Page 67 of Keeping Score

“Yeah, Goldie.”

“Did Gary know about you being his twin?” I shake my head even though she can’t see me.

“No, he hated me and Corvin because of football. He had no idea that we were even related at that time. Gary is fucked up, Goldie.” She snorts.

“Yeah, I’m well aware of that fact.”

“Gary knew my mom sold her body for drugs. After what he did to you, he tried tobuymy mom.” She gasps and slowly turns sideways so she can face me, her face a picture of disgust.

“He tried to sleep with his own mother?” I roll my lips over my teeth and nod. “Oh, that is just gross.”

“Yeah, it is,” I admit.

“Did he… do it?”

“No.”

“Thank God?—”

“It wasn’t from his lack of trying. But, apparently even Jenny Lockhart has a moral compass and draws the line at fucking her own son,” I say with an edge to my voice.

“Wait, so your mom knew who Gary was the whole time?” I grit my teeth and nod, her eyes soften. “How?”

I take a deep breath before giving her the story she eagerly wants. “When Gary and I turned one, Victor turned up at the trailer park demanding one of us.”

“Why?” I hear tinges of pain in her voice, but it isn’t for herself, it’s for me.

“Victor’s father told him that he wouldn’t hand over the company to him unless he had an heir that he could pass the company onto.” Anger flares to life in her eyes.

“Victor never wanted Gary, he just wanted to inherit his fortune.” I nod. “How did he know your mom?”

“Jenny said she met him at a bar she used to sing at, some swanky joint in the city. He would screw her every time he was in town. She got knocked up and Victor fled, leaving her alone and pregnant. She lost her job and had no choice but to move out of the city into a trailer park where she raised us for a year, until Victor came and stole Gary.” Her eyes widen and her mouth pinches to the side. I can see the cogs of her mind turning over. “Just say it.”

“When did your mom start doing drugs and… prostituting herself?” I frown.

“Why?” She reaches out and cups my face between her hands, sadness clouds her features.

“Just answer, please.” I try to think back to when I first remember her starting to dabble in narcotics.

“Maybe around the time I turned two. She didn’t shoot up at first, she just started to drink. Then, when that didn’t give her a buzz, she started on the hard shit and well, you know the rest.”

“Oh, Darius,” she says brokenly. I lean forward and gently grip her waist as I place a soft kiss to her lips.

“Don’t pity me, baby. Look at me now,” I say in a light tone, trying to ease some of the tension. She shakes her head.

“Darius, you don’t get it, do you?”

I furrow my brow, not picking up what she is putting down. “Get what, Goldie?” I ask, slightly exasperated and over this whole conversation. Dragging up the past does nothing. All it ever does is make me hate Jenny and Victor more for not loving me like the Williams’s love their children.

“Darius, your mom turned to drinking and drugs because she was broken hearted.”

“What?” I practically shout.

“Did she willingly hand Gary over?” I scrunch my face up as I try to remember that day. I can’t, all I know is what she told me.

“She said she hated Victor because he took her purpose away. I… I don’t think she gave him up, I think Victor just… took him.”

“Your mom was trying to dull her pain through alcohol and drugs, Darius.” I cock my head to the side and stare at her, trying to process her words. “The day you moved in with us, what did your mom say?” I scoff.