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Chapter 3: The Secrets One Keep
Justin had been thinking about Brian since he had ended that call with him about an hour ago, but he still hadn’t got the courage to show up at that house. He couldn’t go there. He had never gone there, Brian had never wanted him to go there, and even though now Joan is dead, he didn’t feel right going there, and he wouldn’t. He would hold down the fort here.
“Daddy!” Gemma shouted as she exited the building.
“Hey Gemma, did you have fun today?” he asked as he gave her a hug.
“I did daddy, where’s Brian?” she asked as she looked around for her other father.
“Sweetheart, I need to have a very important conversation with you okay, something happened to your father’s mother today and it might make him sad.”
“Something happened to Gramma Debbie?” she asked almost panicked.
Justin couldn’t help but smile when she thought of Deb as his husband’s mother, because well she really was when it mattered.
“No sweetheart Debbie is fine, do you remember your father talking about Joan?”
“She’s mean.”
“Exactly, but something happened to her today and she died. Do you remember what I told you happens if someone you love dies?”
“You told me that they go to heaven, but Daddy told me that when Joan died she was going to burn in hell.” she smiled.
“Of course he told you that. How about we go and have some ice cream, and then we’ll pick up something special for dinner tonight?”
“Yay,” she shouted gleefully as she ran for the car.
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Brian didn’t know how long he had been sitting there on the bed, but he heard when his sister had entered the house.
“Brian!” he heard her shouting as she came up the stairs.
“In here Claire” he told her putting the lid on the box.
“I made the arrangements, all they need is for you to come in the morning and bring the dress. Did you find anything, if you can’t find anything suitable they said to let them know and maybe they can help us provide something,” she said entering the room.
She had noticed how quiet Brian seemed to be, and then she saw the box on the bed.
“What are you doing with this? These are mom’s things, you were to never open this box!” she shouted trying to get a hold of the box and its contents.
“Why is that Claire? What do you know about the letters in this box?” he shouted.
“Nothing. Letters, what are you talking about I don’t know anything about any letters.” she stammered.
“You see I want to believe you so much Claire, but then I realize who I’m talking to and then I know that I can’t, so I will ask you again, what do you know of the letters in this box?”
“Nothing, I mean I looked in there once, and I looked at the photo and mom got so mad, she told me to never go back in there. I like the photo though. It had Aunt Shara on it.
“Aunt Shara? Who the fuck is Aunt Shara?” he asked
“Well you’ve seen her so you know she’s not our real aunt, but she use to come around here a lot when we were younger. She and mom were good friends, and I remember I use to play out back with her son Jamal on the swing set, but then something happened, and she was never around again. Sometimes mom would meet her at a diner a few hours from here, but she told me not to tell anyone.”
“What photo?”
“What?” she asked confused.
“You said that you use to look at a photo of her, what photo are you talking about?”
“Brian what does any of that have to do with what is going on right now, we have to bury her soon, and you’re going through her things. This can wait until later….”
“What picture!” Brian shouted.
Claire hated her brother sometimes. He tried to act like he was nothing like their father but sometimes he was just as evil as he ever was They were ways as a sister that she knew that she had deeply betrayed him, but they were so many things that if he just knew the truth, it would make things far worse than he could ever imagine.
“Don’t worry about what picture. You need to stay out of mom’s things!” She shouted slamming the top of the box closed.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he asked trying to grab it back.
“Brian, mom never wanted you to see that box, and you need to leave it be.”
“Leave it be. Leave it be. Oh yes, I’m definitely going to leave it be now that you told me too. I”m going home, you find something to bury your mother in.” he told her leaving the room.
Claire kept her mouth shut and slowly watched him leave. She listened for the car to crank up, and when she finally heard him leaving she knew that she could take a deep breath. It was happening. Everything was happening and she was the one who was going to have to deal with the aftermath. Joan and Jack were now resting comfortably in their graves, and she was the one who was going to have to deal with Brian when he found out the truth. She had let so many things happen to her brother, she was the reason for so many things, but this, this was on them and it wasn’t fair. One thing that she had always loved about her brother and she never told him was that he could always bounce back from something. He was the strongest person she’d ever known, but this-this was something that would surely break him.
She remembered when she found out that Shara wasn’t the nice person that she thought she was……..
Flashback
“Mom, you will not believe who was outside when I got here!” Claire shouted as she enters the house.
