Page 231 of The Bonus

“I’m confused,” my father says. “What are you doing here?”

“So…” He pauses. “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to come out with it. I’m the twins’ biological father.”

“What?” Mom snaps. “That’s not true, the children were conceived through donor sperm.”

“Ahh,” Deb’s voice interrupts.

“Grace and I dated in secret while she worked for me.”

“For how long?” my father snaps.

“Over a year. We were in love.”

What?

“She didn’t want to stay in New York and I didn’t want to leave. We broke up and she moved here. Not long after, she found out she was pregnant.”

“She would have told us,” Mom replies. “There is no way she would have lied to us for all these years. Grace would never lie to us, you’re lying.”

“I made her swear to secrecy,” he says. “It was against company policy for us to date, and I begged her not to tell.”

“It’s true,” Debbie says softly.

Mom gasps.

“We’ve recently reconnected and have been trying to work things out.”

“What?” Mom replies. “Why wouldn’t she have told us?”

“She was protecting me,” he says.

“Oh my god,” Mom whispers. “I can’t believe this.”

“She was going to tell you this week, but now…with the accident,” he continues.

The kids come bustling back into the room.

“Shh, Mommy is sleeping,” Debbie says.

“We’ll take them down to the playground,” Mom says. “Let her sleep.” I hear the door close and I battle to open my eyes.

“Why did you tell them that?” Debbie whispers.

“You think Grace wants her parents to know that we had a one-night stand and that she lied to them for all these years?”

“But . . .”

“But nothing, I’ll take the blame. I’m used to being the bad guy, it’s fine.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because…I love her.”

Silence…

They keep talking, but their voices begin to blend into each other.

I struggle with my eyelids, wake up…just open.

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