The Lover's Vow

Chapter 51: Aidan

I felt the blood drain from my face as my brain tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Callie's hand tightened in mine and we both stood frozen, looking at, well, me. What the guy had said when he turned around finally registered.

Brother?!

"I'll get the scotch." Lucy's dry voice rang through the silent room and she walked towards the sideboard in the office, pouring three fingers of scotch into each one and handing them out. I studied the stranger and narrowed my eyes when I realized he was carefully watching every move Lucy made. The look in his eyes was the same one I knew I got when I looked at Callie. A part of me wanted to confront him about it, but that was a problem for another day.

Right now, I had to deal with the fact that I apparently had not only a brother, but an identical twin.

"How... Fuck, I don't even know what question to start with." I drained my scotch in two gulps and dropped into a chair. Callie came and stood next to me, her hand resting reassuringly on my shoulder. I needed more than that right now though, so I pulled her into my lap. The movement startled her, but she didn't protest. I buried my face in her hair and squeezed her tight, her presence helping to calm my thoughts.

"My name is Calder. Obviously, we're twins." He paused and grinned when Lucy, Callie and I gave him looks saying that yeah, we figured that part out already. "I'm older by the way. I know that you've been looking for our parents, and I'm assuming you had no idea I even existed. Not a surprise, since when our parents gave us up at three weeks old we were unfortunately separated pretty quickly. The system tries to keep siblings together, but it doesn't always work out like that."

I grimaced and nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. I'd seen families split up before and it had always made me sad.

"I know you went through a few bad homes before getting adopted," Calder continued. "Same for me, minus the whole adoption part. I ran away from a particularly disgusting home at 14, so I ended up on the streets trying to defend myself. I was homeless, but I was happier. Freer. Lighter. I didn't have to answer to anyone, and I cherished it. I was clever and wily, not to mention I always looked older than I was so I was able to get away with a lot. By the time I was twenty, I was well versed in grifting."

"Grifting?" Callie asked the question I'd been thinking, and Calder's gaze turned to her.

"What was that, sweets?"

At his words a growl escaped me before I could stop it. Callie knew I was reacting to the nickname and she placed a hand on my chest to calm me down. I consciously relaxed the muscles in my body that had gone tense, knowing she could take care of herself.

"First of all, call me sweets again and I'll beat your ass. Secondly, what is grifting?" I grinned at her fierceness and saw a smile twitch at Calder's lips. The weirdness of staring at my face on someone else hit me again as he responded.

"Noted. Grifting is another term for swindling."

"You're a con artist," Lucy said in a flat voice. Calder turned towards her and I watched them stare at each other, something in the air changing when their eyes met. Callie turned and gave me a look and I knew she was wondering what was going on between them too.

"I was a con artist. But I gave that up."

"Why? You didn't like tricking innocent people into giving you money anymore?" Even I flinched at Lucy's tone. I'd never heard her talk like that to someone and I wasn't sure if that was because she was disgusted by him, or if it was because she was trying to build distance between them. From the scene that Callie and I walked into when we got here, I was guessing it was the latter.