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“Because my mother told me... Oh crap. Another one of her lies? I guess I never saw my real birth certificate.”
“I assure you I have a copy of it in my safe. Your mother must have doctored the one you saw. And, by the way, on the original one your legal name is Petra Feeney Harvey, but she seemed to see fit to obliterate Harvey from your identity. Fromwhat I gather, she went to some pretty ruthless lengths to erase me from your life.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Selfishness and greed, Petra. After you were born, and I didn’t expect her to keep working, she became bored and developed a serious gambling problem. She racked up debts all over the place and didn’t want to spend time with you at all. I hired the best nannies I could find and spent as much time with you as work would allow, but I had employees to worry about and this company to run.” He shakes his head. “I made some stupid mistakes.”
“I’m sure you were doing your best.” I feel the need to wipe the look of defeat off his handsome face. The more I’ve studied him, the more I realize I look like him, and I find that comforting.
“Thank you for your faith. Around the time you turned two, she was in so deep with debts to some terrible people, and I swore to her that was the last straw. I wanted full custody, and I would buy her a house somewhere far away. I was thinking Las Vegas might be her speed. I offered her a large yearly stipend. That seemed like a generous offer since she hadn’t exhibited any maternal instincts whatsoever. But…” he pauses. “She suddenly turned as possessive as a wild animal. She wanted full custody herself and swore she’d expose me as a child molester and ruin my reputation if I challenged her. She somehow produced her long-lost birth certificate proving that she was onlysixteen years oldwhen I took her in. Naturally, she’d told me that she was twenty-two, and I’d believed her. From what you tell me about the doctored certificate she showed you, however, the one she produced for herself was probably a clever fake.
“Anyway, so now I had to worry that I’d have to register as a sex offender and my company would collapse. Or worse, I’d end up in jail. I’d had a baby with someone who was still a teenager.
“I paid her debts to make her happy and bargained with her. She was to avoid certain illegal gambling establishments, and she would move out of my house and into a property I would pay for because by then I couldn’t stand her. And yet I still craved her. I am a weak man, apparently.” He hangs his head for a moment.
“She did not want to move out of my house, but when I said that wasn’t an option, she insisted on staying in Chicago where she claimed to have friends. I never met any of them though. I put the condo I bought in your name, but as a minor you needed it in the name of your custodial parent as well. I now understand that she sold the property and absconded with those funds a couple of years ago.
“She seemed like such a hideous influence on you. I continued to hire nannies who loved you, but only barely tolerated your mother, which meant they didn’t tend to stick around for long. I enrolled you in the best schools, but your mother’s vindictive nature continued. It was as if she needed revenge for me booting her out, and you were her pawn. Each time I demanded to see you, she would threaten to expose my sins all over again, and her stories would grow in magnitude about how I supposedly forced her into becoming my sex slave and repeatedly raped her in vicious ways. I assure you, Petra, I never raised a hand to her and treated her with utmost respect while we were living together. You were conceived in love. But the shame and fear of her grotesque stories and what they could do to me ate at me daily. I was afraid to get a court order to see you for fear of the lies she would spew to keep it from happening. I’d created my company from nothing with hard work and had loyal employees who depended on me to keep it afloat. I couldn’t let her ruin all of us.
“Finally, I made the ultimate heartbreaking bargain with her that I would stay away from you as she wished and pay for allyour expenses, so long as she got herself a job and made some contribution to your upbringing as well. She readily agreed to that and then promptly started leaving the country for extended trips. When I tried to see you at boarding school, I discovered she’d left explicit instructions that I was a terrible man who could not be trusted in your presence. I was not permitted access to you. She had them snowed, and I was not allowed on campus—even though they were all too happy to cash my checks. I’d have removed you and put you somewhere else if I could have gotten to you. Plus—I didn’t want to disrupt your life any more than necessary. The school assured me that you were happy and had friends there.
“It was a foolhardy decision to even show up at your graduation, but I figured they couldn’t do much after that.”
“I wish you’d shown yourself to me, Dad.” I try not to cry. “I wish I’d known.”
He sighs. “This probably explains a lot of my dilemma now. I longed for you, I wanted to be a part of your life, and so I wrote countless letters to you. Letters that went unanswered for so long, they broke my heart. I was sure she’d rubbed off on you and you’d learned to hate me. I should have fought harder to see you; I know that now. But as the letters I wrote went unanswered month after month and year after year while your mother assured me that you were getting them, I began to tell myself you were happier without me in your life.
“Did you know that your first word was da-da? It was one of the happiest times of my life when my precious baby girl called me that.”
At this, my father’s voice seems to give out, and he takes another gulp of water. I scoot closer to him on the settee and rub his back as he slumps over, looking dejected. His bloodshot eyes look haunted as he regards me and whispers, “I thought I’d lostyou forever, and it was all my fault. My priorities were all messed up. I made huge mistakes, and I made a deal with the devil.”
“It’s over now, Dad. Now we can spend time together and get to know each other better,” I say with as cheerful a voice as I can muster.
“That’s just it, sweetheart. We don’t have much time. I’m dying.”
A lump forms in my throat, and it takes me a moment to force out the word, “What?”
“When you were in Chicago and came to the house, I was at a Swiss clinic getting treatment for the cancer I’ve been dealing with for a year now. Nothing is working, and this was my last chance. I was non-responsive to the treatment.”
I hear my father’s words and at the same time I hear the guys downstairs cheering about whatever they’re watching on TV… oh yeah… football. I’m glad there is some joy in the world because my corner of it looks pretty bleak right at this moment. I finally have a father. Heisa nice man who loves me after all. And he’s dying.
Why is this happening? I can’t even see through my tears now.
My dad looks at me and asks, “Will you come back to Chicago with me? I want you to move in and spend what time I have left getting to know me. I need to know you too, Petra.”
I feel my face losing all its color as I consider leaving Weston and Callum for an extended period of time, and I frankly don’t like it a bit. On the other hand, how can I deny this man? It’s like it’s his dying wish. I can’t come up with a quick response, so I say nothing. I just wipe my face with the back of my hand and gape at him.
“You should also understand, Petra, that as my only heir, you will be inheriting a rather substantial estate. I have provided for Bing and the rest of my personal staff in my will, but thecompany and real estate will all go to you. I’m glad it’s all in your name and it’s ironclad now. There is no way your thieving mother can bleed you dry this time. And I’m also glad to see that you seem to be someone who’s worth it. Bing told me a lot about his meeting with you, and I can see that you’re intelligent and kind. Will you come home with me?”
Now the tears start pouring down in earnest. “Dad, I… Yes, I’ll come up to stay with you, but not all at once. Can I come up for a couple of days a week? I can take the shuttle or fly, and it won’t be too bad, but I just don’t feel right leaving Callum and Weston for an extended amount of time. We’ve discovered that we are all a lot happier when we’re together. We don’t like being separated.”
“You have a rather unique relationship then with your landlord and fellow roomer. What’s this all about? You’d prefer roommates over me after what I’ve just told you about making bad choices?”
“Oh, um. No. You need to understand about us. We’re not just three roommates. We’re in a serious relationship. I’m not choosing them over you, I’m trying to compromise.”
“You’re in a relationship withtwomen simultaneously?” His expression is skeptical.
I stiffen my spine and say, “Yes. I am in love with both of them, and they are as committed to each other as they are to me. Some people call this a throuple or a triad. I’m not particularly fond of labels, so I just call this us.”
