Chapter 2
Present Day
“Things didn’t exactly go as planned with my motel job,” Sasha admitted to the entire Ward family, “which is how I ended up here with basically nothing…”
However, Mallory’s piercing eyes were trained skeptically on Sasha.
Without a doubt, she knew that this woman was either making up the whole story or Sasha’s mother had lied to her about who her dad was.
Perhaps Maggie knew Mallory’s father, maybe they had worked together, and his name came to mind when she was sick and confused.
Either way, Mallory refused to believe Sasha was David’s daughter. Her father would never cheat.
“I worked there until about a month before Dot was born,” Sasha went on, “but then I started having some issues, and the doctor told me I had to stay on bedrest for the last trimester. My boss gave me two weeks of rest, but then he said I had to go. I lost my job and my place to live, so I couch surfed. I found a few people on the internet who let me crash at their place for very little money.”
Ariel’s face was etched with concern and Callie’s hands were clenched so tightly together that her knuckles were white. Mallory kept her arms crossed, seemingly unfazed—she wasn’t going to give Sasha too big of a reaction just yet.
“After Dot was born, we were bounced around to a few different homeless shelters, and we were on the streets more than once, and then… We came here.” She shrugged meekly.
“I realized I had no other options and that I had to show up with just the clothes on my back. But how could I knock on your door and say, ‘hi, I’m your daughter, this is your granddaughter, and I need a place to stay before winter comes and we die on the streets?’” She let out a bitter laugh.
“You would’ve called the cops! Or at least…
I thought you might. That was before I really got to know the two of you. ” She offered Callie a grateful smile.
“I wouldn’t have called the cops,” Callie confirmed. “Never. It wouldn’t have even occurred to me.”
“Yeah, well… Like I said, I didn’t know you guys at the time, so I expected the worst. I couldn’t take any chances,” Sasha explained.
“I had a baby who needed a home, so I did the only thing I could think of. I asked one of my friends, who was also on the streets at the time, to make a call. From my research, I’d found out that you and David used to give money to a women’s shelter outside Ferndale.
I had my friend pretend to be a social worker from there, offering you the opportunity to sponsor someone from the shelter. And… you said yes.”
Leaning back into her chair, Sasha nervously rubbed her hands together. She took a few deep breaths and let them out slowly, seemingly having come to the end of her story.
Done lying yet?
Mallory looked around at her family members, wondering if any of them were going to break the tense silence or if she would have to.
Nobody said anything.
Mallory opened her mouth, and a shocked, skeptical laugh escaped her lips. This was all absurd and she resented feeling like she was the only person in the room who wasn’t blind.
“I’m sorry,” she said, mostly apologizing to her parents, who she felt were the real victims in all this.
“I’m just not sure how to react. Because this is crazy.
Dad, c’mon. Put a stop to this. Tell her you never cheated on mom.
That you never would! That you’d rather—I don’t know—jump off a bridge than betray mom like that. It’s ridiculous.”
Mallory gawked at her dad, waiting for him to clear things up so they could expose Sasha’s evident lies.
However, David wasn’t looking back at his daughter.
Instead, his gaze was fixed on his wife.
Callie stared back at him for a beat, glanced down at her lap, and sighed.
Taylor shifted uncomfortably and Erica took his hand.
Ariel’s face was still transfixed with shock.
Mallory wanted to tell her siblings not to worry, because it was obvious that Sasha wasn’t related to them.
Right?
“Callie—” David said in a whisper.
“I know, I know.” Callie sighed and nodded. “We have to tell them.”
Mallory frowned. “Tell us what?” Her stomach muscles knotted but she did her best to keep calm. “What’s going on?”
“There’s something we need to talk to you all about,” Callie began, pointedly avoiding Mallory’s gaze, “something we’ve been keeping a secret for over twenty years.”
“Dad—” Taylor glared at David. “How could you? You had an affair?”
“No, no, it’s not that,” David quickly corrected his son. “I never cheated.”
“It’s true,” Callie confirmed. “Neither of us ever cheated.”
“So, then what?” Mallory threw her hands up in the air. “What is it you have to tell us?”
