Chapter 6 - My Father’s Other Son
I read the sentence five times.
Terrence Cole is your brother.
My brain rejected it each time.
“No.”
Aaron said nothing.
I looked up.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You knew?”
“Since Thursday.”
I stood so fast the chair rolled backward.
“And you didn’t call me?”
“Vanessa wanted to tell you herself.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Of course she did.”
I grabbed the letter.
My father’s words blurred as I kept reading.
He wrote that in 1981, before he married my mother, he had a relationship with a woman named Denise Cole.
Terrence’s mother.
She became pregnant.
My father claimed he had offered support, but Denise refused marriage and later moved away.
Years later, after my father had married my mother and built his business, Denise returned to Baltimore.
Terrence was already a teenager.
My father quietly began helping them.
He paid school expenses.
He helped Denise buy the Layton property.
He never told my mother.
He never told me.
He never told Devin.
Then came a paragraph that made my hands shake.
Terrence knows I am his father.
He has known since he was eighteen.
I sat back down.
“So Terrence knew me?”
Aaron nodded.
“At my wedding?”
“Yes.”
“He stood there knowing he was my brother?”
“Yes.”
“Vanessa knew?”
“Not then.”
I looked at him.
“When did she find out?”
“Two years ago.”
Exactly when Alicia said Vanessa had reconnected with Terrence.
I laughed quietly.
It finally fit.
Not cleanly.
Not comfortably.
But pieces were locking into place.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
Aaron hesitated.
“Your father asked Terrence never to tell you.”
“He’s dead.”
“I know.”
“So why protect the promise?”
“Because your mother doesn’t know.”
I froze.
Mom.
My mother had adored my father.
She still wore her wedding ring.
Still spoke about him as if he might walk through the door carrying groceries.
The truth would shatter her.
I pressed both hands against my face.
Then something occurred to me.
“Why did Grandma think Terrence kissed Vanessa?”
Aaron shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
I stood.
“I’m going to Layton.”
“I’ll come.”
“No.”
“Malcolm.”
“No more witnesses. No more people explaining my life to me.”
I drove across town.
Twenty-eight Layton looked ordinary.
Red brick.
White trim.
A basketball hoop over the garage.
A bicycle on the lawn.
Nothing about it looked capable of holding so many secrets.
I knocked.
A girl opened the door.
She was thin, with long braids and huge brown eyes.
“Nia?”
She nodded.
“You’re Uncle Malcolm.”
I stopped.
She knew me.
Before I could ask, Terrence appeared behind her.
He looked nothing like the man from my wedding photo.
Cancer had carved him down.
His cheeks were hollow.
His shoulders narrow.
But I recognized the eyes.
My father’s eyes.
My eyes.
“Come in,” he said.
I stepped inside.
Nia went upstairs.
Terrence and I stood facing each other.
For once, I didn’t know what to say.
He did.
“I’m sorry.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Everybody is.”
He nodded.
“I deserve that.”
“You’re my brother.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Twenty-four years.”
I stared at him.
“You watched me grow up?”
“From a distance.”
“You came to my wedding.”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Dad invited me.”
The word Dad made my stomach twist.
“He called him Dad?”
“Only privately.”
I stepped closer.
“Did you love Vanessa?”
Terrence looked surprised.
“A long time ago.”
“Did you sleep with her Thursday?”
“No.”
“Did you kiss her?”
He sighed.
“I kissed her cheek when she left.”
“Grandma saw something different.”
“She was across the street.”
I watched him.
“Are you still in love with Vanessa?”
“No.”
“Was she still in love with you?”
“No.”
He answered too quickly.
I noticed.
“So there was something.”
He sat slowly.
“Malcolm, Vanessa came back into my life because of Nia.”
“And because she discovered you were my brother.”
“Yes.”
“Why hide it?”
“Because I asked her.”
“Why?”
Terrence looked toward the stairs.
“Because the truth is bigger than me.”
I laughed.
“It always is.”
He reached for a glass of water.
His hand trembled badly.
I noticed a hospital bracelet around his wrist.
The anger in me shifted.
Still there.
But complicated.
“Why is Devin involved?”
“Because he’s Nia’s biological father.”
“I know.”
Terrence nodded.
“Alicia told him after my first health scare.”
“You hate him?”
Terrence smiled sadly.
“I tried.”
That answer surprised me.
“He didn’t know Alicia was married.”
“No.”
“And he didn’t know about Nia.”
“No.”
“So who do you hate?”
Terrence stared at the floor.
“Myself, mostly.”
I sat across from him.
“You raised another man’s daughter.”
“She’s my daughter.”
The way he said it stopped me.
Not defensive.
Certain.
“She knows?”
“That I’m not biological?”
“Yes.”
“She found out Thursday.”
“And Vanessa came to help.”
“Yes.”
“Then where did Vanessa go after midnight?”
Terrence’s face changed.
“You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
He leaned back.
“She found your father’s box.”
“I saw it.”
“No.”
Terrence shook his head.
“Not that box.”
I stared at him.
“There was another one.”
“What was inside?”
His eyes met mine.
“Evidence.”
“Of what?”
He swallowed.
“That your father didn’t just hide me.”
A cold feeling spread through my chest.
“He hid what happened to your mother.”
I stared at him.
“What happened?”
Terrence’s voice dropped.
“She didn’t die in a car accident.”
My blood ran cold.
Because that was exactly what my father had always told us.
Terrence reached into a drawer.
He pulled out an old photograph.
Denise Cole stood beside my father.
May you like
And beside them was someone else.
My mother.
