The death of a family member, even someone as misguided and troubled as Isaiah had been, had a sobering effect on all of them.
Gabriel, for his part, had been in a melancholy mood all week. Trying to piece together his shattered life. Trying to absorb the truth. Trying to move on.
Gabriel's telekinesis had gone into remission. He suspected, this time, that it would never return. He no longer glimpsed any spectral figures in mirrors either.
Without Isaiah, the other half of him, there was no need for such things.
After dinner Mom excused herself to go to the bathroom. Gabriel waited for her in the hallway outside the bathroom door. Mom emerged a few minutes later and looked at him with concern.
"What's wrong, baby?" she asked.
He had been waiting to discuss this subject with her again. Waiting for the opportunity, and waiting, most of all, until he was ready to talk about it. Now was the time.
"Pops told me everything, Mom," he said.
"I know." She sighed. "Come sit with me for a little bit, okay?"
They went upstairs to her private study. Mom removed a familiar volume from one of the bookshelves: a large, leather-bound photo album. Opening it, she sat on the sofa and patted the cushion beside her, inviting him to join her. After a moment's hesitation, he did.
Mom turned to his newborn-baby pictures. He was a honey-skinned baby with a smear of dark, curly hair.
"You were such an adorable baby," Mom said. "The first time I laid eyes on you, I fell in love. While I didn't agree with what your father had done, I realized you were a gift. I promised the Lord I would raise you as my own."
"I'm not angry with you," Gabriel said. "You'll always be Mom to me"
"But you have questions," Mom said.
"Yes," he said. "Like my birth certificate, for instance. You're listed as my mother, and my birthplace is listed as Grady hospital, here in Atlanta, not someplace in Chicago."
"Part of the agreement between me and your father," Mom said, "is that we would have to create a background that could stand up to scrutiny. Your father is a well-connected, successful businessman. A man like him can get any paperwork you need"
Gabriel had expected as much. Pops never had any problem using his status to pull strings.
"But didn't family and friends question it?" he asked. "I mean, one day you suddenly show up with a newborn baby. Someone had to ask you about me"
"Although your father and I met in college here in Atlanta, shortly after we married we moved back to Texas, where both of us are originally from, and where our families and closest friends resided. Well, soon after you were born, we decided that returning to Atlanta would diffuse the controversy and the prying questions. So we moved here almost immediately after we took custody of you. Things were better that way."
"Did you know about Isaiah, too?"
"Your father never told me the woman had twins. That's why I was so shocked when Isaiah arrived. I had no idea he existed."
"Then Pops lied to you for years, too"
"He could have done the righteous thing and given me the whole truth, yes," Mom said. Her face reflected years of repressed pain.
"I risked my life to save him." Gabriel clenched his hand into a fist. "But he's been lying to all of us from the beginning. This is all his fault."
Mom placed her hand atop his, loosened his fist with soothing rubs. "Your father is a complex man. Full of contradictions. You were correct to go there to help him. He needed you then, and he needs you now, more than you realize."
"What does he need me for? I'm starting to really doubt that I need him at all."
"Our children are our conscience," Mom said. "They remind us of the values we're supposed to hold dear. Sometimes we fail but so long as our children are in our lives, we never forget our responsibility to them and ourselves."
"I'm not sure I understand that, Mom, but thanks for the words of wisdom anyway."
"You'll understand once you have your own children," she said. "Now, hold on one moment, lest I make a liar of myself."
Mom walked across the room and opened a file cabinet. She took out a manila folder and gave it to him.
It contained an obituary for Naomi Battle.
"I must counsel you to do the proper thing," Mom said. "Pay your respects to your birth mother, Gabriel."
Clasping the folder to his side, Gabriel left his mother's study and went downstairs.
He located his father in the grand salon. His back facing Gabriel, Pops stood silently at the large window, sipping cognac.
Ever since the events at the cabin, the past couple of times Gabriel had seen his father at home, a glass of liquor was always within his reach, and Gabriel wondered if his father had resolved to heal himself-or kill himself-through the bottle.
Your father is a complex man. Full of contradictions.
Pops turned, noted Gabriel's presence. He nodded slightly.
Gabriel nodded, too.
He loved his father. He hated his father.
But through it all, T.L. Reid was still his father. And he always would be.
A week later, Gabriel and Dana took a flight to Chicago. They visited Mt. Olive Cemetery, on the Southside.
Kneeling, Gabriel placed a bouquet of fresh carnations on his mother's grave. He lowered his head.
"Thank you," he said softly to the mother he had never known.
In October, Gabriel and Dana wed.
Although they already had been together for three years, when they married, they discovered new depths in their love for each other. Gabriel found unexpected strength and security in loving someone, unconditionally, and knowing in his heart that she felt the same about him-with no lies and illusions clouding the air between them.
At home late one evening, about a year into their marriage, Dana sat next to Gabriel on the sofa and told him, with tears glittering in her eyes, that she was pregnant. Jubilant, he swept her off her feet and carried her across the room, making such a joyful ruckus that their new dog, Nia, a rambunctious yellow Labrador, regarded them as if they had lost their minds.
The following summer, nine months after Dana's announcement and a surprisingly easy labor, Dana gave birth.
To twin girls.
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Table of Contents
Part One
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Part Two
Chapter 2 3
Chapter 24
Chapter 2 5
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 2 8
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 3 1
Chapter 3 2
Chapter 33
Chapter 3 4
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 3 9
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter
47
Part Three
Chapter 49
Chapter 5 0
Chapter 5 1
Chapter 5 2
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 5 7
Chapter 58
Chapter 5 9
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 6 8
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 7 3
Chapter 74
Chapter 7 5