Heart of Steel

Calling a Truce

"How... When... What..." I sputtered, trying to make sense of the fact that I apparently had a long lost brother who was no longer lost. 

Sam chuckled. 

"It's a long story. Do you want to take a walk down to the pond?" He said, searching around Kendrick's office for something. 

 I had completely forgotten there was a huge pond in Kendrick's 4 acre back yard. 

"Yes I would! And if you're looking for my walking stick, it's up in my room." I told him. 

Sam rolled his eyes and said it'd be too far for me to walk anyway, so he would go and get my wheelchair. I ambled out into the sitting area outside of the Library to wait for him. It was basically another foyer, except that it was in the back of the house, and it lead from the middle staircase to the Library, the Game Room and the Sun Room. One way to get to the enormous back lot was to walk through the Sun Room and down the brick stairs out onto one of the stone pathways that led to the pond. I sat down on a white wooden bench with a tall back and silver padded cushions, taking in the intricate details of the high ceiling and the chandelier that hung in the middle of the sitting area. Shane walked out of the Library and stopped abruptly when he saw me. 

 "Miss Wilson." He said with one swift nod. 

"Hello." I said, gazing up at him. 

He smelled amazing, as always. 

"Rosalie said you'd be in the Library. She also said you had refused to take your walking stick, so I was just coming to check on you." he said, my walking stick in his right hand.

"Worried about me, Mr. Steelman?" I asked with a sarcastic grin. 

 "Just doing my job." He said, handing me the stick with an unreadable expression, though I did think I had seen the corners of his mouth twitch slightly. Sam rolled my wheelchair in, whistling blissfully, but stopped at the sight of Shane standing there. 

"Sammy? What are you doing here?" Said Shane, confused. 

"Mornin'." said Sam in his Texan accent.

"Just came to spend some time with my sister." he said, unable to hide a mischievous grin when he saw the look of panic and shock on Shane's face. 

 "What the-" Shane began, but Sam cut him off with a loud bark of laughter. 

"Relax, Steel. She found out a few minutes ago." 

"Bossman is gonna flip his-" retorted Shane, only to be interrupted yet again.   

"He already knows. I overheard him talking to Sam about it. That's how I found out." I told him. 

Shane lowered his eyebrows in concentration as his eyes darted back and forth between Sam and me. 

"Now we're going for a walk down to the pond." said Sam. 

 "Well what am I supposed to do? My assignment is to watch the girl." Shane said grumpily. 

"The girl has a name, Steel." Sam growled, staring indignantly at Shane as he helped me up off the bench and into my wheelchair. 

 "And take a nap or something. You seem grouchy." he said over his shoulder as he wheeled me towards the Sun Room door. 

 I burst out laughing, imagining Shane's face turning crimson as he scowled after us. My brother was hilarious! Sam lifted my chair and carried it down the concrete steps as I used my walking stick and the railing to hobble down, then he resumed his whistling as we headed down the walkway to the pond. I stared around, enjoying the scenery and the subtle vibrations of the chair from the uneven stone path underneath it. It was so relaxing that I almost fell asleep. That probably also had something to do with my lack of sleep from the night before, and the emotional roller coaster I had just been on. When we reached the pond, Sam took the cane out of my lap and helped me out of the chair so we could walk to one of the wooden benches nearby. 

"So... are you going to explain all this to me now?" I asked, glancing into his eyes and grinning. 

Sam took a deep breath and stared over the surface of the pond for a few seconds, then nodded. 

"All my life, I had asked my mother about my father. I wanted to know who he was and why he wasn't around. But she refused to tell me anything until I was a teenager. One day, I badgered her so much about it that she finally just snapped and told me that he wasn't a good person and she didn't want me to know who he was. I pretty much left it alone after that, but it was always in the back of my mind. Then, last year, she was diagnosed with brain cancer. It was a really rapid progression, and within a month she was literally on her death bed." 

I sucked in a horrified breath as I heard about his mother and placed my right hand on his left, squeezing it gently. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, then turned his head away from me, but patted my hand with his right one. Then, he continued.

"On her last day alive, she told me about Kendrick. She said that she knew I still wanted to meet him and that she was only trying to protect me by not telling me who he was. She met him at a party and they casually dated for a few months, but then he broke up with her suddenly. She didn't even know she was pregnant at the time. But she saw him out in town a few days after that with your mom. She had known who she was because they had some mutual friends. She said that the moment she saw the way Kendrick looked at Kira, her heart shattered. He was clearly in love with her."

Tears began to fall silently from my eyes, but I chose to ignore them. It would have been hard for me to imagine Kendrick falling that quickly for someone if I hadn't remembered how incredibly loveable my mom was. 

"She moved back to Texas to live with her parents and never even told Kendrick about me. It probably would have been very difficult for me not to resent her if she hadn't been..." he trailed off, sniffed, then cleared his throat.

"Anyway, when she told me who he was I looked him up and decided I would go meet him after her Funeral, but I ended up having to stay in Texas for quite a while to deal with our house and her other assets. By the time I made it here, my mom had been gone for 6 months. I didn't know how he was going to react to a random kid walking into his life and claiming to be his son, so I decided to try another angle. I saw a listing online for a Security position for Wilson Enterprises and decided to take a chance and apply. I wasn't sure at first if it was for one of the businesses he owns or for his personal Security team, as I had read that he had one of those. Sure enough, it was for this job. Also, luckily, I had worked as a Security Guard before, so I knew how to fire a gun and I had taken Self Defense classes. James conducted my interview, and to my surprise, he hired me. I didn't even meet Kendrick until a couple of weeks later, which was the first time I accompanied him to one of his business meetings. As you've probably noticed, my eyes are blue like his and yours; but what you don't know is that the rest of my face looks a lot like my mom's. The first time Kendrick saw me he turned as white as a ghost, but he didn't say anything about it. But, something happened on my first full day of work here that made me want to keep coming back, even if I had never been able to work up the nerve to tell Kendrick who I was." 

