She agreed to our terms. She remained here until she gave birth, signed the baby over, took her money and left. We never heard from her again.”
“Wait, just wait a moment.” Noah stood and took a step back. He reached out instinctively and grabbed the back of a chair for support as the meaning of Lilian’s words hit him like a blast of wind. His mind raced to catch up, to make sense of what he’d just heard. The words echoed in his mind, but he couldn’t fully comprehend them. Everything around him faded into a dull hum, his heartbeat was the only thing he could hear, the only thing he could focus on.
“Are you saying it’s true? Riley was telling me the truth?”
Lilian shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her eyes dropped, unable to meet Noah’s gaze. She picked up her cigarette case and withdrew another cigarette, and popped it into her mouth as she fumbled with the lighter, her hands shaking and unsteady. The flame flickered, almost going out but she managed to lite her smoke at last. She took a long, drawn out drag then slowly exhaled. The smoke created a temporary screen between her and Noah.
Lilian always smoked too much when she was nervous. It was a bad habit she’d developed over the years, especially since Stephen’s death. She puffed away now, trying her best to avoid Noah’s question as she tried to appear calm but her usual composed demeanor was cracking, her mask slipping. Her fingers trembled as she fidgeted with the hem of her sleeve, twisting and pulling, as if the thin fabric could somehow shield her from the storm that was about to break.
Noah took a step forward, his voice low and trembling. “Mother, answer the question.” He demanded. His throat tightened and felt raw as each word he spoke became more of a struggle to get out, but he had to know. He needed to hear Lilian say it. “Did Eleanor Reaney give birth to me?”
Lilian finally looked up at him, her expression a blend of guilt and desperation. “Noah–I…” She tried to think of something clever to say, some calm and calculated way to explain herself but every time she came up with something, some clever lie, her thoughts would spiral into worst-case scenarios, each one digger her deeper into the proverbial hole that she was slowly slipping into. Every second that passed seemed like an eternity as uncertainty gnawed at her insides. In the end, she knew the only way out was to give in and tell the truth so, she sucked in a deep breath and slowly nodded. “Yes, Noah, it’s true. Eleanor Reaney was your birth mother.”
Lilian’s words crashed over Noah like a tidal wave. His world seemed to tilt and the ground beneath him began to slip away. His footing became unsteady and his breathing came out in shallow, uneven gasps. He stared at Lilian, a mixture of disbelief and betrayal twisting his features. His hands, once steady, now trembled at his sides, clenching into fists as if trying to hold onto the last fragments of his shattered reality.
“All this time, all these years, you’ve been lying to me. How could you?” His voice cracked and he hated the vulnerability that seeped through, hated that he felt like a lost and frightened child all over again. “How could you lie to me about something so…so fundamental? My entire life, Lilian. My entire life, you’ve let me believe a lie!”
“I did it to protect you,” Lilian blurted out, her voice rising in pitch, her hands fluttering in the air like trapped birds, desperate to escape. “You were so young, Noah, so vulnerable. You wouldn’t have understood–”
“Protect me?” Noah’s laugh was harsh, almost a bark. “From what? The truth? From knowing who I really am? Or was it to protect yourself, Lilian? To keep your perfect little world intact?”
Lilian recoiled as if he’d just struck her. Her face paled. “Noah, please, I love you. I’ve always loved you. I’ve raised you as my own. I gave you everything you could want or need, I took care of you.”
“You gave me everything but the truth!” He snapped, his voice louder now, reverberating off the walls. Even Riley recoiled from the outburst. He could feel the anger rising, burning through the layers of shock and disbelief. “You let me mourn a man I thought was my father and you, all these years, you let me believe that I was your son.”
“You are my son.” Lilian’s eyes filled with tears, but Noah felt no pity for her, no sympathy. All he felt was a deep, gnawing, anger and grief that felt too vast to contain.
“I’m Eleanor Reaney’s son.” He corrected, glaring daggers at Lilian, his anger boiling over. “God, I don’t even know who my real father is. I have no idea who I am anymore!”
“You’re Noah Reaney.” Lilian stood and walked to Noah, reaching out, but Noah stepped back, shaking his head.
“Don’t.” He said, his voice cold and distant. “Just don’t.”
Lilian took a deep breath, “Noah, listen to me. Stephen was your father and I am your mother. Maybe not biologically but legally. We adopted you.”
“You bought me.” Noah countered. “You paid my mother to abandon me. Don’t try to dress it up and make it sound better than it is, Lilian. You paid a junky to sign me over to you and then you lied about it.”
“We did what we thought was best at the time. Eleanor never would have been able to to raise you on her own. Noah, she couldn’t even take care of herself and we were so desperate for a child, it seemed like the perfect solution.”
“What about Charlie?” Noah’s head snapped around and his eyes narrowed as he starred at Lilian, accusingly. “Did you adopt Charlie too, or did you steal him from some down and out homeless woman?”
Lilian sighed as she slowly shook her head. “Charlie is mine and Stephen’s biological child. After you were born we stopped trying. The fertility treatments weren’t working and frankly, I couldn’t bear the heartbreak of losing another pregnancy so I stopped the treatments, and we decided to focus on the child we did have. We had the child we’d always dreamed of, we had you, and we were happy. Then, when you were two, I found out that I was pregnant. It wasn’t planned. He was our miracle baby but I never loved him any more or you any less.”
Noah sat back down beside Riley. Riley put his arm around Noah in an attempt to comfort him but Noah shrugged him off. “I can’t right now.” He whispered sadly as he hung his head. He rubbed at the back of his neck as he tried to process everything he’d just learned. “Charlie is our father’s rightful heir.” He said, finally looking up and meeting Lilian’s eyes. “All of this,” he waved his hand around the room, “this should all belong to him, not me.”
“No.” Lilian returned to the couch and sat down, her eyes never leaving Noah. “You are our son, legally, and you are a Reaney, biologically. You were born first and you’re an alpha so, you are the rightful heir. Being the master of Reaney Hall has always been your birthright. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t give birth to you myself. You are still mine and Stephen’s son and I love you. He loved you. We never thought of you as anything but our son, our child. Your legitimacy has never been in question, by anyone.”