“What? You’ve lied to me my whole life. What other skeletons are going to come out of the closet?”
“None.” His father lifted his chin, leveling Grant with a serious stare. “Keeping the truth from you is on me. I didn’t want a goddamn test to be the reason I lost you again. We were going to tell you when you turned eighteen, but you were so angry, and all you wanted was to get the hell off the island.” His gaze softened. “I was afraid if we told you, I’d never see you again. If you want to do a paternity test, we’ll do it. But regardless of the outcome, you will always be my son.”
Fuck. How did they get here?
“And don’t you ever insinuate that I’ve been unfaithful to your mother or our family. I haven’t been with another woman since the day I first laid eyes on your mother, and I wanted you kids with me every night, but I thought it was better to disrupt your lives as little as possible. You didn’t need to be one of those kids that bounced from house to house.” His father’s tone escalated. “I never asked you to fake anything. The reason we continued to be seen as a family wasn’t to put on some show for other people.” He fisted his hands. “I was holding on to my family by a tenuous thread. We had always had dinner at the resort a few times each week. That was normal for us, and I was thrilled to have that time with my children and my wife, who I missed every damn minute we were apart. But I made it to every sporting event, every school function. There was never a time that I didn’t want more of you in my life.” His eyes dampened. “Who do you think sent Roddy down to the beach to take care of you when you stormed off at ten years old? Who do you think filled the shelves in that bungalow with your favorite books and stocked the refrigerator with your favorite foods?” He banged his fist against his chest. “I did that. I’m your father. I love you. But I couldn’t be the one to go after you, because you were running away from me when I came to pick you up for breakfast that morning. But make no mistake that I was there for you and I have never given up on you. For Christ’s sake, Grant. Who do you think installed the safety rails in your bathroom?”
A lump swelled in Grant’s throat, rendering him unable to speak as he processed all that his father had said.
“And you’re right, son. I did try to tell you what to do. I tried to forbid you from joining the military because I had already lost you emotionally, and all I could think about was that I might lose you for good. And when we got that call that you’d been injured by an IED…” He gritted his teeth, blinking away tears. “You can call me selfish, and you can call me a lousy father, but when we walked into that hospital room and I saw the boy who I had spent a lifetime trying to protect lying there without half his leg and angrier than I’d ever seen anyone in my entire life, there was no way in hell I was going to support you going back to a company that had almost gotten you killed. And yes, I wanted you to be part of the family business, because you’re my son, and like it or not, I always want you close by.”
He swiped angrily at his eyes as Grant struggled against his own tears, and his mother openly cried.
“But now I see what I was too blinded by love and sorrow to see before,” his father said. “You made it crystal clear to us in the hospital that you didn’t want to talk about losing your leg. And when you stayed away for a year, demanding to go through rehab by yourself, it just about killed us. I had to pay a candy striper just to get weekly updates on how you were doing. I couldn’t understand why you chose to go through that alone, but now I do. Because now I see a son who grew up thinking I was pushing him away, and that’s on me. I see a grown man fighting for parental support of his dreams, when he shouldn’t have to fight to have that from his parents. The fact that I put you in that position sickens me.” His father squared his shoulders and stepped closer. “I can’t change the past, but if you can forgive me, I promise I will do everything within my power to do a better job as your father. I will ask the hard questions and try to be a better listener, because I want to know what you are going through. And even though it terrifies me, I will support you going wherever and doing whatever you’d like, because I am so damn proud of you, Grant. With all the miscommunication between us, it’s a wonder how you turned out to be such an incredible man.”
Grant opened his mouth to speak, but he was too overwhelmed. He grabbed his face with both hands and groaned. “Fuck.” Grant dropped his hands, his head spinning. “I can’t believe how far off the mark I was with your separation and everything else.”
“You weren’t off the mark,” he said. “We didn’t do a good job of communicating what was going on.”
“You couldn’t have known any of this,” his mother said. “We thought the less we said about the separation and the more we tried to act normal, the better it would be for you kids.”
“We were far from normal, Mom,” Grant said sadly.
“What do you want to do, Grant?” his father asked.
“I honestly don’t know.” Grant shook his head. “Start over? Go outside and come back in and hope you don’t tell me that you may not be my father?” His levity fell flat. “Does everyone else know why you separated?”
“No,” his father said. “And I’d like to keep it that way, unless you feel it’s important that they know. But I will talk with them about our living arrangements, and that sort of thing, so they understand the reasons behind it.”
“But if you two are so in love, why don’t you live together now? There are no kids at home. Jules and I are new, but I want her with me every second.”
His parents shared a secret smile, and his father said, “Should we tell him?”
“I think we have to,” his mother said.
“We do live together. We spend every night in each other’s arms, but we like having two houses. It gives us twice as many rooms to explore.” His father winked.
“For the love of God, please stop.” Grant waved his hand, smiling despite his frustration. “I’m sorry I asked.”
“Where do we go from here, son?” his father asked.
“I don’t know. You’ve cleared up so much, which makes me feel better about a lot of things, but now I have no clue who I am.”
“You’re the same man you’ve always been,” his father said sternly.
“I’m not the same man I was two years ago, much less who I was when I walked in here today.” Grant paced. “I’m sick of being frustrated and angry. I want to forgive everything and start over, but I’m at a loss, and I need time to think.”
“We understand,” his father said.
He looked at his parents’ sorrowful gazes, and his chest constricted. “I’m not innocent in this. I’ve been lying to you, too. To everyone except Jules, really. I’m almost deaf in my left ear from the explosion that took my leg. That’s why I can’t go back to a company like Darkbird. Half the time I can’t hear what you say to me when you hug me, Mom.”
The blood drained from his father’s face.
“My poor baby,” his mother said, reaching up to touch his face. She slid her hand to his ear, tears spilling from her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell us?”