“Oh. I remember that.”
“You had a trade show in Japan that weekend.” Nathan’s dad had told him that after the fact, leaving his son searching the auditorium on opening night and coming up empty.
“I wish I could’ve been there.”
“Sure,” Nathan said and continued feeling jealous of these cottages. “I wish mum were here.”
“She couldn’t make it, but she sends her regards. She had a—”
“Not stepmum. My real mum.”
Silence hung in the air for a full minute until his dad pulled off to the side of the road. Nathan got very still. His dad turned and looked at him solemnly. Nathan felt a tightening in his chest, afraid of what was to come.
“Why’d you stop?” Nathan asked.
“Nathan, you’re almost an adult, although I think you’re mature enough now.” His dad gripped the steering wheel. “It’s time you know the truth about your mum.”
“Truth? She died when I was a few weeks old of an aneurysm. That’s what you told me.”
“I lied.” His dad looked away.
“What?” Every ounce of air was knocked out of Nathan. “Dad?”
“You were too young to know the real truth.”
The world spun on its side. It reminded him of the few times he’d gotten drunk, where the ground sloped until it took the place of the sky and he couldn’t find his balance.
“What’s the truth?” Nathan wanted to keep pushing, but was also afraid to find out more.
Sweat prickled at his dad’s temples and curled through his hair. “The truth is, your mum was a one-night stand. I haven’t seen her since we…made you.”
“What?!”
“Fifteen years ago today, there was a knock at my door and a baby on my doorstep. I had a DNA test conducted, and I am your biological father, but your mother…I have no idea.”
“You have no idea? How is that possible?” Nathan could feel his entire face get red like a comet breaking through the earth’s atmosphere. He was all fire and heat.
“I remember meeting this bird with a terrible Cockney accent at an Oasis concert about nine months before that.”
“Oasis?”
“The band.Wonderwall.‘Cause maybe, you’re gonna be the one—’”
“Stop singing. I know who Oasis is. Why are we talking about them?”
“That’s where I met your mother. We were on mushrooms and wound up shagging in the men’s toilet, but I never got her name.”
“Dad!” Nathan clapped a hand over his mouth. This had to be a joke. A terrible, terrible joke.
“I’m being honest with you.”
“What about the woman who died of an aneurysm?”
“You had asked about your real mother, and I needed a story.”
“What about the pictures you showed me?”
“They were of a girl I went to university with. She was the only redhead I knew.”
