Chapter 3 - The Question Melanie Couldn’t Forgive“How would you know?”
Wyatt’s silence lasted only a second.
It was enough.
Melanie stood.
“Landon, stop.”
“No.”
“Eli is your son.”
“I asked Wyatt.”
Wyatt rubbed a hand across his face.
“Because Melanie and I weren’t together then.”
“Then?”
“No.”
Landon looked at his wife.
“Were you?”
“No.”
“How long before our wedding did you stop sleeping with him?”
Melanie’s face hardened.
“This is becoming cruel.”
Landon stared at her.
“I found my brother barefoot in our closet.”
She looked away.
He continued.
“I think we passed cruel fifteen minutes ago.”
Wyatt stepped forward.
“She and I ended before you two started dating.”
“Completely?”
“Yes.”
Melanie nodded.
“Yes.”
Landon wanted to believe that answer.
He hated himself for needing evidence.
Eli had his eyes.
His smile.
The same cowlick Landon had in childhood.
Biology should have felt obvious.
But betrayal made everything uncertain.
Melanie whispered:
“You can take a DNA test if you want.”
Landon looked at her.
Pain replaced anger on her face.
“And when it says exactly what I’m telling you, you’ll have to live with the fact that you doubted your own son because of what I did.”
The sentence landed hard.
Landon looked away.
She was right.
And wrong.
Both things could exist.
“I’m taking Eli to a hotel.”
Melanie nodded.
“For tonight.”
“Yes.”
“I want to see him tomorrow.”
“You will.”
Wyatt started toward the door.
Landon moved in front of him.
“You’re staying.”
Wyatt’s expression sharpened.
“Why?”
“Because I’m not done.”
“I am.”
“You don’t get to be.”
Wyatt laughed quietly.
“What are you going to do? Ground me?”
Landon took one step closer.
For the first time, the brothers stood nearly chest to chest.
Wyatt was two years older.
Growing up, he had always been stronger.
Faster.
More reckless.
Landon had been the one who thought first.
Their father, Everett Reed, rewarded that.
Wyatt never forgave him.
“You’ve hated me for years,” Landon said.
Wyatt’s jaw tightened.
“This isn’t about Dad.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
“You were thinking it.”
“Maybe because every time something good happened to me, you acted like I stole it from you.”
Wyatt’s eyes flashed.
“The company?”
“The company. Dad’s approval. The house.”
“Melanie?”
The word changed the room.
Landon stared.
Wyatt immediately knew he had said too much.
“So that’s what this is.”
Melanie shook her head.
“No.”
Landon looked at her.
“You were something I took from him.”
“I am not something either of you took.”
“You’re right.”
He turned toward Wyatt.
“But he thinks you were.”
Wyatt’s face hardened.
“I loved her before you knew her.”
“And you introduced us.”
“I thought we were done.”
“You thought?”
Wyatt looked at Melanie.
She said nothing.
Landon felt another piece click into place.
“You never stopped.”
Melanie’s eyes filled.
“We did.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
“Then why did it start again?”
Melanie looked toward the bedroom window.
“The funeral.”
Landon became still.
Their father’s funeral had been eighteen months earlier.
Everett Reed had died suddenly from an aneurysm at sixty-eight.
The weeks afterward had been chaos.
Estate lawyers.
Family arguments.
A company transition.
Landon becoming CEO.
Wyatt discovering their father had left Landon fifty-one percent of Reed Development while Wyatt received twenty-four.
The remaining shares went into trusts.
Wyatt had been furious.
Melanie had tried to keep the brothers from destroying each other.
Apparently, she had done more than that.
“You slept with him after Dad’s funeral?”
Melanie whispered:
“Not that night.”
“How reassuring.”
“Landon.”
“When?”
“Two weeks later.”
Wyatt said:
“You were in New York.”
Landon looked at him.
“You remember my schedule?”
Wyatt immediately realized the ugliness.
Landon laughed.
“Of course you do.”
He remembered the trip.
Four days meeting lenders.
Melanie had called the second night and told him Eli had a fever.
Landon had almost flown home.
She told him not to.
We’re fine.
Stay.
Finish what you need to finish.
Wyatt had been there.
The thought nearly folded him.
“Was Eli sick?”
Melanie began crying again.
“Yes.”
“Was Wyatt here?”
“Yes.”
“Did he help with Eli?”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
She looked at the floor.
Landon did not need the details.
He raised one hand.
“Stop.”
Melanie wiped her face.
“It didn’t begin as some plan.”
“Do you understand how little that matters?”
“Yes.”
“No. I don’t think you do.”
He looked around the bedroom.
Family photographs.
Wedding picture.
Eli as a newborn.
A photograph of Landon and Wyatt as teenagers beside their father’s old fishing boat.
He walked over and turned that one facedown.
“I want both of you out of this room.”
Melanie stared.
“It’s my bedroom too.”
“Not tonight.”
Wyatt stepped toward the door.
Landon stopped him again.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“My father left you twenty-four percent of the company.”
Wyatt’s face closed.
“What does that have to do with this?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Melanie looked nervous.
Landon noticed.
There.
Again.
A glance.
A tightening jaw.
Something beyond sex.
Something beyond family resentment.
He turned toward her.
“Why did you look at him?”
“I didn’t.”
“You did.”
“Landon, your mind is racing.”
“It should be.”
Wyatt said:
“Leave business out of this.”
That was the wrong sentence.
Landon stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because Dad’s will has nothing to do with Melanie.”
“Then you won’t mind if I ask.”
Wyatt went silent.
Landon’s heartbeat changed.
“What have you two been doing besides sleeping together?”
Melanie whispered:
“Nothing.”
Landon looked at her.
“You lied to me for fourteen months.”
She flinched.
“So forgive me if your word has lost some value.”
Wyatt reached for his jacket.
“I’m leaving.”
Landon let him.
But as Wyatt lifted it from the chair, something dropped from the pocket.
A small black keycard.
Landon recognized the logo immediately.
REED DEVELOPMENT — EXECUTIVE ARCHIVE ACCESS.
Only three people had that level of access.
Landon.
The chief financial officer.
And the company’s general counsel.
Not Wyatt.
Not anymore.
Landon bent and picked it up.
Wyatt stopped.
Melanie went pale.
Landon held up the card.
“Why do you have this?”
May you like
Wyatt didn’t answer.
And suddenly Landon realized the affair might not be the only betrayal that had been happening while he was away.
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