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“Point proven,” she fumes. I gesture to the ground.
“Pick it up, then grow up.” My stern voice is rough on my throat and I don’t remember the last time I had to use it. “Then make your sister another one.”
“Dad’s home,” Zeke mumbles but again he listens. I tense at the words for so many many reasons.
“I need to talk to you three. It’s important, so look at me please.”
All three of my siblings pause, because this voice is also one I don’t use often. The serious, for real voice. With all eyes on me I get nervous and take a heavy breath, sliding my hands in my pockets.
“Briggs is back in town,” I start and get three very different reactions. Tabby gleams with excitement, still apparently head over heels in love with her. Zeke’s confused because he’s an idiot, and Pris is angry. Pris and Briggs never really understood each other.
“What does that have to do with us?” Zeke’s confused expression comes out on his words.
“She didn’t come alone. She brought her nine-year-old daughter.” My voice gets stuck, because it’s our daughter, not her daughter. Ours.
Zeke’s features sink deeper into confusion, Tabby blinks rapidly, her stirring slowing as she thinks, and Pris is the first catch on with an audible gasp.
“No fucking way,” she breathes out and I nod.
“No fucking way what!” Zeke throws out his arms. Tabby clues in with a pop of her eyes.
“Is she yours?” Tabby vibrates.
“Your what?” Zeke huffs.
“Oh my God, Zeke!” Both my sisters shout at him at the same time and this is the pure chaos that is my life. This is where I feel on. This is how every moment of my existence has ever been and for the first time in months I forget about my work trouble.
“You are seriously the dumbest human on this planet,” Pris says poking him in the forehead. “The kid is Xan’s. Briggs left ten years ago. After Xan knocked her up and she bailed on him like some entitled rich bitch.”
The expression on my face does its own thing without consulting me first. Everything settles into a frown and I stare down my sister.
“You have a kid?” Zeke finally joins the conversation but Pris and I are too busy locked in stubborn battle. “Why are we just finding out now? I thought she had an abortion. Isn’t that what you told us?”
“She lied, obviously,” Pris challenges me with her tone.
“She was lied to. So was I. Her mother came to see me and told me Briggs took care of it, but immediately went to her to tell her that I said I wasn’t interested in being a dad or being involved at all. She died that night and Briggs’ dad sent her to Vancouver to live with her aunt. She apparently called here to tell me our daughter was born but Dad hid it from me.”
“God, you two are ridiculous,” Pris rolls her eyes and snatches her toast from Zeke’s hands. “Like some melodramatic Romeo and Juliette shit. It’s exhausting.”
Pris weaves around us and I let my anger flood me. “Emilia is your niece, Pricilla. This affects all of us. If she wants to meet you, you will be respectful.”
Pris spins around, her eyes wild. “You do realize that you’re not actually my father, right?”
She storms out, slamming the door behind her.
“I think it’s so romantic,” Tabby says with a wistful sigh in her voice. Zeke and I exchange a knowing glance. We’ve all done a tremendous amount of work to make sure Tabby didn’t have the childhood that rest of us did. But sometimes it made her blissfully unaware of the harsh truth of the real world.
We stand silent the kitchen slowly being filled with the smell of burning fruit.
Tabby eventually startles and yanks the pot off the stove.
“Dangit,” she dumps the whole pot in the sink with a clatter and tears fill her eyes.
“Go get ready for school,” I say taking her by the shoulders and pointing her toward the stairs. “I’ll deal with this.”
The stairs creak as she disappears to the second floor, leaving Zeke and me and alone in the kitchen. I gather up all the dishes and stack them next to the sink. My brother leans on the counter watching me.
“So, did you meet her?” he asks. “Your kid, I mean.”
