“You don’t understand,” she pleaded.
“What don’t I understand? That you left a six-year-old boy who adored his mother with the words, ‘I’ll be back soon’ and never to return.” She opened her mouth, but I didn’t give her a chance to speak. “Not a birthday card, a Christmas present, not even a call to apologize for not keeping your promise. You just moved on.”
“Grant,” she said, looking on the verge of tears, but I didn’t buy it.
“Don’t bother. I didn’t come here to mess up your perfect life. I came to see what meant so much to you that you left my father brokenhearted and abandoned your son. Then again, you replaced me. Didn’t you?”
She didn’t get a chance to answer as the door swung open, and first one blond head then a second appeared in the doorway. They shared many features of our mother.
“Mom,” one said. The other noticed me. “Who is this?”
If my mother had a heart, this was where she could have redeemed herself.
“No one. He was just leaving.” Her eyes begged me not to say more.
And that was all the confirmation I needed. “Yeah, my mistake. I’m leaving.”
I turned and walked away, scrubbing a hand down my face as I heard her hustling her sons back into the house. I might have shed a tear. If I did, I wiped it away without acknowledgement. She didn’t deserve any piece of me.
“Grant.”
The voice was higher than mine, but it wasn’t my mother’s. The words no one rang in my mind like bells. A sound I would never forget. Though I’d almost reached the gate, I turned around and waited for the two boys who approached.
“How do you know my name? Did she tell you?”
They were quite identical, and I didn’t know which was which. I did know their names. Alexander and Andrew.
One shook his head while the other spoke. “No, but we knew who you were.”
“How?”
It couldn’t have been her, as she denied me much like Peter had of Jesus—not that I was religious. Some things just stuck with you.
“Dad. He thought we should know we had an older brother,” the other said, sounding just like his brother.
I nodded. So maybe the guy wasn’t a total prick.
“You didn’t reach out,” I said.
It wasn’t supposed to be an accusation, but it came out that way. They were teenagers. I couldn’t blame them for the sins of our mother.
“We only knew you by Grant,” the first said.
“We didn’t know your last name,” said the second.
“There are a lot of Grants in Maryland.” The first spoke as they traded sentences as if only one was speaking.
“You knew I was in Maryland?” I asked.
The second answered, “We knew Mom lived there before she divorced.”
“It was a guess,” the first said.
My head was spinning. “Wait, which one of you is Alexander?”
The first looked as shocked as I felt when they’d said my name. “Alex is me,” he said, pointing at himself.
The second with a finger aimed at his chest said, “I’m Andrew.”
I wasn’t sure what to do other than hold out a hand. But both of my brothers came in for a hug.
“You should stay,” Andrew said.
I only knew that because they hadn’t moved.
“Your mother wouldn’t like that,” I said.
“Mom won’t know,” Alex said.
“She probably already has a drink in her hands,” Andrew finished.
“I don’t know.” A part of me wanted to bolt. The other part wanted to talk to the only other family I’d met on my mother’s side.
“Please,” they said in unison.
“You can stay in the pool house,” Andrew said.
“Mother’s never out there in the winter,” his twin said.
“She’ll never know.”
“What about your dad?” I asked.
“He’s gone out of town for a few days,” Alex said.
“Another reason for Mom to drink,” Andrew added.
“And we really want to get to know you,” the first said.
“I’m sure you have questions for us too,” said the second.
It was probably a bad idea, but it could be the last time I saw them for years.
“Okay, let me get my bag.”
The twins rushed up and keyed in a code at the keypad and the gate opened. I grabbed my things and left my truck parallel parked on the road and hoped for the best. When I returned a minute later, they eagerly awaited me.
I followed them on a path around the house and not through it. In the back was a large, covered inground pool with what was probably a rock waterfall behind it. Off to the side was a house fit for normal people, unlike the mansion it was behind. A single door was flanked by two large windows on either side. It was bigger than my cabin.
They peppered me with questions the entire way.
“What is your last name?”
“King,” I said.
“Do you live in Maryland?”
“Yes,” I said.
When we got in the house, Alex asked if I flew planes.