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“You didn’t forget, G-mom. I should’ve called to tell you I was coming by.”
“Well, it’s a lovely surprise. Come in. I was just making my morning tea. You should join me for a cup.” Her smile falters as she looks me over, suddenly on alert. “Is everything okay? You look tired. Did something happen with your brother while I was away? I knew I should’ve postponed the trip.”
“Nothing happened with Armstrong. Well, nothing that Wren and I couldn’t handle, anyway.” I pull out a chair and motion for her to take it. “I have something to tell you, G-mom, and I think you might want to sit down for it.”
She slips into the chair and folds her hands on the table, waiting for me to take the seat next to hers. “Is Wren pregnant?”
“What? Why would you … we’re not—”
She gives me her don’t-bullshit-me face. “Oh, come off it, Lincoln. I see the way you two look at each other.” She smiles wistfully. “It’s exactly the way Norman used to look at me, God rest his soul.” She makes the sign of the cross. My grandfather died of a sudden heart attack when I was a baby. G-mom never remarried, and I guess I can understand why, if she loved him the way I love Wren. I don’t know that any other love would be enough.
“Wren isn’t pregnant.”
She looks momentarily disappointed before she purses her lips. “Has Armstrong gotten someone else pregnant?”
“Not that I’m aware.” I shift my chair so I’m facing her.
“What’s going on, Lincoln? You’re all”—she motions to me—“helpful and fidgety.”
“I’m always helpful.”
She gives me a look. “If you say so. Now, tell me what’s going on.”
“Did you know Dad had a mistress?”
Her entire demeanor changes, and she looks down at her hands.
“G-mom? Did you know?”
“Lincoln.” She reaches for my hand, but I yank it away.
I push my chair back and stand. Based on her guilty expression and her complete lack of surprise, the answer is yes, she did know. “Did you know I have a sister too? Did you know Dad had a whole separate fucking family?”
G-mom’s expression shifts from guilt to confusion. “I—what?”
I’m relieved she doesn’t know, otherwise it would mean the one person in my family I trusted had let me down too. “I have a sister named Hope. According to Jacqueline, she was pregnant with her before Dad married Gwendolyn, but she didn’t find out until after they eloped.” I give her the abridged version of the story Jacqueline told me.
“Oh, Fredrick.” G-mom’s eyes fall closed, and she shakes her head sadly. “This explains so much.”
“About what?”
“Why your father refused to leave Gwendolyn. Why he continued his affair with Jacqueline even after Gwendolyn found out. I knew he worried about what would happen to you and Armstrong if he tried to leave your mother, but this … now it all makes sense.”
She sighs and rubs her temples. “I’d suspected for a long time that your father had someone else, and it wasn’t a surprise, since Gwendolyn built their relationship on lies and deceit right from the start. After you were born things seemed … better. But when she fell pregnant again with Armstrong, their relationship seemed to just implode. Things between them continued to get worse, and I had to intervene. The house was toxic, and I couldn’t stand to see you being dragged through their misery. It was the reason I pushed to have you sent to boarding school when you were ten.”
She squeezes my hand. “I’d wanted to take Armstrong out of that environment as well, but your mother wouldn’t allow it. I used the fact that you would run Moorehead as an excuse, and your father supported it, but he wouldn’t allow Armstrong to go as well. I thought when you were adults, he would finally divorce Gwendolyn, but he continued to stay. When I tried to reason with him, he told me he stood to lose too much if he did, and now I finally understand what he meant.” Regret and sadness pull her mouth down. “Your father was trying to make the best out of an impossible situation. I wish he’d have come to me. I would’ve helped him figure it out if I’d known the whole truth. All these missed years…”
“Gwendolyn tried to blackmail Wren to keep this from me.” I explain my mother’s threats to expose Wren’s family, and the events of the past twenty-four hours. By the time I’m done, G-mom looks like she’s ready to go to war.
“Your mother needs to be knocked off her self-imposed pedestal,” G-mom says through clenched teeth.
“That’s why I came here this morning, to warn you that I’m going to take her down.”
“I’m coming with you. That woman has ruined enough lives.” She pushes away from the table. “She’s not putting Wren and her family in jeopardy because of a secret she has no right to keep.”
