The Fosters returned home once the show was over. Mark disappeared straight into the basement without saying a word. Liam and the kids stood around in fumbling silence for a few minutes before Walt admitted he was hungry. Liam heated up cans of soup in the kitchen for the kids, and a cup of tea for himself. It was a welcome distraction from the pain and anger colliding in his chest. He had gotten the last pieces of the Nathan puzzle.
“Mark, I heated up some soup,” Liam yelled down into the basement.
“I’m not hungry,” Mark yelled back.
Liam served his niece and nephew.
“So you had no idea?” Walt asked him.
Liam shook his head no. But maybe he should have. The lies started to make sense, but they were still lies. The love he felt for Nathan, their intimacy, was clouded over by falsehoods. Did he even know the real Nathan?
“I can’t fucking believe it,” Franny said over her bowl of uneaten soup.
“Don’t curse,” Liam said, though he shared her sentiment. “I’m sorry this came out on your opening night.”
She shrugged. She still kicked ass as Cinderella, though Liam couldn’t fully enjoy her performance since his mind was elsewhere.
“How are you guys doing?” he asked. “I can understand if you’re angry and hurt. Nathan spent a lot of time with us under false pretenses.”
“What would you and Dad have done if he told you the truth when he first came?” Franny asked. “Would you have let him stay here?”
“I don’t know.” He tried to picture Nathan as a stranger from halfway around the world ringing the doorbell and saying he was Mariel’s son. And then he thought about baby Nathan on his father’s doorstep all those years ago, how scared he must’ve been.
“I have an older brother. I think it’s cool,” Walt said.
“I do, too,” Franny said.
Liam squirmed in his seat. “He’s related to you, but I wouldn’t call him your brother.”
“Why not?” Walt asked.
“It’s complicated. You see the relationship your dad and I have with each other and your other uncles. There’s a bond. It’s not just blood.”
Walt shrugged. “Nathan was funny. I liked him.”
“He helped me with the bullies at school,” Franny said. “Didn’t my dad used to stick up for you when you got teased at school?”
“Most of my teasing came from your uncles.” But it was Mark who made them stop when their jokes got to be too much, or when roughhousing got too rough. It was Mark who would check on him at night, flicking his light switch on and off to see if he was still awake, or waking him in the process. It wasn’t as bad as an ice bath to the ass.
Liam shook the memory out of his head. It was made of lies.
“It’s going to be okay. It’ll get better. Everyone is in shock. But shock wears off. And soon enough, we’ll forget Nathan was ever in our lives.”
“I don’t want to forget.” Walt didn’t mince words. His assuredness, which he was too young to realize he had, rattled Liam.
“Yes you do!”
“Why?”
“Because.” Liam scratched at his beard. “Nathan isn’t a part of our family. He’s an interloper.”
“What’s an interloper?”
“It’s someone who doesn’t belong. An intruder.” Liam pressed his palms against the table, like a lawyer making his case. “Nathan intruded on our lives and did nothing but lie and spin stories. He made you lie for him, Walt.”
“I get it now. He wanted to know about his mum,” Walt said in between intentional slurps of his soup.
“So?” Liam swirled his spoon in his tea. “That doesn’t excuse what he did.”
