Take Me On

Chapter 66

West

It’s close to midnight and I slam the back door to the kitchen. My mother spins. Her cell phone is tight to her ear and her eyes are wide and puffy. “He’s here.”

Mom pushes a button and lowers the phone. I’ve spent hours driving, thinking about my mother: her asking me continually to use a napkin at the dinner table, the glares when I’d wear a hat backward at a charity event, teaching which fork to use at a dinner party, the countless tux ties she’d undone and done again. “You lied.”

“I didn’t think Denny would tell you.”

“For eighteen years I’ve thought I was a failure. I thought I was the reason Colleen died, but I was never going to be a match to begin with.”

Her hand flashes to her heart. “They said there might be a slim hope, so I did hope, and it gave your father hope, and he was able to see past my mistake and love you because you were going to be our answer.”

I throw my arms out. “And then he hated me once I failed!”

“That’s not true.” Dad walks into the kitchen.

Dark hair, dark eyes and nothing like me. “Is it a relief I’m not yours? You must have been dying to tell me since when, fifth grade?”

Dad loosens the tie stuck at his throat. “You’re my son. My son. I never wanted you to know.”

I yank the picture out of my back pocket and slam it on the island. “I’m not your son.”

The moment I hit the hallway, I turn. “I gave up Haley because of you. I gave up the one person who meant a thing to me.”

Mom comes up behind Dad and sets a hand on his shoulder. I don’t understand the two of them. They hurt each other, betray each other, lie and cheat and yet they still act like they are in love.

Dad covers her hand with his. “You’re wrong about Haley. You didn’t give her up because of me. You gave her up to help you. To help her.”

I chuckle. The son of a bitch has actually said something right. “True, but if it wasn’t for you trying to control me, I wouldn’t have been faced with a choice between living in hell without her or being a bastard for keeping her from her dreams.”

“Let’s sit,” he says. “Let your mom and I explain.”

I don’t say no. Instead I walk away.