AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That got a soft chuckle out of my friend. “Seeing you naked is no hardship, Doctor.”
“I think you’ve seen enough of me that we can be on a first name basis.”
“Bryce has some questions for you, Melanie.”
“Of course. What can I help you with?” She took a sip of her tonic water.
“This is hard for me to get into.”
“I understand. Any time you’re discussing your psyche, it’s always hard. But I’m a professional. I’ll answer any questions to the best of my ability.”
He smiled. “I feel like I should be paying you.”
“Let’s just call it a favor between friends.”
“Well, you know all about my dad.”
She nodded.
“I worry. I’m worried because I have his DNA. My son has his DNA. Obviously, I don’t want either one of us to turn out the way he did.”
“That’s totally understandable,” Melanie said. “But you’re Jonah’s age, right? Thirty-eight?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve come this far in life without having any problems. No one is perfect. And while research has sh
own that, yes, psychopathy can be genetic, other factors are also at play, such as environment.”
“That’s another thing I just don’t get. I knew my grandparents. As far as I could tell, they were decent people. How could they have raised my father to be who he is?”
“Again, there are no straight answers here, Bryce. I wish I could tell you for sure that genetics play no role, but there just isn’t any research to back that up. I can say this, though. Your genes do not define who you are. Your actions and choices do.”
“She’s fucking brilliant, isn’t she?” I said.
Bryce smiled. “I try to make good choices. Especially now, for Henry’s sake.”
“Then there’s no reason to believe your personality will ever change. Look at Talon, for example. If any man in the world had reason to become a psychopath, it’s him. But even before he started healing, he never had any tendencies in that direction. And he comes from the same gene pool Jonah comes from, and their mother and their uncle were both a mess.”
“A mess.” I couldn’t help a smile. “Is that a psychiatric term?”
Melanie chuckled. “You know what I mean.”
“Still,” Bryce said. “It’s freaking me out. How could I have lived with my father my entire childhood, and some of my adult life, and not seen who he was?”
“I know it’s hard for you to understand. It’s hard for anyone to understand,” Melanie said. “But your father is hardly the first person to lead a double life. It happens more frequently than you would think.”
“I know that, but this isn’t just any double life. This isn’t a guy who has two wives and neither of them knows. This is a guy who had a wife and kid, was an upstanding member of his community…but was also a child molester and murderer. It’s incomprehensible to me.”
“I think you have your answer right there,” Melanie said. “It should be incomprehensible to you. The fact that it is means you will never follow in your father’s footsteps. You make your own choices, Bryce, no matter what your genes say. We all do. I understand that these words probably don’t make you feel any better right now, but they will. Just trust yourself. You’re a good man, a good father. You won’t screw up.”
“I sure don’t want to. Henry’s the most important thing in my life. But my mother…”
“Yes,” Melanie said. “This will be especially hard on her.”
“She has relied on him her whole life. They married young, and she’s never worked outside the home. What is she supposed to do now?”
“She may need some help. She may need your help.”
