Chapter 1 The Prodigal Son
THE PRODIGAL SON
DUNCAN
John McGuire, my private secretary, banged the door.
He insisted I must appear at the Palace to discuss urgent matters.
I dressed casually, fearing a matter of foreign affairs had broken down due to our ineffectual government.
He advised that stolen years-old texts circulated online and that every news giant was about to run them.
I braced for impact. Or, rather, for my mother’s wrath.
At the palace, I was taken immediately to my mother’s sitting room, but she was absent. This was worse than I anticipated. Among the ornate hand-picked wallpaper, period furnishings, and pictures of glorious family, it was my father who began.
Now in his early eighties, he was too old for this shit. The dread and remorse hit. As he laid the news at my feet, my emotions left me only with sheer embarrassment.
“Dad, I can explain these things. This was a fight. I didn’t cheat on her. She and I… she was at fault.”
“You verbally abusing her doesn’t help any case you may have made,” Dad said. “It makes you look like a prick. Which, if you called her a bitch, you were.”
I groaned.
“Don’t throw a fit. You are thirty-seven years old. Your mother and I are not getting any younger. We have been waiting for more than a decade for you to grow the fuck up—me more than your mother. She is always so patient with you. She needn’t be.”
My desire to win the honorable Edwin Winslow’s approval and love sent me down a rabbit hole.
My father was a man of character—a supportive husband and doting father.
Born to a cabinet minister, he remained one of the most decorated Olympians in British history.
My mother loved him more than words and he believed she hung the moon.
That was the family I grew up in. These were the people who raised me.
To disappoint them—especially Dad—was dreadful.
“I feel like shit about it, okay? I apologized—”
“You still said it!”
“I was violated! My private words were taken out of context. And I refuse to even go into how bad things got or why?”
“Why?” I scoffed. “Because it doesn’t fucking matter. I hope we categorically deny this.”
“Lie? No. We will do no such thing, young man. You did this to yourself and here we fucking are. Your mother doesn’t believe in lying.”
“Where is Mummy? I’m such a disappointment she can’t even be bothered with me?”
My dismissive tone hid how broken this left me, but Dad knew me too well.
“She is too angry to speak with you calmly,” Dad confirmed.
“Trust me when I say you would rather deal with me right now. I am using all my restraint to avoid laying into you, Duncan! You know better! And don’t play the victim here.
You verbally abused your ex-girlfriend and, in doing so, you aired all your dirty laundry.
Moreover, you flat out admitted to going to a strip club! ”
“Men do that!”
“Maybe men do, but you should know better.”
“You’ve never—”
“Not since I was with your mother. You’re mad to think I would risk anything with her over something like this!”
“Yes, it would have all been resolved if I’d just married a very boring, nice girl.”
“Duncan, no one ever asked for that. We wanted you to grow the fuck up. We would have been very happy with Nessa, quite frankly, but you cocked that up! Now what woman would have you?”
Those words hurt more than he knew. If my father were aware of the whole story, he might side with me. But, the reality embarrassed me more than words. I beat down my feelings again. I set it aside. I would be the disappointment. I played that role so well.
“Duncan, I love you,” Dad affirmed. “But you really need to start acting like a grown man.”