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Bree took a drink from her water to take care of her dry throat. Her sisters all sat stock-still, listening closely to each word their mother said. Joan was finally giving them the answers they all been craving for, ever since their father had left them.
“After a while, I ehm, noticed things… you know, him coming home late. Staying away all night. We fought all the time.”
Joan shook her head and sought Bree’s eyes across the table. “I got pregnant with Cait, even though I knew in my heart that something wasn’t right between us. That’s why I reacted the way I did. And I’m sorry, Bree. Thinking back to our conversations…. I shouldn’t have said all the things I did.”
Bree stood from her chair and hugged her mom. She gave Joan a kiss on her cheek. “It’s okay. I’m so glad you see that now. And I want you to know that we’re here for you. No matter what you tell us about the past, okay? We love you.”
“Yeah, we love you, Mom,” Fianna said.
Gwenn, Kera and Cait held still and waited the rest of Joan’s story out.
Bree took her seat next to Declan, who laid his hand on her thigh under the table. He squeezed once, and she smiled up at him. She was so grateful he was here with her tonight. She couldn’t imagine going through this night without her best friend. Without the love of her life.
Declan had always known every single thing there was to know about her. She needed him to hear this part of her life too.
“I got this call one day when I was eight months pregnant with Cait… a woman named Brenda shouted and called me every name she could think of… ‘home wrecker’, ‘whore’…”
Joan cringed at the last word.
“I should have suspected something earlier. Asked questions. Or, I don’t know, followed him around. I knew in my gut Rob was unfaithful. But I never expected that someone would call my home to call me out for being ‘the other woman’.”
“What an asshole,” Gwenn said. Bree gave a small smile and watched how her mother slumped in her seat.
“It broke my heart. But I was eighteen years old, had no family left and was pregnant with my first child. And I was so in love with Rob. That man could walk the moon in my eyes. He was the one who took care of me. Sure, he lived in my house, but he also provided for me.
“I came home from therapy shopping after that phone call from Brenda, and he had a surprise for me. He showed me the nursery he’d made that day. He’d painted the room, laid out a nice fluffy carpet, Cait’s name on the wall, surrounded by smiling giraffes… everything.”
Bree swiped her tears from her cheeks. She witnessed how Cait cried at the other side of the table. She’d seen her sister only cry on maybe three other occasions.
“In that moment, I knew I could never leave him. He was my family. He would be such a loving father. How could I deny my child their father? So I said nothing about the phone call. And although I suspected Rob knew Brenda had called me, he never brought it up.”
“Mom… so you knew all along about Brenda?” Kera said.
“Yes. After having Cait, things were good between your father and I. I got pregnant with Kera and I really thought that by that time, Rob had left Brenda. He’d been around for everything. Cait’s first tooth, her first steps…”
Joan wiped a tear and held Cait’s eye. “Your first word was da-da.”
Cait took a napkin from the table and wiped her nose. Tears tumbled down her cheeks.
“But the pink cloud I was on turned dark real soon after I told Rob I was pregnant again. He said he was happy, but I was losing him. I felt it to my bones. He came home one day with lipstick behind his ear. I guess Brenda was making a point by then, she was still in the game. Except it wasn’t a game to me. Brenda might think because Rob married her, that she was the love of his life and I was a mere distraction. But it wasn’t like that.”
Bree sighed and traced the tablecloth with her finger. She’d never suspected her mom to be the other woman. Sure, they knew her parents had their up and downs. But this was shocking. Finding out that everything she knew about her childhood had been a lie, stung.
Declan traced her cheek with his thumb. She wasn’t aware she’d been crying. He kissed her cheek, and she closed her eyes. His touch soothed her. Declan always felt like home to her. Home.
She narrowed her eyes at the thought of her childhood home. What a farce it all had been. She turned towards her mother when she continued her story.
“I kicked him out of my house. It was the first time I confronted Rob about this. He tried to tell me some story about being overwhelmed with the baby news that he had a one-night-stand with some girl he’d met at a bar. But when I threw Brenda in his face, he’d stopped lying. He finally told me he’d been married to Brenda ever since he was eighteen. She was his high school sweetheart, and he’d gotten her pregnant. Brenda’s parents made them marry, and he said I was a breath of fresh air to him.”
“But after that, you still stayed with him?” Cait said in a high-pitched voice like she couldn’t believe it. Just like Bree couldn’t believe it either.
“You even had Fianna, Bree, and Gwenn together?” Cait crossed her arms in front of her chest and narrowed her eyes.
“I told you, you girls were going to judge me. And you’re right to do so. Even though I wouldn’t ever change having you girls, it’s true that I regret some of my actions. I should have stayed strong when I’d kicked him out the first time. But he always knew how to draw me back in.
“He came along with gifts for you girls, helped me out when I was so tired of getting little to no sleep because Kera was teething. I didn’t know what to do, so I called him for help. I was all alone and at my wits' end.”
Bree’s heart broke for her mother. She couldn’t imagine going through her own pregnancy alone and even raising five girls on her own. She placed her hand on her abdomen and prayed that the twins were still safe and sound swimming together in her belly. Declan gave her a reassuring squeeze on her thigh.
