the coffee table. “Not even close.”

“Is that why …” I trailed off, not sure how to pose the question.

He offered me an amused grin. “Why we don’t look the same?”

I nodded but didn’t ask the real question I wanted to.

“You’re my biological daughter if that’s what you’re wondering.” Cooper’s eyes softened, and his voice came out gentler. “Even if I didn’t raise you, even if we don’t share the same last name, even if you choose to walk away and never turn back, you will always be my daughter.”

His words filled up that hollowed-out space in my soul like rain soaking parched earth. I never realized how much I needed to hear them. That, over the years, I’d convinced myself to stop waiting to be seen, claimed, loved. It hit me then, in the empty, towering library – a child’s heart is only as big as the love their parents filled it with.

I cleared my throat, swallowing the sudden lump there. “How are you sure you’re my dad if she had other affairs? We don’t even look alike.”

“I knew Philomena slept around, but when she told me you were mine, I believed her.” His gaze held mine, delivering an unspoken promise. “I wanted you. From the start. Never once did I not want to be your father. Understood?”

“But—”

“I need you to tell me that you understand, Briar.”

I couldn’t fathom the fact that a total stranger – only nineteen at the time – would love me so much that he uprooted his life and chased me across the globe. Me. Why? It was like trying to convince me that the sun loved the shadows.

Still, I gave him the words he wanted, even as they felt too big for my mouth. “I believe you.”

He obviously didn’t believe me. His eyes promised that we’d revisit the subject later, but he tossed me a lifeline and moved on. “I realized after the lawsuit that Phil only strung me along as a backup plan, in case things fell through with Jason.”

“She used you.”

“She did.” He nodded with calm acceptance. Not a lick of resentment clouded his warmth. “First, as a means to provide a child for Jason’s family image. Then, as a backup plan in case his crimes caught up to them.”

“You’re not angry?”

“At first, yes. Philomena is a compulsive liar. After her, it took years for me to trust people again. But I will always be grateful to her for the one truth she told me.”

“What was it?”

“That I have a daughter.”

I swallowed, my heart like sludge in my throat. “Tell me about the lawsuit, please.”

“It happened after I found Phil for the eighth time.” He said it casually, as if people regularly dropped their lives to search for their long-lost daughters. “She and Jason stayed in a flat in Buenos Aires. I cased the place, waiting for you to enter.”

“I was in boarding school.”

“That explains why you never came.” He grinned, clearly amused by his own persistence. “Eventually, I got sick of waiting and approached them.”

“What did they tell you?”

“That you didn’t want to see me.”

“That’s a lie.” A flash of white-hot rage shot through me, like tossing gas onto a bonfire. “They never even told me you exist until I confronted them about it.”

“I know. I knew it then, too. So, when they threatened to call the cops, I ended up filing a lawsuit in Argentina for full custody.”

“How did I not know about this?”

“Well, for starters, I lost.” He scratched his neck, wincing like a gambler who lost his last dollar. “My lawyer filed some paperwork incorrectly, and by the time the court informed us, you were two weeks from turning eighteen. The judge advised that I simply wait until your birthday, since another court case would take far longer than that.”

“I can’t believe I never knew.”

“Something good did come out of the trial.” Cooper sat up straighter, coming to life again. “Phil claimed you weren’t my daughter in court, so I demanded a DNA test.”

My brows knitted together. I squinted at the space beside him as if an answer might be floating in the air. “But I don’t remember taking a DNA test.”

“It would’ve been maybe four months before you turned eighteen.”

“I didn’t – Oh.” I fell back against the leather rest, shocked by my mother’s audacity. “I took a blood test. Philomena sent me to a clinic to get my bloodwork done. She said it was for our new health insurance quote. That must be it.”

“It came back a 99.99% match.”

“And the restraining order? Philomena said she has one against you.”

“No restraining order.” He shrugged, taking yet another one of Philomena’s lies in stride. “I left Argentina on my own a few weeks after the trial ended and my lawyer discovered your address in Geneva. By the time I got there, you’d already left.”

“I moved to another city to find work. I needed to save up for college.”

“After that, I didn’t have a starting point on where to find you. So, it was back to square one.” He shot me a wink. “On the bright side, I managed to snag a date with the lawyer who defended me pro bono.”

I couldn’t help but grin. “Melinda?”

I’d known the woman – my stepmom? – for all of five minutes, and I already adored her. The entire journey to the library, she’d cracked jokes, fielded a zillion nosy questions from the twins with practiced ease, and never broke a sweat. The woman was a professional chaos wrangler in mom mode.

