Maddie Carlyle did not want to be up at 5:30 on a Sunday morning.
But he had felt horrible, and after scurrying to the bathroom to try and figure out what it was, he suddenly lost it. He felt totally ill.
Oh no, Maddie worried. Oh no oh no oh no. Maddie had already had reason to worry about events early in the week, but once more, his mind wandered back to that night. The party. Shan feeling him up. Not knowing what he was in for, he meekly nodded when Shan dragged him to bed. He was so flustered getting all this attention from the star quarterback, and he felt compelled to go along with Shan, that he had failed to realize something. Amidst the chaos, the stupor of the rager, neither of them used a condom.
He was hunched over on the floor when he heard a voice from the bathroom door—that of his father Benjamina, a secretary and filing assistant at a local doctor's office. "Maddie?" His heart sank. "Maddie?" he called again. Maddie turned behind and looked up to see his dad in his pajamas, with a worried look on his face and his manicured hand wearily placed on his chin. "What's wrong?"
Maddie froze with fear. He didn't want to say anything to his dad, afraid of a punishment or worse. "Uhh..."
Mina sank his face into his palms. "I...I have a feeling..." Maddie, despite having just gone through a bout of sickness, looked as scared as he'd ever seen him in his life. "Are you feeling better enough to come out? I want to talk to you."
His son did not want to do anything, but the stern look on his face indicated he had no choice. "Let's go in the kitchen, OK?" Maddie weakly nodded, slowly got to his feet and walked through their small apartment to a small and kind of dingy kitchen. The two took seats around the small dining table, with Maddie staring straight at his father. It was still dark outside.
"I don't know if I've ever told you this, but..." Mina was clearly on the verge of tears. "...I know a pregnancy in the making when I see it."
"Why?" Maddie was caught off guard by the tone his dad was taking.
"Because...you see... Years ago..." He spoke haltingly, conveying the emotional weight of what was coming next. "I was a cute boy fresh out of high school and went to become a secretary at a large company. They do financial planning and accounting for clients. I was so excited to be working there. I was also the only man on the floor where I worked."
"Uh-huh?"
"I worked for this woman who was pretty successful and on the rise there. One day, we were working late, and my boss started chatting with me. We really hit it off, even though she was married. One night, when her husband was out of town, she invited me to her home. She..." Mina began crying again. "...She forced herself onto me...and impregnated me..." He grabbed a box of tissues. "...And the result, nine months later...was you..."
"I thought you said my mom divorced you when I was little?"
Mina shook his head. "I told you that to protect you, Maddie. I also told you that to protect her. She didn't divorce her husband, the one she'd cheated on, for more than a decade, and it was only when the truth came out that they broke up. She has been paying some child support to me as long as possible. Everything I've done to support and raise you, I've done in hopes that you wouldn't be like me..." Mina was full-on sobbing.
"I never wanted to see you...in my situation, yet..." His voice was cracking. "Yet here we are..."
"It was..." Maddie got emotional at seeing his father react so strongly. "...It was a one-night fling at a party, and it was the star quarterback, and I just couldn't say no..." He, too, began to cry. In the midst of his tears, something occurred to him.
"Isn't... Isn't your boss's name Lin... Lin Gibson? I know you've mentioned her a few times to me."
Mina nodded.
"...I'm on the cheer squad with someone named..." He was putting the pieces together. "...Jonatha Gibson."
"You're..." Mina sobbed again while nodding. "...You're his half-brother..." Inside, Mina said something else to himself. And I should be his stepfather.
