“He is very lucky to have a sister as generous as you,” Anja said, making sure to keep her voice quiet as well. “Of course it’s okay.”
We hadn’t told Max anything yet, and I didn’t know when we planned to. Not only was my father a high-ranking politician with a reputation to uphold, but he was also up for reelection this year. If news came out that he had fathered a child with a prostitute seven years ago, his chances of reelection—or any kind of continued future in politics—would likely be destroyed.
I pushed all thoughts of my father out of my head and forced a smile. I was here to get to know Max. To get to know my brother. Nothing was more important to me in this moment.
Putting down the rest of the toys, I looked down at Max and took a deep breath.
“I’m Tori,” I said.
“I’m Max,” he said seriously, holding out a small hand.
I shook it, thinking how little it was compared to mine.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Max.” I gestured at the bags. “I brought you some things to play with. Your mom said you can keep them if you want.”
His eyes widened. “All of them?”
“Say thank you, Max,” Anja scolded gently, putting a hand on her son’s shoulders.
“Thank you!” he said, his eyes darting around at the piles of toys and games.
I felt a surge of joy.
“There’s a really fun playroom down the hall,” I told him. “Do you want to help me take these toys there so we can open them and play?”
“Sure!” he said, his eagerness making me laugh.
“Great,” I said. “Let’s get to it.”
Together, we gathered up all the bags and headed to the playroom. Just as we had managed to pry open a bucket of Legos, Stefan came into the room to join us. He frowned a little as he took in the amount of brand new toys surrounding us, but I saw a smile playing on his lips and when he caught my eye, he gave me a wink.
While Anja and Stefan supervised, Max and I settled down on the floor mats and began building a city of Legos for the remote-control dinosaur to plow through. It soon became clear that Max was both creative and curious. He reminded me a lot of myself at that age.
The four of us played all afternoon, cycling through the toys one by one, playing the games we liked and setting aside the ones that were too easy. Max was quick to learn, and I felt a surge of pride. After a few hours, Stefan stepped out to make a work call and Anja settled into a chair with her e-reader, leaving me to bond with Max by myself.
“I heard you went to the zoo recently,” I said. We were rebuilding the Lego city after it had gotten clobbered by the lumbering triceratops. “That’s pretty cool.”
“Yeah,” Max said, his head bouncing up and down in an enthusiastic nod. “We saw ALL the animals.”
“All of them? Wow.” I couldn’t help grinning. “What was the biggest animal you saw?”
He thought about it for a moment. “You mean the tallest or the heaviest?”
“How about the heaviest?”
“The elephants,” he said, very sure of himself. “The giraffes were the tallest, though.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “What was the smallest animal you got to see?”
That took a little longer to figure out, but I could see him thinking hard, his tongue sticking out of one side of his mouth. “The spiders,” he finally said. “But we saw some pretty big spiders too.”
“Gross,” I said with a shiver, eliciting a laugh from him. “So, do you think you liked the big animals or the little animals best?”
“I likeallanimals,” he said with a shrug. “Big and small.”
My heart clenched with love for him. He was so charming.
How could my father have this beautiful, brilliant child and not even know about him? He’d done some undeniably selfish things in his life, but this was seriously next-level.
