“Richard, stop.”
He looked at her.
“For thirty years, Vivian.”
His voice was quiet.
“I’ve stopped every time you asked me to.”
Vivian’s face crumpled.
“Not here.”
“Where, then?”
Richard looked around the room.
“At another funeral?”
His eyes moved toward the portrait of William Harper hanging above the fireplace.
“Because that’s how this family has always handled the truth, isn’t it?”
Alyssa looked between them.
“Mom?”
Vivian closed her eyes.
Richard continued.
“Your mother told me William could never know.”
Alyssa’s voice broke.
“Why?”
“Because she was already married to him.”
Alyssa stared at Vivian.
Richard looked at me.
“And because William had already fallen in love with Candace.”
I frowned.
“What does that have to do with me?”
Richard took a slow breath.
“Everything.”
He sat down.
“I met your mother before she met William. We were young. Stupid. We thought we had time to figure out what we wanted.”
Vivian whispered, “Richard…”
He continued.
“But then she met William.”
He looked at the photograph of Dad.
“He had money. Stability. A family name. And she knew William wanted children.”
Alyssa looked sick.
“You married him because of his money?”
Vivian shook her head.
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Then what was it like?”
Vivian didn’t answer.
Richard did.
“She became pregnant.”
Alyssa’s eyes widened.
“With me?”
“Yes.”
Richard’s voice trembled.
“She told me the baby was mine.”
“Then why did Dad believe you were his?”
“Because Vivian told William she was pregnant with his child.”
Alyssa turned toward her mother.
“You lied to him.”
Vivian began crying.
“I was terrified.”
“You lied to my father.”
“I was terrified of losing everything.”
Alyssa laughed bitterly.
“So you kept me.”
Vivian looked at her.
“You were my daughter.”
“But you let Dad raise me.”
“Yes.”
“You let him love me.”
“Yes.”
“You let him pay for everything.”
“Yes.”
“And then you spent thirty years telling Candace she wasn’t really his daughter.”
Vivian looked at me.
“I didn’t know how to stop.”
That sentence hung in the air.
I almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was unbelievable.
“You didn’t know how to stop?”
Vivian looked at me.
“You were always suspicious.”
I stared at her.
“You made me suspicious.”
“You looked different.”
“I was a child.”
“You reminded me of your mother.”
“My mother?”
Vivian froze.
Alyssa looked at me.
“What does she mean?”
I looked at Vivian.
“My mother is dead.”
Vivian swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Then why did you say I reminded you of her?”
Vivian said nothing.
Richard looked down.
And suddenly I understood.
There was another secret.
Another one Dad had never told me.
