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It was a good thing that all four of us were sitting down.
All the blood seemed to have drained from my body. I was expecting to be told Milla was our half-sister but the truth was worse.
“Who’s our real father, then?” I asked, needing to know what this revelation meant for me and my brothers.
Dad stayed quiet.
“Tell us,” Corey demanded, his voice growing louder.
Dad gazed at each one of us with a sorrowful expression on his lined face. “I don’t know.”
“What?” Caleb breathed. “Tell me you’re making shit up. This isn’t funny.”
Dad let out a heavy breath. “I tried to find the answer to that question but it led to a more heartbreaking truth.”
“We never saw Mom being close with any guy,” said Corey. “You’re saying there was someone else she slept with? Who was it? You must have some idea. She was your fucking wife!”
Dad blinked rapidly, like he was trying to hold back his tears.
His revelations shocked me to such an extent that I couldn’t feel any emotion right now. Both my mind and body felt numb.
“I wish I didn’t have to speak about your mother this way,” Dad said in an apologetic tone. “But, it’s time. You need to know what happened back then before you hurt Milla again. You’ve made her suffer enough. The three of you went through hell as well after she left. You’ve all got to face your parents’ pasts to heal your present.”
“Just tell us what happened,” I said in an oddly calm-sounding voice.
“I was in love with Eva since we were in high school,” said Dad, looking over at Milla. A soft smile came over his lips as he reminisced. “We were a couple all through our senior year. Now, you need to understand that Eva didn’t come from a poor family. Her father was a respected businessman in Silverlake, however, he lost everything he had after trusting his estate management to a fraudulent manager.”
He paused and took a sip of water from the glass by his bedside.
“He racked up a huge amount of debt trying to build back his finances but before he could get anywhere, he was murdered,” Dad said in a grim tone. “Fearing for their lives, Eva’s mother ran away with her daughter. We stayed in touch though.”
“Mom never told me about my grandparents,” Milla said in a low voice. “She insisted she grew up an orphan.”
“Eva was scared to let anyone know of her existence,” said Dad. “She lied to protect you. Her father’s murder haunted her. She broke all ties with her past. I was the only person she couldn’t leave behind.”
“If you guys were so close, why didn’t you marry her?” Caleb asked. He didn’t sound angry. There was a hint of curiosity in his voice now.
“It was about the time I graduated from college,” said Dad in a suddenly angry voice. “My father introduced me to Victoria, your mother.” He glanced at the three of us. “He said she was interested in marrying me.”
“Why?” I asked.
“She said she liked me since high school but couldn’t approach me because of Eva,” said Dad. “Victoria didn’t know of my continuing relationship with Eva. She wanted to marry me and invest in the small construction firm I’d opened.”
His breathing turned harsh and heavy. “I declined, of course, but Victoria was relentless in her pursuit. She refused to back down and take my rejection. Eventually, she had me followed and found out about Eva.”
His fingers grabbed onto the sheets covering his legs and squeezed his eyes shut. “She threatened to expose Eva’s identity if I didn’t agree to marry her. She blackmailed me into a marriage.”
Milla’s eyes filled with tears again. “That’s why you left Mom?”
Brian gave a nod. “I was scared. Back then, I wasn’t as influential as I am now. I wasn’t strong enough to protect her. That’s why I agreed to marry Victoria.”
Dad looked at me and my brothers, trying to gauge our reactions.
Did he expect us to start arguing now? Did he want us to condemn him for marrying our mother? Was he waiting for the curses to fall out of our lips?
Corey, Caleb, and I stayed silent.
What could we say anyway? He was telling a tale of the past when the four of us weren’t even brought into the world yet.
