Chapter Fourteen

Victoria watched as one by one her children appeared in the study. Jarrod sat behind his desk where he was the most comfortable. Nick leaned against the bookcase, while Audra sat on a chair near her eldest brother. Since she felt absolutely sure Heath was Tom's son and felt he'd around long enough, she'd decided she need to disclose her secret; especially with the trouble that continued to brew. After telling her children, Victoria figured she could talk to Heath…once he got back from some business he and McCall had went on that is.

"Thank you for coming." Victoria stood off to the side of Jarrod's desk. "I…" she paused as she looked on Audra and inwardly shuddered when she thought on how close she'd come to losing her. She then thought on Heath, knowing if he hadn't been there Adam Thayer might have succeeded in getting away to try his stunt another day, as he was probably the fastest runner in California. "I have something to tell you, something to confess. I should have done it before now only I wanted time…" she paused again knowing she was already getting ahead of herself.

"What is it mother?" Nick stepped away from the bookcase he'd been standing by and asked, concerned that the attempted kidnapping had done more than rattle his mother's nerves.

"I have a story to tell you. You need to listen without interrupting." Victoria regained control of her voice and took on the strong appearance she was famous for. "There is a certain matter that needs to be aired before whoever is behind this current attack on us hit again. Well, maybe it doesn't need to, but I don't want to chance of it coming out in the middle of another attack, not when we'll need to be really focused."

"I have to be right," Jarrod thought as he looked at Nick, who acted as if he hadn't seen the look in his older brother's eyes, even though he had. Neither one said a word though as Victoria continued on.

"While Nick wouldn't remember," she looked at Jarrod, "There was a tragic event in our lives when he was two and Jarrod was six. We lost a set of newborn twins, two boys."

Jarrod sat straight up as another very strong feeling, one like he'd had before, came only this time he could see himself standing in a graveyard he assumed was Stockton's cemetery looking at two small caskets being lowered. As time went by, because his parents never talked about the young babies being buried, he had grown to assume they belonged to someone else.

"WHAT!" Audra and Nick both shouted at the same time, causing their mother to lift her hand once more and give both a stern glare. Nick and Audra quieted down instantly.

Victoria sighed as she went on to explain how they had taken their small children to visit some friends and how they'd had an accident on the way home. "You climbed out of the wagon on your own, Jarrod. Your father was able to get to Nick and me out without a problem. But, when he went headed back to the wagon…" her voice broke and Jarrod spoke up, talking quietly as he did.

"The wagon moved somehow and rolled." The scene long since forgotten came back.

"Why bring this up now, after all these years?" Nick asked, a bit of gruffness in his voice. He didn't know what to think of the revelation.

Victoria sighed. "In my grief, I blamed your father. I thought he could have tried harder. I thought he could have saved them even though the doctor said the boys were, most likely, killed instantly. I pushed your father away. He wound up leaving on a business trip. He was beaten and robbed, then left for dead." She wasn't surprised when all three children looked shocked and gasped.

"Strawberry," Again, Jarrod spoke softly, "He went to Strawberry."

Victoria said nothing as she looked at Jarrod, not surprised he had made the connection. "Yes, ye he did. After he was well, he came home and…" she closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them up again "confessed he'd had an affair."

Nick took a step backwards knowing full well what his brother had tried telling him moments before the attempted kidnapping of his sister was the same idea his mother was going to present to them now. "YOU'RE NOT GOING TO STAND THERE AND SAY YOU THINK HEATH THOMSON IS FATHER'S SON ARE YOU!"

"Nicholas Jonathon Barkley!" Victoria's eyes hardened as she too snapped, "You will lower your voice this instant! And, yes, that is exactly what I suspect! You didn't see your father when he was a younger man. You only remember a man going prematurely gray and wearing a beard." As she finished talking, Victoria looked out of the corner of her eye. She saw Jarrod nod ever so slightly conveying to her that he did indeed remember.

"It sure would explain why he pulled back from me, why he didn't want to explain," Audra spoke barely above a whisper, "but that doesn't make sense either. To pull back now indicates he only recently found out and how would he do that? You yourself admit you only suspect it."

Victoria had no answer for that one, and she said as much adding, "What I do know is there's a very high chance I'm right. If I am, he and those dear children have the right to be a part of this family and bear our name." When she finished, no one spoke a word.

Silence draped itself over each and every one of the Barkleys. Victoria pondered how to confront Heath and find out if he did indeed know; Jarrod wishing he'd remembered his father's face before he'd grown a beard and before the man's hair had changed colors sooner; Audra trying to digest the fact that she had tried to flirt with her own brother and was indeed an aunt, and Nick; he was having the hugest war inside himself. How could his father, the man who had seemed like such an impeccable giant, actually have lain with another woman? Nick turned away from his mother and headed for the door.

"Where are you going, Nick?" Victoria asked, worried about this middle son might do.

"I'm going out, out for a ride." He spoke as politely as he knew how and left the room. With all due respect to his family, all Nick wanted at the moment was to out in the open with no one around.