Page 35 of Truth

I nodded, letting her know it was all right. She took a deep breath and pushed back her chair. I knew the effort it took for her to do something as simple as go into the kitchen and help my aunt with dessert, but she was doing it, and I was proud of her.

As soon as they were out of earshot, my uncle pounced. “Should I even ask why you were late today?”

I picked up my water and took a drink before addressing him. “If there’s something you wish to say, Richard, please say it. As we’ve already established, I’m an adult and so is Brianna. What we do, or don’t do, is none of your business.”

“Now, Stephan, I don’t think your uncle—”

“Stay out of this, Samantha. I have no interest in your mind games.”

“Stephan! I don’t appreciate you using that tone with my wife,” Jimmy said, all his usual lightheartedness gone.

“Jimmy, I appreciate you defending your wife, but if she is going to stick her nose into someone else’s business, then both of you are going to have to learn to deal with the consequences. I won’t be one of her psych studies.”

“And what about your consequences?” Samantha piped in.

Unfortunately, I was unable to respond. Diane and Brianna walked around the corner with dessert. Even with the tension in the room, I couldn’t help but smile when I saw what she was carrying. It seemed my aunt was pulling out all my favorites.

Brianna waited patiently behind her with a stack of plates and a handful of forks, while Diane laid the three-layer chocolate and strawberry swirl cake on the table and began to slice it. One by one, Brianna handed my aunt a plate, which she filled with a piece of cake.

“Thank you, dear,” she said to Brianna, taking the last two plates from her.

Brianna resumed her place beside me quickly. Soon we were all eating again. Unfortunately, the tension in the room hadn’t dissipated much.

“Dr. Cooper?” Brianna’s voice was barely above a whisper, but since they were the first words anyone at the table had heard her speak all day, everyone stopped and waited.

There was an unnatural pause before my uncle answered her. “Yes, Brianna?”

She pressed her lips together for five very long seconds before she spoke. “What made you... want to become a doctor?”

No one spoke for the longest time, but I reached out and took her hand in mine, smiling the entire time. I knew she was only following the instructions I’d given her, but she could have picked something simple like asking him his favorite color. It would have only required a one-word answer on his part, and once the response was given, her task would have been completed. By asking something more open ended, she also opened herself up to a more lengthy conversation.

“My father was a doctor. I used to go into the office with him on Saturdays when I was younger. Then in my teenage years, I volunteered at the hospital.” He paused, glancing over at me before returning to Brianna. “I admired my father a great deal. He knew every one of his patients by name. He knew their families.” There was a long silence before he added, “I wanted to be just like him.”

We could have heard a pin drop in the room after that. There wasn’t even the sound of forks scraping against plates. Richard’s father had died last year, and it was clear that talking about him had brought his grief back to the surface.

“Ted was a good man and a great doctor,” Diane said, breaking through the silence.

“Yes,” Richard said, clearing his throat. “Yes, he was.”

I decided I needed to fill Brianna in on what was going on. I didn’t want her to be confused. “Richard’s father, Ted, died a little over a year ago. They were close.”

She looked up at me, eyes wide. Brianna closed her eyes momentarily, before turning to face my uncle. I knew she was trying to keep herself from crying. “I’m so sorry.”

He cleared his throat again and picked up his napkin to wipe his mouth. It was a purely reactionary gesture. “No need to be sorry, Brianna. You didn’t know. Besides, talking about our loved ones who’ve passed on is a way for us to honor their memory. They are only truly gone if we choose to forget them.”

The way my uncle glanced over to me as he spoke was not lost on me. I knew exactly what he was implying, but he was wrong. Just because I didn’t like to talk about my parents didn’t mean I’d forgotten them. Far from it. They were a part of me. A part of me that I didn’t share easily. A part of me that I wanted to share with only one person.

Brianna

I was nervous when Stephan’s aunt asked for my help in the kitchen, but I didn’t know how to get out of it. It turned out not to be as scary as I thought it would be. She was really nice. I even felt comfortable enough to ask her my question.

At first, I thought I’d asked something wrong because she stopped what she was doing and turned to look at me. Then she smiled and continued to place slices of strawberries on top of the chocolate cake. “Stephan didn’t come to live with us until he was almost fifteen, you know.”

She paused, glancing up at me again.

When I nodded, she continued. “His mother and I were only a year apart, so we were close. But like most families, we didn’t see each other all the time. They were busy with their lives, and we were busy with ours.”

She finished decorating the cake and then began removing plates and utensils from the drawers and cabinets.

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