It was easy for her to find her mother. She was in her new favorite spot, having a glass o wine like she always was when she got home from school.
“Look, mom, it’s on Shara, she came although the way from Chicago, and look she brought me a present!” she shouted holding up the bag she held in her hand.
‘Thank her and get upstairs.” Joan told her.
“I wanna hear about the move,” Claire whined.
“Get upstairs!” she shouted spilling the glass of wine she had been sipping.
“Yes, mother.” Claire stomped up the stairs.
“Go into the nursery and watch your brother.” her mother added once she passed her.
She had thought that her mother would have been happy to see her Aunt Shara. She really had turned into a mean woman since she had left, but she and her dad had. She thought that when she walked in with her that she would’ve been as happy to see her as she was, but it was far from it. She wished that she would have been able to go in her own room, that way she could listen to the conversation real good, she wouldn’t be able to hear anything in the nursery with Brian.
When she walked in her brother’s room he was standing up in the crib. He was getting bigger and bigger every day. She was eight, and she was going to be the best big sister ever. He was good at standing, but he couldn’t walk yet. She was glad that he wasn’t the type of kid to try and climb out of the crib.
She was good at lifting him out of his crib, but right when she got him she noticed that her mother would have never heard if he cried out because she had taken the wrong end of the monitor downstairs she was going to be able to hear what was going on downstairs. She turned up the volume and did her best to listen to the two women downstairs.
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“What are you doing here Shara?” Joan asked.
“I’ve made a mistake Joan, I’ve come for my son.”
Joan nearly choked on her wine. It dribbled down her mouth as she sat the glass down.
“I’m sorry you want your what back?”
“I know that what i did was horrible, and you stepped up in a role that no one would have expected of you, and i thank you for that.”
“You thank me. I didn’t have much off a choice did I? I come home and here you are with that sad little face, and your sad little story playing on the ounce of decency that remained in my heart for you.”
“How many times do i have to say i’m sorry?”
“What are you sorry for? Sleeping with my husband, or leaving me behind?” she demanded.
“I didn’t leave you behind. The plan was for you to leave him, after he hit you the first time. You were supposed to leave him, take Claire and get out!”
“How was i supposed to do that after what you did? You slept with him, left him, and left that poor child on the doorstep like an afterthought. You are horrible! You don’t get to come and take him back, he’s mine!
“He’s not! He’s mine. I didn’t sign any papers, this was an agreement that we made together, there was no legal adoption. There didn’t have to be i left him with his father, and now i’ve come to take him home where he belongs.”
“Where he belongs? Really? What does Isaac have to say about this?” Joan asked already knowing.
“Isaac and I have decided that we should take a break for awhile. We’re not getting a divorce or anything, but I’m going to be staying with my mother, and i told her what happened and what I did, and she told me that I-----
“Let me finish that statement for you. When you told your mother, a pastor’s wife what you had done she couldn’t even look at you. When she decided to have mercy on your and your other children and let you in, she told you that if you came you best have Brian or not come at all? Am i right?”
“Please Joan, I”m sorry. There’s not a day that doesn’t go by that i don’t think of him.”
“You lie. All you and Jack did were think of yourselves. You thought that he’d be with you, and that you’d live happily ever after but you were wrong. Then you thought that you would keep things going with your husband, but Brian couldn’t stick around. He would be constant reminder, he was God shaming you for your sins, but you didn’t realize what a precious gift you had in him. When i told Jack I wanted to have another baby, he had me put on my finest dress, took me out to dinner, and then he told me I don’t wanna have another fucking kid! That was it for me, Claire was it, but you left him. I’ll do what i can to protect him from my monster of a husband, and a bitch like you! Now get the hell outta my house!” she shouted getting in her face.
END FLASHBACK
That was the day that she learned that her little brother was different. She never loved him any differently, and she kept everyone’s secret. She took the picture from her pocket, she had done good to distract him while she pulled it from the back of the box. It looked just as she remembered. It was a picture of her Aunt Shara, her dad, and two babies. She knew one was Brian, and she had no clue what happened to the other one. She just felt so tired, and sad, and for once it was just about her mother.
End Notes: Sorry about the last entry. I thought this would be out but the chapter just got away from me. I hope it was worth the wait. More mystery, do you any of you get it yet? I promise there with be Brian and Justin moments in this, I just had to set up a few things. I’d love your thoughts.
