I reached out, placing my hand on the door handle. I was about to open it when Dare spoke. “Connor,” he said, reaching out and taking my free hand. He rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand as his amber eyes found mine, searching. “I love you.”
It was the first time he’d said it out loud. I’d felt it between us for so long, but bit my tongue…unwilling to be the first to utter those sacred words. Now that he finally had, it was like he’d released the floodgates.
“I love you too,” I whispered back, leaning across the cab to kiss him. “I’ll text or call you…after.”
Unable to put it off any longer, I opened the door and stepped out onto the driveway. Dare watched until I’d made it to the porch before he started backing out.
I didn’t knock, I just opened the door and quietly slipped in, closing it softly behind me. Already, I could hear the heated voices of my brother and my father coming from the living room.
“And you thought what, that you didn’t owe either one of us the fucking truth?” Calum was saying when I walked into the living room. Mom and Dad were sitting on the sofa, side by side. Dad’s arm was around Mom’s shoulders, both braced for the anger rolling off my brother in waves. The rage Calum felt was evident in his posture, in his tone, and his stormy eyes.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my voice wavering when I took in the emotion and despair on Mom’s face.
“Oh, you better sit down for this one, Connor,” Calum said, whirling on me with his arms spread. He seemed manic and almost frantic. “You gonna tell her or should I, since I’ve had to piece it together myself?”
Dad looked from Calum to me, a resigned sadness in his expression that took the breath from my lungs. I walked deeper into the room, sinking down into Dad’s recliner, my eyes moving from Calum to our parents. Mom wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and tried her best to smile for me, but the sadness and despair she was feeling must have been too much to overcome.
“You…have a half-sister, Connor,” Dad finally said, his words cutting through the tension in the room.
“What?” I asked, not comprehending what had just been said.
“Her name is Raina Parsons. She lives in Mahone Bay,” Dad continued; his eyes pained. “I…I didn’t know of her existence until recently.”
“And why’s that,Dad?” Calum demanded, tossing an old Polaroid down on the coffee table, his eyes flashing and angry. I leaned forward to peer at the picture, seeing a woman I didn’t recognize with brown hair holding two babies, one swaddled in pink and one swaddled in blue. Both babies had a head of thick dark hair.
“We thought there was only the one baby,” Mom spoke up, her voice breaking. “All those years ago…whensheshowed up, she only had the one baby.”
“What are you guys talking about?” I asked, looking from my parents to Calum in utter confusion.
“Sit down, Calum,” Dad ordered, his tone brooking no room for arguments. Calum obeyed, dropping down onto the window seat, putting as much distance between himself and them as he could muster. His eyes were still angry and unforgiving, but he’d clamped his mouth shut.
“I met your mother when she was playing at a bar in Halifax with her band. I fell for her instantly, even though I…even though I was with another woman at the time,” Dad said, sounding ashamed. “I knew I loved your mother almost instantly; but I had a difficult time separating myself from the girl I’d been seeing since high school. We’d grown up together as next-door neighbours, and Renee knew about all the crap with my old man. She…helped me through a lot of dark years. She had her troubles too. I felt obligated to stay with her, but I didn’t love her…not like I should have. It took meeting your mother to make me realize that.”
“Did you know about her?” I asked Mom, wondering how she could start something with a man who belonged to someone else.
“A little bit,” Mom admitted. “I knew that he’d been trying to break things off with her for a while, but…Renee was mentally unstable. Anytime he attempted to break up with her, she’d threatened suicide or try to harm herself.”
“She didn’t really have anybody else,” Dad cut in, massaging his temples. “Her father was just as much of a monster as mine, and she didn’t have any real friends outside of me. But when I realized how much I loved your mother, I knew I had to end things with Renee, for good. So, I went back to Shearwater Bay. Renee was always good at manipulating me, at knowing exactly what to say to get what she wanted. It’s why I’d been stuck in her clutches for so long. She begged for one more night, told me I’d never see her again if I’d give her just one more night. So…I made a trade. One more night, if it meant she’d leave your mother and me in peace.”
“While he was in Shearwater Bay, I found out I was pregnant,” Mom explained, her voice breaking a little. “We got married when I was five months pregnant, before I started showing. A few weeks after we married…I…miscarried the baby. It was the most heartbreaking thing we’d ever had to go through. It almost destroyed us completely. Then, one stormy night at the end of March…Renee showed up with a baby swaddled in a blue blanket. This baby would have been close to the same age as the baby we lost.”
My eyes went to Calum, widening, and I shook my head. His eyes were swirling with anger and betrayal. “I don’t understand.” I said, surprised to find my voice even worked at all.
“Renee told us she couldn’t care for the baby, that he’d have a better life with us. She gave us the blank birth certificate and told us to leave her off it. So we did,” Dad explained.
“I knew we were meant to have him,” Mom said, her eyes welling up with tears. “From the moment I first held him, I felt like he wasmine.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?” Calum demanded; his eyes tortured. I could only imagine how he was feeling.
“You areourson, regardless of how you came to be,” Mom said, her tone pleading for him to understand.
“If Raina hadn’t come into the picture, would you have ever told me the truth?” Calum asked, sounding every bit as betrayed as he felt. Our parents exchanged a loaded look with one another.
“I don’t know,” Dad admitted warily. “It doesn’t change anything.”
“Actually, Dad, it does change things a little,” Calum said sarcastically.
“Your real mother is the one who raised you,” Dad insisted, his expression darkening, daring Cal to challenge him.
