Tammy frowned. “I hope it wasn’t serious.”

“It was pretty serious. Just about...my entire adult life. And some of the stuff that went down when I was a teenager.”

His mother’s face softened. “The horses. I know that hurt you badly when he did that. It hurt me, too. We were going through an awful lot right at that time.”

“I know. And that’s what I need to talk to you about. Remember when you encouraged me to go into the rodeo... When you told me to do it... You said you’d found out about Dad’s secret kids. Boys, you said. You didn’t know about McKenna.”

“No,” his mother said slowly. “I didn’t. No one knew about McKenna.”

“But you knew about the boys. And you told me that Dad did, too. That Dad was the one who had sent them away. Told their mothers that there was no place for them here.”

“Yes,” Tammy said, closing her eyes. And that momentary break in her typically smooth composure told Gabe more than anything else ever could.

“I asked Dad about them. The kids. The kids who are my age. Caleb and Jacob’s age. He told me he didn’t know what I was talking about.”

Tammy sank slowly down on the couch. “Did he?”

“He did. So I’m going to ask you, and I need you to tell me straight. Did they ever exist? Or were you just using that to get me to do what you wanted? To get me to hurt him the way that you wanted me to.”

“They exist,” she said.

“So is Hank lying to me?”

She shook her head, tears filling her eyes. “No. He’s not. He never knew about them, Gabe. He never knew about them because the mothers—there were two of them—came to see me while he was gone. They told me my husband was a cheater and they’d had his kids. Kids who were teenagers, and that they wanted money.”

“Did you believe them?”

“Not at first. The part where they said your dad was a cheater I knew already. But I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why they would’ve waited all that time to come and try to extort money out of us if they’d known they’d had his kids that whole time. But in both cases, Hank wasn’t famous yet. It took them both quite some time to realize the man they’d had one-night stands with all those years ago was the same man winning big pots of money in the rodeo, and landing big endorsement deals. By the time they did, they were strapped for cash.” Her lips thinned. “I don’t blame them for doing what they did, Gabe. They were protecting their kids. But I had to do the same.”

Gabe was unmoved by that. “And you never told him?”

“No. I gave the money and sent them on their way. Money that I had from him. I managed his career, and I managed that, too. I was not going to have those women come in with their bastards and undermine what you boys had.”