Used

Ezra

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to mourn the loss of Arthur Grayson; a father, a husband, a son, and a friend." Pastor Wickham's voice sounded like it was miles away.

I stood there, staring at the closed casket that held my father's lifeless cold body. Soon it would sink into the ground and all that would be left of him were the words on strangers' lips as they talked about how great he was. What a good father he was.

I never liked Arthur much, considering what he had done to my mother and how he had ignored me until I became useful to him. But he was my siblings father and they didn't deserve to be fatherless.

Caroline stood beside me, her arms wrapped around Benson's shoulders. She wore a mini veil over her dark hat, hiding her eyes but I knew she was crying. Amelie and Cyrus put on brave faces but Camille's face held no emotion at all.

Nokiah stood on my other side, an arm looped through one of mine and her other clung tightly to my arm. Her eyes fixated on the glossy black box. The box that held the infamous Arthur Grayson.

I always saw my father as some indestructible man, the kind of person who would simply live forever. I had been a few years younger than Benson when Arthur turned up in my mother's doorstep claiming he was my dad.

My mother never mentioned him, only said he was too consumed in his own life. She never said anything bad about him, but she never said anything good about him either.

Arthur Grayson didn't exist to me for the first nine years of my life. And now he didn't exist at all. He was just a name on a business card and a man in a wooden box.

After the service, many people who had never met me in their life grabbed my hand and gave me hugs. I probably heard the words "I'm so sorry for your loss" a thousand times. Only a few people meant it.

Others stood in corners, gossiping and whispering. About me, no doubt. The love child of Arthur and Moriah. Some said it was disrespectful that I was there; disrespectful to Caroling and Arthur's true born children. Others said Caroline invited me out of sympathy.

As soon as I was able, I made a beeline towards the bar. Of course Caroline would have a bar at my father's funeral. It was filled with all of his favorite alcohol, which was...all of them. Mainly whiskey and bourbon. I never cared for either one.

Grabbing a bottle of vodka, I headed towards the study. Arthur's study. The only room in the house with no one in it.

There was a large family portrait hanging behind his desk. I wasn't in it, for obvious reasons. The perfect blonde haired family; if I had been in it, my dark hair would've stuck out like a sore thumb.

I took a swig from the vodka bottle and walked around to the back of the desk. Sitting there was a picture of me from fifteen years ago. My mother had sent photos of me to him years before he had shown up, claiming she only wanted him to see me. To remind him that he had another child.

"Dad loved that picture."

I raised my head to see Camille leaning against the doorway. Her arms were crossed and she held a glass of wine in one hand.

"When Mom found out Moriah was still sending him pictures of you, she went livid. Tore the entire study apart, trying to find every last one of those pictures." Camille walked towards me and picked up the frame. "She wanted to burn them all...or send them back to your mother."

Our eyes met as she continued. "I hid them all. Kept them in a little box under my bed. Until Amelie was born, you were the only sibling I had. I was never allowed to bring you up around Mom; Dad said it would make her cry."

Camille set the picture down and took a sip of her wine. "I didn't understand until I was older why we were kept apart, and for a while I resented you. Dad left my mom to go be with your mom while my mom was pregnant with me only to leave your mom pregnant with you."