Page 40 of Contract Of Shame

Chapter Thirteen

Richard went home to the place he had grown up. The house looked so harmless on the outside.He parked his car and stared at the house most people would dream about living in.

On the side of the house a basketball hoop lay. His mother had wanted it for decoration to show the neighbourhood they had children. Richard remembered when he, Wayne, and Tony had started playing ball. His mum had come out yelling and cursing at them. Once inside she popped the ball in front of them all and said they didn’t need to act like hooligans.

How could he have left Opal to all of this? She ran out of the house as soon as she saw his car. His mother was not far behind.

“Don’t run, Opal. You know it’s not ladylike,” she called.

Opal stopped, and his heart broke. She was already being designed into the perfect ideal daughter, not the person she was meant to be.

She stood in front of him and took his hand. “How are you doing, brother?”

“Don’t do that, Opal. Don’t let her break who you’re going to be.” He placed his arms around her shoulders, and they walked up to the house together. “Where’s dad?”

“In his office. Where else would he be?” his mother said.

“I couldn’t imagine why.” He went past her up to his old room.

Richard opened the door and the past. His bedroom looked spotless as if no one ever lived inside. A few trophies dotted the walls. Books from law school and certificates of his achievements. On the mirror pictures of his friends and Opal were placed at odd angles.

He frowned when he glanced at one with an old nanny he couldn’t recall what had happened to. Richard picked the picture off the glass. The woman had red hair, and she smiled down at him. What caught his attention in the photo wasn’t the woman, but the hand on the shoulder of the woman.

Looking closer he saw his father standing directly behind the woman. His dad had a hand on the woman’s shoulder, and his nanny had her own placed over his fathers.

Richard thought of his parents’ anniversary and of Wayne and Lily. He even thought about his time spent with Scarlet. People who cared about each other and loved each other. They couldn’t help but touch.

“You’d just won a football game in that picture,” his dad said from the doorway.

“I remember,” Richard recalled the game, but he couldn’t recall the woman in the picture. “Who’s the woman in the picture?”

“Woman? Oh, her name was Natasha, I think. Nice girl.” His dad looked uncomfortable. “Your mother said you were here.”

“So I am.”

“You haven’t been here in years.”

Richard stared at the picture. “Why are you lying?” he asked. Never before had he pulled his dad up on a lie.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really?” He was tired of the lies. Thirty plus years, a grown man he didn’t need to be protected anymore. Richard slammed the picture in his father’s hand. “Because the last time I checked you’ve never looked so fucking happy in any of the pictures with my mother. What was it you once said to me? Keep the woman you want as a mistress? So I’ll ask you again. Who is she?”

“You clearly are in a bad mood and looking for a fight, so I’m going—”

“No. You’re fucking not. For too long you’ve left me in the dark. Who is this woman?”

Richard knew he wasn’t getting though, and his dad turned to leave. “I’m going to marry the woman I love. Her name’s Scarlet Hughes. She’s amazing and has a son whom I love.”

His dad stopped at the door, his hand out to grasp the handle. “Your mother would never accept it.”

“Do you think I give a fuck what she thinks?”

“Didn’t you listen to anything I’ve told you?”

Richard stared at the man he’d listened to his whole young life, the man whose rules he’d followed without question.

“I listened, and I ended up a miserable old bastard like you. If I keep listening to your wonderful advice I’ll be married to someone I can’t stand and wish to constantly be anywhere but at home. Isn’t that what you do? You’re with us, but you really want to be with her?”

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