12. Trent
Trent
I drove to my parents' house like a man possessed, my knuckles white on the steering wheel.
My mind was a chaotic storm, torn violently in two. Half of me was frantic with worry over my mother, and the other half was vibrating with anger that she had gone behind my back and blown up whatever tiny sliver of hope I had left with Kat.
I pulled into the familiar driveway of my childhood home, frozen gravel crunching under my tires. Gideon pulled in beside me, his truck door slamming a second after mine.
"Trent, hold up," Gideon called out, jogging to catch up as I marched up the front steps. "I don’t know what is going on, but you have a kind of this crazed look going on and we don't know why dad called or what's wrong.."
"She went to Kat's house, Gid," I snarled over my shoulder, yanked the front door open, and strode inside. "And then she almost passed out on her floor!"
The house was suffocatingly quiet. I pushed through the entryway into the living room.
My mom was sitting on the sofa, wrapped in a plush blanket, a cold compress resting in her lap. Her eyes were red, puffy, and flooded with tears. My dad was sitting right beside her, holding her trembling hand in both of his, looking older and more worn-out than I’d ever seen him.
"Trent. Gideon," Dad said softly, his voice strained as he looked up.
"Mom, what the hell were you thinking?" I demanded, the words bursting out of me before I could stop them, which seemed to be a common theme for me these days. "Why would you go to Kat's house? Why would you put her through that?"
"Trent, sit down," Dad commanded, a stern edge sharpening his tone.
"No, I'm not sitting down!" I shot back, pacing the rug like a caged animal. "Kat is holding a relocation contract to Europe in her hands right now! She is packing her life up because she thinks my whole family is insane, and you…"
"Trent, quiet," Dad said, louder this time. He turned to my mother, his expression softening. "Cynthia... you need to tell them. Now."
Mom let out a ragged, sob-wracked breath, clutching Dad’s hand like a lifeline. "I'm so sorry," she wept, looking between Gideon and me. "I'm so, so sorry..."
"Mom, what is going on?" Gideon asked, stepping forward, his easygoing demeanour instantly vanishing into concern. "Are you sick?"
"No," Mom choked out, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'm... I'm pregnant."
I stopped pacing. My brain completely stalled, refusing to process the words. "You're... what?"
"Pregnant," Dad repeated quietly.
Gideon blinked, his jaw dropping open. "Wait. Hold on. Dad... didn't you get the snip right after us? You guys had twin toddlers, you were twenty-two, broke, and struggling, you said you shut the factory down!"
"I did," Dad said, a tired, faint grin touching his lips. "Apparently, nature reversed it. It happens. Rarely, but it happens."
Despite the tension, Gideon let out a stunned laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. "Jesus, Dad. Fifty percent sperm count, twenty-three years later, and you still shoot sniper bullets. Respect."
"Gideon, not now," Dad warned, though there was zero heat in it.
"I don't understand," I said, my voice low as my mind raced, trying to put the pieces together. "Mom, you're forty-three. If you're pregnant... Why were you crying? Why did you pass out at Kat's?"
Dad’s grip on Mom’s hand tightened. "Because it's a high-risk pregnancy, Trent. Between her blood pressure dropping erratically, her age, and some initial bloodwork, the doctor wants her on strict bed rest starting immediately. We have a specialist appointment at the clinic tomorrow."
A lump settled in my stomach. I looked at my mother, seeing how small and exhausted she looked. I loved her fiercely. The thought of anything happening to her sent a spike of fear through me. But then... a clear memory pierced through the panic.
I remembered Mom coming over to Kat's place to drop off baked goods while Kat was at work. I remembered Mom complaining about feeling dizzy, making a joke about getting older.
Then it jumped to the trash can in Kat's bathroom, her guest bathroom…
The air left my lungs in one brutal exhale.
I took a slow, deliberate step toward the couch, staring down at my mother as realization hit me.
"Mom..." I whispered, my voice trembling, "You spent the afternoon at Kat's house before I found that test in her bathroom."
Mom froze. She squeezed her eyes shut, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks, and buried her face in her hands.
"Say it, Mom," I rasped, my chest heaving, the blood roaring in my ears so loud I could barely hear myself. "Say it!"
