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Without another backward look, he was done.
“What the fuck?” River asked. “I thought we were going to find out another way.”
“I’m tired of waiting. I want to know the truth.”
“This is fucked up,” Vadik said.
I no longer cared. My dad had never blocked me before, but in the past couple of weeks, whenever I would have gone to Emily after school, he had a job for me. He wanted to distract me.
I needed to know how far these lies went.
I didn’t bother with shoes. With my pants and shirt on, I headed to my dad’s office. He’d already poured himself a slug of whiskey.
“Come in, close the door, take a seat.”
We all did as we were told. Gael was unusually quiet. He hated silences and often filled them with bullshit.
“What I’m about to tell you cannot leave this room. Your dads are aware of what I’m about to disclose.”
My dad ran a hand over his face. He was in his late forties, but worked out and kept fit. I knew he was at the top of his game.
I sank into the chair as he pulled out his wallet. He flicked it open and handed me a picture. It was a colored picture, well-worn. There were fold marks, and even some wear from where it has been touched.
“That’s Bethany,” Daniel said.
I’d never seen a picture of this woman or heard of her name.
I passed it to Vadik, who handed it to River, followed by Gael.
“She’s pretty,” Gael said, handing it back to my dad.
“I know what you boys think you’re doing with Emily. Our Bethany, she was a lot like Emily. A minion’s daughter. She wasn’t as cautious as your girl. Our woman was a fighter. She called us all out on our shit. Not once did she let us get away with anything.”
The moment he started to talk about Bethany, I saw the change in him. This wasn’t something he could hide. My dad was in love. “We all loved her. Not one of us cared if it was four of us with her. The moment I saw her with your dads, I didn’t care. She belonged to us and I knew all four of us made her happy. Not any one of us could keep her happy, but together, we had her. She was worth fighting for. So we did. We shared her. We left this boarding school fucking shithole behind and carved out a life just for us. She didn’t come between the work. Your grandparents couldn’t find fault. We were Monsters to the very core. Our loyalty was to each other, to the business, and to Bethany.”
He stopped, picked up his whiskey, and took a large gulp. “She … got pregnant. We were all fucking happy about it. Ecstatic. It wasn’t planned, as the truth was we shared her enough with each other, let alone a kid, but she was so fucking happy.”
I started to feel sick as I knew where this was going to go.
“The pregnancy started out great. She was healthy and everything was going fine. Then, it started with swollen ankles. The pains she’d get. It got ugly and we were later to find out, she went undiagnosed with pre-eclampsia. A risk to both mother and baby. Bethany died giving birth to you, Caleb.” Another gulp of whiskey. This tale was too much for him, I could see it. The pain got to him.
He didn’t want to relive it, but for us, he was going to.
“At first, none of us wanted to touch you. You’d killed the love of our lives. The only person who made our lives matter.”
I stared at my father and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Sure, it sucked that his woman, their woman, had died, but that wasn’t my fault. They were the ones who had the baby, who hadn’t used protection. I couldn’t even believe I was thinking like this. This wasn’t me.
I wanted to hurl abuse at him or do something for him to realize he was fucked up.
“Then one day, I don’t know, we’d buried her, and I heard you crying. It was like she spoke to me that day because I knew deep in my heart, you were my son, and I had to go and take care of you. She wouldn’t have liked me to leave you out in the dark. So I did. We decided you would need a friend, and that was when they each went and found a woman. Your friends were born nine months later.”
“So how old am I really?” I asked. None of what he said was comforting. I’d been living a lie. “And why did you marry Molly if she wasn’t really my mom?”
“Your real birthday is on the same day, only you’re a year older. Right now, you’re nineteen. The rest of you are eighteen. Molly is a means to an end. Our relationship with Bethany was a secret and no one knew any different. We kept her protected. You were ours, and I had to find someone to play the part. She was more than willing, and she knows the score about everything. There’s no reason for me to fight with her.”
