Free TheTemptationNotJustifiedAReFinal by Delaney Diamond

brother.”
    Derrick
paused for a minute, then closed the bedroom door.
    “I
did bring you into the middle of all this, so I may as well tell you some of
what happened. You’ll get a better understanding of my relationship with my
family.” He took a deep breath. “You already know the Hawthornes are my half
siblings. We have the same father.”
    Celeste
nodded. She remained silent and watched an emotion similar to pain flit across
Derrick’s face.
    “The
Sperm Donor had an affair with my mother while married to Roarke’s mother, and
then, surprise!” He lifted his arms wide. “I came along. Roarke’s my older
brother by three months.”
    “Derrick
. . .” Her heart ached for him. She saw the hurt in his eyes, even though he
tried to make light of the situation with sarcasm. “But why is there so much
animosity between you and Roarke?”
    “That’s
easy to explain. The Donor’s wife made him choose. His mistress and his bastard
son or his wife and his legitimate son. He chose his wife and son.”
    “Derrick,
I’m so sorry—”
    “Don’t
feel sorry for me.” The words came out harsh, but she knew the anger wasn’t
directed at her. “I’m fine. I didn’t need him anyway. For years I never knew
this side of my family. After he passed away, they reached out to me. As for
staying away from my mother—well, he didn’t keep the promise he made, and
neither did she. Neither one of them cared about the people they could hurt.
They died together in a plane crash the year I turned eighteen. Even though he
continued to screw my mother for who knows how long, not once”—his entire body
tensed and the bitterness became even more apparent—“ not once did my father come to see me. And Roarke Hawthorne Jr. looks exactly like him.”
    He
spewed the last sentence past thinned lips. Hatred filled his eyes. Roarke,
with their father’s name and looks, had benefited from having his father in his
life growing up.
    “Roarke
Hawthorne, Mr. Perfect,” he continued, “always playing the role of peacemaker,
sacrificing, raising his brother and sister while in college.” His mirthless
laugh filled the room. “Gimme a break. It’s all an act.”
    Derrick
couldn’t seem to stop now he’d started, and Celeste hesitated to interrupt him.
The anger and loathing directed toward Roarke were clearly unjustified, but he
couldn’t see it. Inside, he remained the little kid whose father chose another
over him, and who’d lost out on the father-son relationship.
    “He
plays this role like he’s holier than thou, but he’s as slimy as our father.
The family spent New Year’s Eve here at the house. I brought a woman with me,
and we stayed at one of the nearby hotels. Guess who wound up drunk in Roarke’s
room one night after we spent the day here?”
    She
thought it was a rhetorical question, but he waited for her to answer. “Your
date?”
    “Bingo!”
Derrick said bitterly. “You win the prize. He lured her up to his room to take
advantage of her in her drunken state.”
    “How
do you know—”
    “I know.
I’d been looking all over for her, and then I heard her laughter through the
door of his bedroom. I found them together in his bed, Celeste. She told me everything,
although he tried to deny it. Stay away from him. I’m surprised he didn’t try
to get you into bed when he met you at Avery’s last week. Obviously, he can’t
resist a pretty face, and I wouldn’t put it past him to try to seduce you,
too.”
    Celeste
tried to dismiss Derrick’s words, but she couldn’t.
    Not
only did he try, he succeeded. Her stomach twisted painfully. She hated the
thought that Derrick’s words contained any truth and she’d been a simple notch
on Roarke’s bedpost. Even though she’d had similar thoughts, hearing Derrick
voice them was crushing.
    “Have
the two of you ever gotten along or been close?”
    “Never.
And we never will.”
    The
situation between Derrick and Roarke was worse than Celeste imagined.