He turned to look at me, grinning, and obviously waiting for me to ask the question.

"What?" I obliged.

"You." he said simply, beaming at me.

I gave him a puzzled look and waited for him to elaborate.

"I had been an only child all my life. It had always been just me and my mom. When I discovered that Kendrick had a daughter, I was floored. I had always wanted a sibling, and now I actually had one. But, I didn't want to freak you out or scare you off, so I just chose to get to know you as Sam the Security Guard first. Your relationship with Kendrick and the way that he treated you was one of the things that deterred me from telling him. I figured if he was that cold to you, he probably wouldn't even care if I told him I was his son. The closer I got to you, the more I wanted to tell you, but I thought it would be better to tell Kendrick first. About a month before your accident, I decided that he would probably be better prone to believing me if I had proof. So I snuck into his bathroom one morning when I thought he was out and grabbed his hairbrush, so that I could get his DNA. Apparently he hadn't left yet, and he caught me. So, I explained what I had been doing and told him who my mom was. Her name was Elanor, but she went by Ella. Honestly, he didn't even seem that surprised when I told him. I guess that's because of how much I look like her. Anyway, he actually took me to a lab where they took swabs from our mouths and told us we would get the results within 3 to 6 weeks. Less than a week after your accident, we got the results back."

Something clunked into place in my mind right then.

"That's why you said you had realized how attached you were to me when my accident happened!" I said. 

"Well, actually, no. When I heard about what happened, I felt so upset. I began to pray that you were alright. The only other time I had ever prayed was when my mom was dying."

I felt a lump rise in my throat as tears filled my eyes once more.

"I realized before we got the results that I loved you as a sister, regardless of DNA. But, I was still really happy when I found out I am Kendrick's biological son." 

I stared into his eyes for a long moment, then tore my gaze from them and rested my head on his shoulder, staring out onto the still surface of the pond. 

"You alright, K?" he asked after a few minutes.

"Yes. Just... processing." I said quietly.

"I'm really sorry about your mom." I told him, squeezing his hand again. 

He smiled sadly. 

"Thanks, sis." he said. 

That was gonna take some getting used to.

"Can I ask you something?" I said finally after another few minutes of silence.

 "Hmm?" he replied. 

"Does Kendrick have a good reason for keeping the details of my relationship from me?"

"You heard him in his office. He just wants to protect you." said Sam, not quite meeting my eyes.

"What the hell does protecting me have to do with my relationship?" I said, getting annoyed that he was taking our dad's side.

"That I can't tell you. I won't break his trust when it comes to that. He said it himself; he's not above firing his own son." said Sam, crossing his arms over his chest.

"UGH!" I yelled as I bent down, grabbed a small rock and chucked it into the pond in frustration.

"This is stupid! I miss him so much! I miss him and I don't even know who he is! Can you imagine how confusing and infuriating that is?" 

This time, it was me who averted meeting Sam's eyes. I knew I was on the brink of tears again, though they were angry tears.

He placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and waited to speak until I looked at him again.

"I will tell you one thing, but ONLY one. And then you can't ask me any more about him. Deal?"

I raised my eyebrows in surprise and shook my head rapidly.

"He misses you too."

I couldn't hold the tears back this time. I closed my eyes and let out a sigh of mingled relief and pain. He missed me! He missed me? Then how come...

"If he misses me the why hasn't he been around? Why hasn't he called, or texted, or even sent me a note?"

"I think you can answer that for yourself." said Sam slowly.

"Kendrick." I replied, face growing red with indignation. 

Sam simply nodded. I seriously hated that man! But I honestly didn't see how I was going to find out much of anything else unless I tried to make peace with him, even if it was under false pretenses. I had no intention of forgiving him for the things he had done or the secrets he had kept from me, but if I played the game correctly, maybe I could sway his decision to keep me in the dark.

"Is he still here?" I asked Sam, causing a look of suspicion to spread across his face. 

"Why" he asked, narrowing his eyes at me.

"Because I want to apologize to him."

Whatever Sam had been expecting me to say, it wasn't this. He continued to stare at me until I said,

"I'm serious. You're right. He said he did all that to protect me, and you believe him, so I do too."

To my amazement, he bought it. He stood up, helped me to my wheelchair and began to push me back up the pathway towards the house.

"Let's go see if he's here."

When we got back into the house, Shane was lounging comfortably on the couch in the living room watching some sort of action packed movie. 

"Do you know where the Senator is?" asked Sam.

"In his office." he replied without even taking his eyes off the TV.

Charming. I thought sarcastically.

I emerged from the wheelchair and brandished my stick, though the look on Sam's face made it evident that he didn't like the idea of me walking all the way there. I ignored him and did it anyway. Sam didn't say anything, but he did walk diligently beside me, ready to catch me if my legs gave way. When we got to the hallway that led to the main door outside of Kendrick's office, I paused and looked at him seriously. 

"I can take it from here." 

"Are you sure?" he asked.

I nodded and gave him a small reassuring smile. Reluctantly, he turned around and began to walk back down the hallway. I held my breath and knocked. 

"Come in." I heard Kendrick say.

As soon as he saw me, he rolled his eyes.

"What is it?" he said aggressively, scowling and crossing his arms over his chest.

Clearly he wasn't over me hiding in his closet and listening to his conversation with Sam yet.

"I owe you an apology." I said after I made my way to the same chair Sam had been in earlier and sat down.

"For what? Breaking into my office and eavesdropping?" he said heatedly.

"For everything."