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Chapter 32 – Rip off the Damn Band-Aid
Vander
By the time I took Ruby home, it was early morning in Greece. I waited a couple of hours, then FaceTimed my parents. Equal parts shocked, dismayed, and excited, it would take them a few days to adjust to the news, but promising them a FaceTime meeting with Jace helped.
I needed to tell George. This was not news I wanted to text, so I waited until after school and asked him to FaceTime from a private location. Unfortunately, this was not an odd request. If we tried to talk around his mother, she often interfered. A few minutes later my phone buzzed.
“Yassou, Georgie mou,” I greeted him, smiling. He looked relaxed and ready for the weekend. His newest baseball cap spun backwards, his eyes alight with curiosity and pleasure.
“Hi, Dad. What’s up?”
I wished I could do this in person. I took a breath, meeting his eyes through the screen. I hated this distance. It was better than a text or a phone call, but I wished he was sitting in front of me where I could lay my hand along the back of his neck and touch his forehead to mine, where I could gauge his reaction more closely, where I could follow up throughout the day, checking in to make sure he was okay.
“I’d uh, prefer to do this in person, but this kind of news can’t wait-”
“Are you sick?” George cut me off and sat up straight
“No! No, Georgie. It’s good news, really good news, just surprising and unexpected.”
“Okay…”
“Do you remember why I told you I picked this place when I moved?”
“Yeah, your high school girlfriend or something?”
“University. But yes. What I didn’t tell you was that I met up with her quite by accident about 11 years ago. She had never moved on from what we had. She didn’t even date. We had a weekend together and I had the brilliant idea to let her go afterwards so she could find happiness and build a life without me. She thought I abandoned her. Two weeks later-”
“She didn’t date for, like, years?”
“Yeah, Georgie. Let me finish. This is difficult and I don’t want you getting the wrong idea about her, okay?”
“Sure, dad. Go ahead.”
“So, two weeks later, she slept with someone else. A few months later she found out she was pregnant. She thought the baby was his, turns out he’s mine.”
George’s face paled. “How do you know?”
“I went to her house to have dinner with her family and meet her son. I knew right away he was mine. He looks just like you.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded firmly. “We did a paternity test to confirm. There is no possibility that he’s not my son.”
“Huh,” George grunted. He stared off into space, processing the information, then met my eyes. “You missed his whole life so far.”
I winced. “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
Grief and pride filled my chest and threatened to overflow. Grief at the stark truth of his statement, and pride that he could think of my feelings in the face of the bomb I just dropped on him. I could do nothing but nod in that moment.
He continued. “So, I guess I have a brother?”
I smiled. “He could be your twin.”
I answered the rest of George’s questions about Jace and Ruby, told him about Yiayia, and his cousin, Alex. George had two sisters, and one much younger, little girl cousin. Having a brother and a cousin not that much younger than him was quite a shift.
“Do you still want me to come out for Thanksgiving?”