Callie said nothing, so David leaned forward and cleared his throat, taking a moment to look at each of his kids before speaking. “Your mother and I are no longer married. We haven’t been for some time.”
Up until that point, Mallory thought the idea of her father cheating was impossible, but she was wrong. This was crazier. Again, she laughed, having no idea what else to do in the face of this ridiculousness.
“What?” Ariel said, shaking her head. “I don’t understand.”
“Nobody understands,” Mallory added. “Because it doesn’t make sense.”
“Just, let us explain,” David said and everyone fell silent again.
“Shortly after Mallory left home, your mom and I started to realize that our marriage wasn’t what it used to be.
At some point over the years, we’d turned into co-parents and not partners.
We were great when it came to raising you kids together, but we lost that spark.
” He glanced lovingly at Callie, who gave him a small, reassuring nod.
“We still loved each other,” she said, taking over the next part of the conversation.
“We still love each other to this day, but we weren’t in love.
And we felt that maybe we deserved to go out and find that kind of love again.
So, we decided to separate. We didn’t sign anything official at first, just because it seemed to complicate things for no reason, but eventually we did get a divorce. ”
“You separated?” Taylor spat the word out like he’d never heard it before.
“In one sense,” David explained. “We obviously kept living together, but—”
“Wait.” Mallory shook her head and waved her hands in exasperation. “Just—hold on a second. This doesn’t add up. You two—you didn’t get divorced! You’ve been together this whole time!”
“Yes and no,” Callie replied. “We decided to stay in the house together not only because it was a place where we were both happy, but economically, it didn’t make sense for one of us to try and find a rental in Ferndale.
At that point, the prices in this part of California had shot through the roof, and the house was paid off, so there was no reason for us to stop living together.
We haven’t been married for some time now, but we decided to keep living together. It just made things easier.”
“It also meant that you kids could come back to the home, and everything would still be normal and comfortable,” David added.
“You mean we would come home, and you guys would keep up the facade,” Taylor said in a low, bitter tone. “Staying in the house together helped you guys keep this a secret all these years.”
David’s shoulders sank and he sighed. “Yes. You’re right. That was definitely a factor, we won’t pretend it wasn’t.”
Mallory raised her hands again, attempting to stop this racing train from going any further over the tracks.
“Stop! Everyone just stop!” She stood up and started to pace frantically, desperate to understand what was going on.
“This—this is nuts. Why would you lie about all this? Why would you just separate without even trying to stay together?”
“We did try, honey,” Callie explained. “We even went to couples therapy. But we just weren’t happy, and that became even more obvious when you kids were gone, and it was just the two of us.”
Mallory balked at her parents. She gripped her aching head, suddenly calling into question every single memory she had of them from the last twenty years.
It was so overwhelming that her knees buckled, and she fell back into her seat.
She opened her mouth and then closed it again twice—she didn’t know what to say.
“Does this mean…” Ariel finally spoke and glanced at David, her voice cracking a little. “Does this mean you actually could be Sasha’s dad?” At this, Sasha leaned forward in her seat.
As her pulse quickened, Mallory realized that she might never feel the same way about her parents again—that she might never trust them for the rest of her life.
“Did—did you guys have other relationships?” Ariel added when nobody answered the question.
Callie turned to David, as if passing this question his way.
“Yes,” he said after a few seconds. “We both had a few brief affairs early on, but I’ve never had a serious relationship.
Neither of us has. I really threw myself into traveling as I got older, and that took up a lot of my time.
Although, to be honest, I have been seeing a nice lady named Sia. She’s a sweetheart and—”
“And you got some woman pregnant twenty-one years ago?” Mallory interrupted, making sure her parents didn’t evade the most pressing subject at hand.
She didn’t care who they may or may not be dating, she was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she might have a half-sister. “How could you let this happen?”
But before her father could respond, the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Callie said, leaping to her feet.
“No.” Mallory stood and motioned for her mom to sit back down. “Let me get it. I need a break from all this anyway.” And with that, she turned on her heels sharply and marched toward the front door.