“Do you mind expanding?” Annalisa asks, crossing her arms and sitting down on the couch across from him.
Aiden looks at her, eyes slightly narrowed as if she’s bothering him, and then his eyes flick over to his brothers. Jason and Jackson have personalities that can fill a room, but right now they look small and scared, concern for their brother plastered all over their faces.
“Are you … are you going to get in trouble?” Jason forces out, reminding me of just how young he is.
Aiden opens his mouth to say something but then closes it again, as if reconsidering, and his harsh expression softens.
“I’ll be fine. I promise,” he finally tells him, strategically leaving Jason’s question unanswered.
Will the mayor press charges? Does he even know who Aiden is?
Aiden stands up. “It’s late, time for bed, guys. Come on, Jason, Jackson, let’s get you ready for bed. Good night everyone.”
He ushers the twins into the house without a second glance.
I look at everyone else and then look back at Aiden’s receding figure, knowing that something is definitely wrong with him. But does he want to talk to me about it? Or does he want to handle it on his own? Maybe I’ll give him some time to himself with the twins. No one else is ready to go inside yet, but I feel itchy to check up on Aiden, so I say good night and leave them outside on the back porch. After getting ready for bed as fast as I can, I slip down the stairs and head over to Aiden’s room. A quick glance out the sliding door shows Mason, Annalisa, Julian, and Chase still haven’t moved from when we left them. I knock on Aiden’s door and wait for him to hopefully answer and talk to me, instead of closing off like he used to do. When he opens the door, he doesn’t seem surprised at all. He opens it wider and steps aside to let me in.
“Took you longer than I thought it would.”
“How did you know I would come?” I ask.
He smirks at me but I can tell he’s resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “It’s kind of our thing. One of us running after the other after something dramatic happens to talk about it or figure it out. We may just be really nosy people,” he ends with a joke, making me smile.
“Oh, we have another ‘thing.’ Don’t let Noah find out. Yesterday, we each got stung by a wasp and he said ‘Hey, maybe being stung by wasps can be our thing? Or even any other type of insect that can bite or sting?’” I laugh, recalling the incident and his hopefulness at finally having found a potential “thing.” “Poor guy will not give up.”
Sitting down on the bed, I cross my legs. “Back to the subject at hand, what happened back there?”
He sits down across from me. “I punched the mayor.”
Thank you, Mr. I-State-the-Obvious. “Yes, I know that. Why?”
He’s about to say something when I quickly interrupt him. “And don’t say because he deserved it.”
He gives me a look with a raised brow, as if to say, Really?
“He did deserve it,” he mumbles before looking me straight in the eye. “Andrew Kessler is my biological father.”
It takes me three full Mississippis to process exactly what he just said.
“Your biological father?” I repeat dumbly back to him.
“Yeah.”
“The mayor of this city is the man who left you when you were a kid, while your mom had cancer and was pregnant with twins, because he didn’t want to pay for all the expenses?! That man is the mayor? Who’s running for governor?!”
I don’t think I can wrap my brain around this. The man Aiden described was a deadbeat. He walked out on his family because he didn’t want to deal with the bills. He left a son and a sick, pregnant wife at home to fend for themselves. But he’s the mayor?
Oh my God. This whole time Aiden’s been seeing commercials and posters and hearing about how Andrew Kessler is campaigning about being a family man, about fighting for low income families, about loving kids and caring for single parents, knowing full well that he’s the biggest phony and hypocrite?
“That’s him,” he replies to my mostly rhetorical question.
“Are you—are you positive that’s him?” I ask, not because I doubt Aiden, but just because I feel like that’s something that should be asked.
Aiden’s face hardens, his jaw sets with determination, and his fists clench in his lap.
“Of course I’m sure. That pathetic excuse for a man’s face is engraved in my memory. He put my mom through hell. Everything I went through with Greg was because of him. He can change his last name to disguise his past, but he’ll always be the same disgusting deadbeat.”
Poor Aiden. I try to mask my facial expression so he doesn’t see the slight pity I feel. I scoot over and wrap my arms around him, resting my head on his shoulder in what I hope is a supportive embrace. Aiden leans into me, allowing himself a rare moment to be vulnerable and comforted, his hand mindlessly rubbing small, slow circles on my back.