Chapter 20 Selene #4
“Are you ready to tell your son the truth, Mia? Or would you like me to do it?” William seemed overcome by hatred. John’s presence had stoked his bitterness, his memories of the past, and, more than anything else, his desire for revenge. He turned his glacial stare on Dr. Keller and smiled.
Neil stepped back and looked around for me.
It was as though we were joined by an invisible thread, his eyes locked on mine.
I could immediately sense that he needed me beside him, so I got up and joined him.
I stood close to him, grasped his arm, and gave it a squeeze. It felt like I was gripping a rock shot through with dark tension.
“Isn’t it funny, Neil? That I’m going to be the one to finally give you the answers to those questions you have?
All those whys that have filled up your head since you were little?
” William began to speak, his voice rough and cold.
“Once upon a time, there was beautiful woman who believed in great love…” he continued, soft and derisive, as he stared Neil right in the eyes.
The only soundtrack to this scene was broody silence and our anxiously bated breaths.
“She loved one man but was forced by her father to marry another. She couldn’t accept this other man, so she decided to continue both relationships at the same time.
” He began to move through the room, circling the table under the rapt gazes of the guests.
“She fell pregnant by her great love, and she knew very well that she had to keep the truth from the other man who, by that time, had become her husband.”
Neil was unmoving, fixated on that evil man’s little tale. Mia’s shoulders slumped, and she hung her head in surrender as William went on.
“During those nine months of pregnancy, I thought of you as my son, Neil. I thought it was my little baby growing bigger every day inside my wife’s womb.
Then you were born, and it was the most beautiful moment of my life.
You were strong and sturdy. I still remember exactly how it felt that first time to hold you in my arms.” He formed a cradle with his arms, pretending to rock an invisible infant.
“I had imagined you’d look just like me.
Maybe you’d have my blue eyes or a head full of black hair.
I thought that, at the very least, you’d have one of my features to make it clear that the blood flowing in your little veins was the same as in mine.
But there was nothing. The bigger you got, the more unlike me you looked.
Your eyes began to take on that gold color; your nose was small and straight, your mouth was too fleshy, and you had that wild cloud of brown hair.
I thought all the time about the differences between us, how far apart you felt… ”
Neil kept his eyes on William as the older man came slowly back around the table. He began to circle Neil, then, looking him from head to toe as though observing a specimen.
Tears began to pour down my cheeks.
The confusion that clouded Neil’s face hurt so much it was hard to catch my breath.
“Your mother made the decision to keep hiding it from me for a decade, the fact that you were another man’s son.
I only found out because I overheard an argument between her and your father.
Your real father. After that, my anger only grew every time I looked at you.
Every time I saw you make another face or gesture that was unmistakably him.
I no longer considered you a son of mine.
I hated you because you were a bastard, born from betrayal, from an extramarital affair.
From an illicit fuck between your mother and her lover.
” William’s voice grew louder, and the tone shifted as he took heavy strides over to Neil, who remained motionless.
“You are and always have been an unwanted child, Neil, a cuckoo in the nest. As far as I’m concerned, you’re not a Miller, and you never were.
My family—my real family—consists of my wife and my two children, Logan and Chloe.
You were always just excess baggage!” he shouted, full of wrath, and everyone cringed.
Mia burst into tears, Logan and Chloe jumped to their feet in shock, and John’s eyes went wide.
But Neil looked as though he’d been petrified in place.
He didn’t even blink. He looked vacant, abandoned, and deep in shock.
“Your father is John Keller, the man sitting here at your fucking table. There’s the truth you wanted—you have been ruining my life for over twenty years!” he screamed furiously, right up close to Neil’s shocked face.
His heart was shattered. I knew it, because I had felt mine break at exactly the same moment.
He didn’t deserve this.
John stood up then, walking around the table to give William’s back a hard shove.
“You don’t get near him! You don’t scream at him like that, and you don’t even think about putting your hands on him again!
” John howled like a beast. The veins in his neck were popping, and his breath came in ragged pants.
He faced William without a trace of fear, and the latter backed away a few steps.
Then he smoothed down his expensive suit jacket, pleased with the turmoil he’d just unleashed.
