AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ethan’s grimace deepened. “We’re not at some showy party, you know. This is our dad.”
Savanah turned to our father. “Are we your children?”
Good question.
“Of course, he’s your father.” My mother puffed. “We were once in love.”
My father’s face softened, and I released the tight sensation in my chest. It warmed me at least to know that we were the product of love. As soppy as that seemed. Being given life should have sufficed, but the romantic in me believed that children produced by love grew up happier.
Were we happier? I regarded my sister as she bit into a fingernail, and my brother, who looked like he’d been in a tornado by how often he’d fingered his hair.
Me? Well, I was happy. Happy to know that I’d saved an Afghani school from being blown up by a suicide bomber, and that I’d saved Theadora from having her virginity auctioned off to some dirty fucking pig.
“How long, Dad?” Ethan asked. My normally unflappable brother had never looked so serious.
“A while now.” He gave me an apologetic smile.
“Like did you just wake up one day and decide you liked men?” Savanah asked.
“Mm… well.”
“Yep, he was cheating on me,” my mother said. “And that’s emotional abuse, in answer to your earlier question about my suing you.” She pointed in my father’s flinching face.
“It’s not, darling, because you’ve been sleeping with Will for just as long.”
The three of us collapsed onto chairs. Talk about airing a family’s dirty secrets.
“Come in, Will,” my mother called out.
He walked in sheepishly. Ten years younger than my mother, William had been my father’s partner for twenty years. A mathematical whizz with an astrophysics degree, he set up a hedge fund management business with my father when Will was in his mid-twenties.
Will sat down and held my mother’s hand. She looked at him, and her intensity softened into a subtle but warm smile.
“So, Dad’s gay and Mum’s a cougar,” Savanah said, smiling as though the family just received some kind of societal accolade. “Cool.”
“Oh, come off it, Savvie. This isn’t some fucking Netflix remake of Dynasty.” Ethan shook his head. He turned to me. “What do you think?”
“I suspected Mum with Will. They’ve been close for a long time. Always sitting next to each other at dinners. Walks on the grounds. I mean, it was pretty damn obvious. And Dad… well…” I looked over at my father, sensing how difficult this discussion was for him.
“Well, what?” Ethan pressed.
“I don’t know. Maybe.” I knitted my fingers. I’d seen my father walking out of a well-known gay club one night just before I left for my last tour. Something I didn’t feel the need to share, even with all the intimate details of our parent’s relationships being shared.
“Does that mean you’re going to go all Elton John and start wearing outlandish jackets at our family functions?” Savanah asked our father.
He smiled at her. “I think I’ll stick to my tweeds for now.”
“This will become a marriage of convenience then?” I asked.
My mother looked at Will and then my father. “Not sure. Now that it’s all out, I personally would like a divorce. But your father’s being obstinate about developing.”
“That land has been in my family for hundreds of years. I’m not about to turn it into a millionaires’ playground.”
“Mm… we’ll see,” my mother said, looking at Will, who gave her his signature understated but supportive smile.
I walked out of the room knowing we hadn’t heard the end of it.