"It was mine!" She sobbed out the confession, "The test in Kat's trash... it was mine!"
Gideon gasped behind me. My entire world shattered into a million jagged pieces. The floor felt as if it were tilting beneath my feet.
"Yours," I repeated, the word tasting like ashes. "You... you took a pregnancy test in my girlfriend's bathroom?"
"I was scared!" Mom cried, looking up at me with raw, desperate eyes.
"I was having symptoms for weeks, but my doctor kept telling me it was just probably early perimenopause!
Like being in your forties explains every symptom somehow.
I was at Kat's house, I felt so sick, and I took the opportunity, just to rule it out... and it turned positive immediately."
"Why didn't you tell Dad?!" I roared, the rage finally snapping restraint.
"Because he had a vasectomy!" Mom wept. "I was confused, I was worried about what he would think... I don't know what I thought! I panicked and hid the test at the bottom of the trash because I wanted to go get a real blood test from my doctor before I talked to him!"
"Cyn," Dad whispered softly, wrapping his arms around her, kissing the top of her head. "When has anything in our lives ever gone according to plan? And look how incredible it all turned out."
"Turned out?!" I huffed, throwing my hands in the air, my voice cracking with absolute agony. "Oh yeah, Dad! It turned out fucking great! You want to know how great it turned out?!"
I turned on my mother, tears of fury burning my eyes.
"I found that test, Mom! I thought it was Kat's!
I spent three months living a lie, planning a nursery, proposing to the woman I love for all the wrong reasons, and completely destroying her trust in me!
You let me go on believing it was hers! YOU KNEW…
You watched me talk about the future, and said nothing! "
"I thought you would talk to her!" Mom pleaded, reaching out for me with shaking hands.
"I thought... I thought you two had talked and decided to keep it private!
And then... God forgive me, Trent, I was so scared, and in my own head.
I saw how much you loved her, and I thought...
I thought stepping up worked for your father and me when we were young.
I thought maybe it would force you out of your head so you'd see what was right in front of you! "
"You ruined my life!" I slammed my fist into the wooden side table, sending a lamp rattling. "You let me blow up my entire relationship because you were too cowardly to tell your husband you were pregnant!"
"Trent! That is enough!" Dad roared, leaping to his feet and stepping directly between me and my mother.
"You do not talk to your mother like that.
She made a mistake. A massive, terrible mistake, and she is going to have to live with the guilt of what it did to you.
But right now, she is carrying a baby. Her blood pressure is dangerously high, and if you stress her out any further, you are going to put both of them in the hospital! "
I stood there, panting, my fists clenched so tight that my nails were biting into my palms.
"We are a family," Dad continued, his voice dropping into a non-negotiable command. "Prescotts step up. We pull through. I need you and Gideon to take over for me for the next few weeks so I can take care of your mother. Do you understand me?"
I looked at my mother, who was hyperventilating into a tissue. I looked at my dad, whose eyes were begging me to stand down. I was furious, heartbroken, and felt as if I were suffocating.
Without saying another word, I turned on my heel and walked out of the house.
"Trent! Wait!" Gideon called after me, but I ignored him, shoving through the front door and slamming it shut behind me.
I threw myself into my truck, turned the key, and tore out of the driveway.
I drove aimlessly into the freezing dusk; the highway blurring past my window.
My head was spinning so fast I felt sick.
The truth was out; my baby wasn't real, and a crazy lie was exposed.
I always thought our family was tight, that we had each other's backs…
When did everything go so wrong? How had a lack of communication landed us here?
I was supposed to go straight back to Kat's house. I was supposed to drop to my knees, explain the cosmic, ridiculous stupidity of what had happened, and beg her not to leave me.
But as I pulled over into an empty gas station lot and rested my forehead against the steering wheel, the sheer weight of it all crushed me.
How could I go to her now? What could I possibly say? 'Hey Kat, turns out I'm not the father, my dad is, and my mom hid her test in your trash.' It sounded insane. Pathetic.
I needed time. I needed an hour, just to get my head straight, to process the anger burning a hole in my gut, before I faced her. I closed my eyes, lost in the darkness of my mind, completely unaware of how fast the clock was ticking.