“Yes.” Cooper matched my smile with obvious admiration. “She was fresh out of uni at the time and ready to make a name for herself. But she had no experience. Not even as a law clerk or paralegal. Don’t feel bad, though. She’s a shark now.”

I didn’t doubt it.

“How long have you been married?”

“Eleven years. The twins are nine and absolute menaces.” Whenever he spoke about them, he glowed like they’d personally handed him the Nobel Prize. And, I realized, that energy extended to me, too. “We moved to Connecticut shortly after the trial, but I kept searching for you. I flew to Tokyo, Paris, Montreal, Zurich, Riyadh, Budapest. Anywhere I knew you’ve been. I even stumbled upon Surval Montreux, but by that time, you already graduated.”

“And changed my name,” I added, filling in the rest of the missing pieces. “I go by Briar now, and my film credits for work are just listed as Briar. I refuse to put Jason’s last name on anything I take pride in.”

“And you disabled your social media, changed your old phone numbers, and switched email addresses.”

“I didn’t want my parents to contact me. Not that they tried.”

“Every holiday season, Melinda and I take the kids to search for their sister. They love it.” He laughed, his eyes far off, trapped in a memory I couldn’t see. “Rose acts like it’s a treasure hunt. Brian used to, too, but he’s at the phase where merely existing is a chore.”

I joined his infectious laughter, thinking back to Brian’s sour pout. “More like everyone else’s existence is a chore.”

It struck me that I’d stumbled my way into an inside joke.

This, I realized, must be what family feels like. A secret language – built from a million tiny moments – that only we speak.

And somewhere along the way, Oliver and Sebastian had lost their fluency, letting it gather dust in the darkest corners of their hearts. I wondered how much Ollie missed it. Being accepted as a brother and son. Just one taste, and I’d already become addicted to being part of my family.

I rubbed the back of my neck, casting my eyes down to my sneakers. “Why did you keep searching for me even after you found out that I’m not your daughter?”

“Those bastards.”

My head whipped up. “Excuse me?”

“Jason and Philomena.” Their names dripped off his tongue like venom. His grip tightened on the edge of the sofa. “If those two ever showed you an ounce of the love you deserve, you wouldn’t be asking that question.”

I fidgeted on the cushion, caught between my desire to accept his comfort and the instinct to guard my heart. “What do you mean?”

“You’ll understand if you decide to have a child of your own.” Cooper offered me the sad smile of a man who’d made peace with his ghosts. “The moment you became my daughter, you inked yourself into my soul. Not for one day, or one year, or even one decade. Forever. That’s what being a parent is. A lifetime commitment. That paternity test? It’s just a fancy piece of paper. It doesn’t tell the real story.”

“And that is?”

“Family has nothing to do with blood. It’s about the people who enter your life and fill up empty spaces you didn’t know existed until you can’t imagine life without them.”

I raised a brow, unable to hide my incredulity. “I did that for you?”

Other than my boring academic accomplishments, my greatest childhood achievements included surviving three straight school years without eating a single vegetable (simply thanks to my parents’ neglect), hiding books under my pillow to read past midnight (not that my parents would’ve cared enough to stop me), and conjuring make-believe friends to keep me company (Philomena put an end to this after all the weird looks I got from talking to myself).

“Absolutely.” A full-bellied chuckle shook his frame. “Every time I found traces of you, it fueled me. I couldn’t even be upset when I missed you by mere weeks, because you always left a piece of yourself wherever you went. That library book you left behind in Tokyo with the silly sticky notes stuck inside. Or the unexpected nap you took in the middle of your Nutcracker performance in third grade. All fifteen thousand YouTube views are probably me. Or that rose mural you painted before leaving Budapest. I wondered if you’d grow up to become an artist.”

“You saw that?”

“I did. It was my screensaver for years before Rose swapped it with a close-up selfie of the insides of her nostrils.” A faint smile found the edges of his lips. “I saw all the pieces of you that you left behind, and I loved every one of them.”

“And you never gave up.”

I still didn’t believe it. After a lifetime of being an afterthought, this felt like hearing about someone else’s life, not my own. Cooper couldn’t be any more different than Jason and Philomena. Those two made an art form out of parental neglect.

Then, with a fierce tenderness that anchored me, Cooper held my gaze, his voice unwavering.

“I will always search for you, Briar. Even if I never found you, I would keep scouring every corner of the earth on the slightest chance that you’d find out and realize the truth. You were always wanted. There has never been a moment in your entire life that you weren’t loved.”