Mia sobbed and watched as Matt then stood up slowly, letting the napkin that had been in his lap fall to the floor. I followed the fabric’s trajectory, watching as it landed and lay motionless on the floor.
“Well, I’m heading out. Have a lovely evening,” William said, the only one with the audacity to break the anguished silence in the room.
“Oh, and Neil? Happy birthday!” he said at last, a little hint of irony mixed in with all the malice.
Then he vanished out the front door, slamming it behind him.
I sucked in a breath at the loud sound before slowly turning my attention to Logan, who was holding Chloe and staring at their mother in shock.
Neil still stood next to me, but his eyes were staring out into the void.
His gaze was fixed but sightless, like someone had switched him off.
He didn’t blink. He didn’t give a single sign of life.
There was nothing in him.
“Neil…I…I’m sorry.” John kept his distance, but his eyes were glittering with pain. He wanted to touch his son, to hug him, but he knew the risks. Neil wasn’t just another young man; he was special…different.
“Don’t get any closer, Dr. Keller,” Logan whispered. He’d let go of Chloe and was approaching his brother at a slow pace. Neil didn’t move a muscle. His breathing was shallow, his eyes devoid of emotion, and his face a mask of rage and incredulity.
Time continued to pass, but the rest of us had stopped.
Tick…tock…tick…tock…
Only the sound of the grandfather clock’s pendulum swinging back and forth filled the room.
After what felt like an eternity, Neil turned his icy stare on Mia and blinked, the only sign of life he’d shown thus far.
“Neil, I can explain what happened,” his mother murmured through her tears, stepping hesitantly toward him.
I could sense her fear from where I stood, but I admired the courage she had, facing him like that.
“I was afraid of losing you; that’s why I never told you.
That’s why…you have to believe me…” Neil remained frozen, staring at her, his hands tightened into fists.
His eyes had become unrecognizable, two murky pools of hatred.
“You…you’re…” he said in a low voice, as though it were a struggle to get the words out, as though there was something heavy bearing down on his chest or his throat.
Then, abruptly, he shot out an arm to push his mother violently away.
“A whore!” he shouted furiously. He clenched his jaw and ground his teeth together while Mia lost her footing and fell to the floor.
John’s eyes went wide as he moved to help her up, Chloe clutched Logan fearfully, and my father watched the whole scene unfold in shock.
Mia began to weep, and Neil just looked at her without so much as a flicker of human compassion on his face.
My heart began to beat frenetically, pulsing in my throat before falling back into my chest like I was on a roller coaster. I couldn’t speak.
Mechanically, I turned my eyes to John, where he was helping Mia up.
I had never seen her look so destroyed, so grief-stricken.
All at once, it felt like there was a fire blazing all over me, and I turned to find Neil staring at me. I blinked, tears clinging to my eyelashes, and I tried to understand what he was thinking. He moved to me, his footsteps sure. Then he stopped and scrutinized me carefully.
I wanted to run away, but I was so shaken by everything that I couldn’t move.
His hot breath hit my cheek.
He touched me gently, tracing the line of my jaw with his index finger. What was he trying to say to me?
The suffering in his eyes tore my chest open.
I could have offered him comfort. Maybe he was looking for me to have to his back, to support him, but I couldn’t bring myself to lie to him. And that was when I made my fatal error.
“I knew…” I admitted, trying not to burst into tears.
Neil stopped touching me, his eyebrows flying upward in surprise.
“I knew,” I repeated guiltily. The blood drained from his face while he fought to keep his anger under his control and waited for me to go on.
“I overheard a conversation between Mia and John at the clinic. You were busy talking to Dr. Lively. I wanted to tell you about it, but I didn’t know anything for sure…
” I exhaled forcefully. “I had suspicions but no proof, and I didn’t want to freak you out for nothing.
I’m sorry…I—” I didn’t even get to finish my useless attempt at a justification before I watched him pulling away from me.
I saw it all over his face as he growled in frustration and dragged his hands through his hair. “Please, forgive me…” I begged.
Neil looked at me, his pupils blown, and I gasped.
There was nothing to be seen in those eyes.