Together, We Rise

Chapter Eight: Long Time, No See

Chapter Eight

Luke

"Uggh, I'm so pissed!" Laura exclaimed as she paced back and forth in front of Melody, Elijah, and I. Melody and I went for a swim earlier, then Laura and Elijah came, but Laura started freaking out. Elijah, however, went straight on his laptop.

"Laura, just calm down," Melody said. Once Laura stopped pacing back and forth, Melody asked, "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Laura repeated. "My dad lied to me about something my whole life!"

Elijah scoffed. "She's freaking out because of a conversation she overhead our aunt and dad had. In my opinion, she's freaking out over nothing."

"Nothing? You don't even know what it was about!" Laura said.

"So?" Elijah asked. "Surely it can't be that bad."

"That's what you think," Laura muttered as she went back to pacing. "This changed everything! It explains why dad was depressed about Mom's death and why he said something about losing two women he loves."

"Laura, calm down," Elijah said. "Why don't you tell us why dad lied to you your whole life?"

I scoffed. "Join the club. My parents lied to me about something my whole life and I just found out a few months ago. Anyway, continue."

"Eli, he didn't just lie to me," Laura told her brother. "He also lied to you."

"Me?" Elijah asked. "About what?"

Laura sighed. "Apparently, Dad was in love with a woman who was already married at the time. But she did have feelings for him as well."

"And that's why he lied?" Elijah asked. "Because he was in love with a married woman?"

Laura groaned and shook her head. "No! I wasn't even finished. Anyway, the woman had an affair with Dad and she was planning on leaving her husband for Dad. But she ended up getting pregnant with Dad's child and told Dad that she didn't want him involved. He never saw her again."

Weird.....That sounded a lot like what Mom went through......And how I was born......

"So we have a sibling that Dad never told us about?" Elijah asked. "Wow. That hurts."

Melody looked at me then Laura. "Laura, is your dad's name, by any chance, John Coyne?"

Laura gave Melody a weird look. "Yeah. How did you know that?"

Before Melody could answer, I asked, "Did you hear your aunt or dad say the woman's name?"

Laura sat on the edge of Elijah's lounge chair and frowned. "Yeah, but I can't remember fully...... I think it was a Sandra or.......

"Sandy Cosgrove," I said.

"Okay, you two are scaring me," she said. "What are you two psychic or something? Let me guess. Next you're going to tell me that it happened........"

"Seventeen years ago," I finished quietly. Was I the kid Laura's dad was talking about? Was I their unknown sibling?

Laura looked back and forth between Melody and I. "You two know something," she concluded.

I sighed. "Recently, my 'dad' said that my mom had an affair with a man seventeen years ago and got pregnant with his kid."

"That sounds an awful lot like what my dad said," Laura said.

"That's because my mom is Sandy Cosgrove," I said. "And she told me that the man she made the child with is named John Coyne. And I'm seventeen."

Laura's eyes widened as Elijah said, "Oh my god." His eyes were glued onto his computer screen. "Guys, look at this." We all gathered around Elijah and looked at the screen.

"A picture of me?" I asked. That was what it looked like.

Elijah shook his head. "Nope. This is a picture of my dad when he was about seventeen. Our should I say our dad?'

I couldn't believe it. Laura and Elijah were actually my siblings. That woman I helped at the airport was actually my aunt. I knew who my birth dad was.

I sat down on the lounge chair again. "Wow. This is a lot to take in."

"I know," Laura agreed. "So you.......you're my brother? Well, half-brother........"

I shrugged. "I guess so......."

Suddenly, Jane carrying her baby niece and a man walked into the pool area. "There you two are!" the man said. "You could have told us were you went."

"And you could have told me I heard a brother I never knew about!" Laura shot back.

The man -who I was guessing was John- looked at Jane and walked over to us. "Laura, don't talk about that now," Jane said.

"Why not?" Laura asked, pointing to Melody and I. "Because they're here?"

"Hi, Luke," Jane said.

"Hey," I replied.

"You two met?" John said.

Jane nodded. "He's the boy who helped me at the airport."

"That's not all," Laura said harshly. "Did you know that Luke knows who Sandy Cosgrove is?" The mention of Mom's name got Jane to look at her brother.

Jane then looked at me. "You know Sandy Cosgrove."

"Yeah," I said. "She's.......she's my mom."

Another look between the two. "And how old are you?"

"He's seventeen," Laura answered. "May I introduce the two of you to my brother Luke? Whom I knew nothing about!"

"Laura, you can't blame me," John said. "She wanted me to have nothing to do with him."

"You still could have told us," Laura said, her voice softening. "It would have been nice to know that I had an older sibling."

"I'm sorry, Laura," John said. "But it was heartbreaking for me to have a kid, my first kid, and not being allowed to be in his life. Sandy rather stay with her husband."

"Not anymore," I muttered. Everyone looked at me, but I didn't feel like explaining, so I looked at Melody.

"His dad, well 'dad', walked out on his family when he was thirteen," Melody explained. "Then last year, he came back and tried being the dad again but ended up kicking Luke out and Luke's brother, Evan, left. His parents then got a divorce but they went to a mediation session to see who would gain custody. And that was where aluke found out that his dad wasn't his actual dad."

"She never told me," I continued. "Instead, she lied to me and gave me a dad who hated me instead of an actual dad." Melody slipped her hand in mine since she knew it was an emotional subject for me to talk about. I hated the fact that I was given a dad that hated my guts because I wasn't his. I hated finding out that Evan and Susie were my half siblings. I hated that Mom never told me.

"Wow," Laura said. "That's worse than what I thought."

"Yeah," I said quietly.

"I wish I could have been there," John said. "All I wanted was to be with Sandy or to be involved in our kid's life, even if that was just having half-custody. That would have been better than not being involved at all."

"Luke, why don't you come over for dinner tonight?" Jane suggested, getting an approving nod from John. "We'd love to get to know you, since you are my nephew after all........That sounded weird."

"Thanks," I said with a faint smile. "I'd love to but I kind of already promised Melody I'd watch movies with her tongiht."

"It's fine, Luke," Melody said. "We've seen a lot of movies. You could skip out."

"Aunt Jane, how about Melody comes over as well?" Laura suggested.

Melody, however, shook her head. "No, it's okay. It's a family thing. I'll just work on my project for the art show."

"You sure?" Laura asked.

Melody nodded. "Positive."