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I expect him to go sour on me, but perhaps I’m worrying too much.
“It’s a possibility. Did you read that in a book?”
“I read a lot of stuff while I was pregnant. A doctor recommended I have as little in the crib as possible.”
He kisses my forehead, then takes me by the hand and leads me to my bedroom.
“I promised you something tonight.”
“Are you going to tell me about your family?”
“I want to, but I’m afraid of what you’ll think. It wasn’t pretty.”
“Chase, I’m not going to judge you.”
“Please sit. This is going to take a while, and I’m not sure how much I can tell you before it tears me up.”
His words send a shiver through me as I sit and wonder how bad his childhood was. Mine was wonderful because my parents were so nurturing to Lexi, Emma, and me. I don’t know if I would be the person I am today without their love and support.
I watch Chase take a few deep breaths as if he’s steeling himself for what he has to say.
“My family is from Massachusetts,” he starts. “My father’s family was from Cape Cod and my mother from Boston. They met when my father was at Harvard Medical School. His family didn’t have much money, but my mother was well off, and that led to tension when they decided to marry.”
“That kind of stuff is so silly,” I comment.
Chase nods. “My father became an orthopedic surgeon and did quite well. I was born two years after they married, and my brother, Barrett, followed a year later.”
This was the first I was hearing about Chase having a brother. I couldn’t imagine life without my siblings.
“Things were great until my father had an accident while cutting a tree limb in the backyard with a saw. The saw slipped and cut my father’s thumb, severing the nerve. Without a working thumb, he couldn’t be a surgeon. I was fourteen at the time.”
“Your father couldn’t work after that?”
“He took on regular duties at the hospital, but his surgery days were over. They operated on his thumb three times, but the feeling never came back. After that, he started to drink and became abusive to us. My mother loved him so much and went into a deep depression. I made myself scarce because I didn’t want to be around it, and Barrett took the brunt of it when I wasn’t there.”
“He hit him?” My voice is small.
“No, he was verbally abusive, telling him he would never amount to much and that he was a loser. Even though Barrett was more athletically inclined than I was, he lived in my shadow academically because my father didn’t care. Academics were all that counted. When I was seventeen and Barrett, sixteen, my father committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a pistol. Barrett found him with his brains spattered against the wall.”
I gasp at how horrible it would be for a child to have to see. Reaching out, I touch Chase’s hand, but he pulls away.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“My mother lost it. She became catatonic, following the news that my father was dead. She went to a hospital for treatment, and we went to live with my mother’s parents, who we barely knew. They were stern and strict, and again, Barrett took the brunt because of his grades. He finally had enough and took off one night. I haven’t seen him since I was seventeen. He could be anywhere.”
“Did your mother get better?”
“No. She managed to open the window in her room one frigid night, stripped down until she was naked, and sat on her bed. By the time they got to her, she was hypothermic, and it was too late. She died a few hours later.”
“Oh, my God.” Tears began welling in my eyes.
His tone is still void of emotion as he stares ahead. “I went to college the next year and never looked back. My grandparents died, and my father’s parents were already gone, so we have no other family. Barrett and I are all that’s left. So you see why it’s important that I have you and CJ. You’re my family now.”
“You haven’t seen your brother for twenty years? Do you know if he’s even alive?”
“I don’t. He just disappeared. The only thing I know is that when he was nineteen, the trust fund my father had set up for him was tapped for fifty thousand dollars. It hasn’t been touched since then.”
“Do you have a trust fund also?”
