"She'd wound her own son without a second thought, if that was what it took."
The secret I'd dragged out of the ground left my mother speechless for a moment.
"Duane, I hope you can understand why your mother did what she did."
"You and Sid are both good children to me. My own flesh, both of you. I would never take one side over the other."
"Get out!"
Because I honestly didn't want to hear another word of it. It would only waste my time.
She had exactly one child she cared about, and it was Sid. Where did I fit into her "own flesh"? But she made no move to leave. She stood there with the look of someone carrying something she couldn't quite bring herself to say.
"Say it, then."
She only ever came to me when she wanted something. I already guessed it was about Sid again.
"Duane, there's something I need from you."
"Sid's startup failed. He wants to start over, but he doesn't have the capital."
"I can see you're doing well for yourself. And he is your brother. Could you put up a million dollars—"
"The door's right there. Don't let me keep you."
I'd shown her out. I had no interest in discussing it further.
That was when Freda came back in, holding Sid up on her arm.
She must have heard the whole exchange.
"Duane, how can you talk to your mother like that? She's only worried about Sid."
The words had barely left her when my mother crossed the room to stand with them.
The three of them together looked exactly like a family.
From beginning to end, I was the outsider.
"If she's so worried about Sid, she can go borrow the money from a bank."
"Duane, that's your brother—"
"Brother? Ha. That's rich."
"If he really thought of me as his brother, would he have slept with you?"
"And even my own mother takes his side, every single time."
"Tell me. How much bigger a person do you people want me to be?"
For a moment no one dared say a word.
This house choked the air out of me. As I turned to leave, my mother spat the words through clenched teeth.
"Wasn't the last time just a misunderstanding?"
"They're both innocent. Why can't you let it go? Why do you have to drive a knife into every single one of us?"
I turned back and looked at the three of them, cold, and the retort stuck in my throat lost all its interest.
One mouth couldn't win against three.
In the end it was Sid who stepped in to smooth things over, quick to play the good man.
"Duane, I'm sorry."
"That night I was drunk out of my mind too. That's the only reason I committed such an unforgivable thing."
"I'm apologizing to you. Please, can't you forgive me?"
"This is your home. If anyone's leaving, it should be us."
My mother and Freda watched Sid deliver his devout little apology, aching for him.
When I still didn't open my mouth to accept it, Freda's face went hard at once.
"Sid apologized to you himself. What more do you want?"
"I don't want anything. I just want them gone, out of my sight, now."
Hearing that, Sid dropped his head, wearing the wounded look of someone hard done by.
My mother stepped up to defend him and shot me a glare.
Just as she was about to speak, Sid rushed off, all grief and heartbreak.
He ran too fast, and the whole of him went tumbling down the stairs.
"Sid!"
"Sid!"
Freda screamed, then turned on me with vicious words.
"Duane, why are you pushing him like this? You're more poisonous than a wolf."
"Whether you forgive him or not doesn't matter anymore. We don't need your forgiveness."
"Get out. I don't want to look at you right now."
My mother said nothing, only kept those cold eyes fixed on me.
I'd told myself I would let them go and walk away for good. But when the wound was torn open again, all my chest could do was hurt, and hurt, and hurt.
