Page 34 of Owned By Two

I thought honestly — was it that bad?

No, it hadn’t been that bad.

We had each other and that had always been enough.

Sure, we could have done with a little more money, could have bought things we had our eye on, but really, there was nothing we couldn’t have gotten if we put our minds to it.

We didn’t need my father’s money.

The revelation was shocking to me.

So, I’m angry at him for something I’m not even really angry about…

“Perhaps I shouldn’t say this…” Uhti said, checking over his shoulders to ensure no one was listening. “But I know for fact he kept close tabs on you and your mother.”

I blinked in surprise. “He was? Then why didn’t he come to us sooner?”

Uhti looked at me and then away again. “I believe… he did. Several times. He went to see you but when he spoke with your mother, he found she didn’t want any of his help or assistance, and most certainly not any of his money. She felt it was poisoned the same way you did. He had chosen to leave you both and your mother told him it was a mistake he was going to have to live with.”

I thought back and tried to guess when this meeting might have taken place.

When I was very young? I wondered. When I was at school?

“This happened multiple times?” I asked.

Uhti nodded. “Several times, yes. And that was only while I was working here for the past four years. I know he used to travel to Earth. He would watch you sometimes, but I suppose his courage gave out and he couldn’t approach you. Not even after your mother had passed. Perhaps it was because she had passed that he couldn’t make contact with you. I got the impression he would have if he could. He must have made a promise to your mother that he wouldn’t do so.”

The piece slotted into place.

The few times I had broached the subject of my father with Mom, she had been distant, as if there was something she didn’t wish to share with me.

Perhaps she was even a little ashamed about the actions she had taken.

She was generally a very calm and thoughtful soul and I recalled a few times when I had returned from school and found her uncharacteristically irritated.

Maybe it had something to do with those meetings with my father.

I was shocked to hear this.

It was like discovering an entire universe existed just underneath the one I had always known.

I had lived a lie.

I wondered when he might have seen me, if he had sat in a shuttle across the street looking at me, watching.

I wondered what thoughts were passing through his mind.

The same ones that had passed through mine on countless occasions? I wondered.

Now that he had died, I would never know.

Suddenly, my emotions took a solid shunt in the opposite direction.

I wasn’t ready to forgive him — I wasn’t sure if I wouldeverbe ready for that — but at the very least, I could accept he was a complex person, capable of complicated thoughts and emotions.

And that, at least, was a first step.

I dusted off my hands and got to my feet.

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