Chris

My mind raced as I showered and dressed clumsily wishing I had some clean clothes to put on. I didn't talk to Sarah as we got ready and climbed into the car and she pulled out onto the road. My mind was just trying to compute this information, even though very little was actually new. I mean I had already known Sarah had a baby our baby, but I don't know suddenly going to see him, him having a name a face it was overwhelming my brain. I had a baby, no I Have a son, I have a 5 year old son, I have a 5 year old son called Theo.

"are you angry with me?" Sarah asked gently.

"what?" I said snapping out of my musing.

"are you angry I mean I know I should have told you before not that I knew where you were but..."

"no no juliet. I'm not angry it's just a lot to take in."

"I know I'm sorry."

"so what happened?" she shrugged,

"well dad didnt ask well didn't ask me anyway. I was sent away had Theo and came home without a baby and applied for med school so he was fine with that. I don't know what mom said to him. But we went to my mom's aunt Katherine. Dad never really cared to know her, to nbe honest I don't think I ever met her before., so he doesn't know that I left Theo with her. She didn't ask for much of an explanation from me anyway, she knew how hard it was for me. She loves kids but couldn't have any and has a small holding loads of animals for him to play with. She doesn't let Theo call her mummy, he calls her auntie kat. He knows I'm his mummy and he calls me that whenever I can see him."

"who knows about him?"

"just me and mom,"

"your fiancé? "

"no he doesn't know"

"juliet your relationship is fucked up."

"more than ours Romeo ?"

" point taken."

"look just one thing I think we need to remember Theo is only 5 so maybe we."

"don't worry I won't tell him who I am."

"it's just questions that I don't want to answer today."

"I get it he's 5 and how do you explain to a 5 year old that I'm his dad AND his uncle. Its fine." even to my own ears that response was too sharp.

"it's clearly not."

"it hurts a litte but I get it and just meeting him is more than I expected."

Sarahs phone buzzed and she snapped on the phone and began talking quickly about the arrangements for dad's funeral on Friday and I suddenly realised that we had barely mentioned our dad's death. Sarah was dealing with it by herself. She hung up and I turned to her.

"so can we talk a little about our dad I don't really know what happened."

"I mean I don't know much but it was a car crash, nothing epic it was just night dark and bad weather. Apparently it was instant he hit a tree and that was it. Seems a bit anticlimactic for such a VIP Huh?"

" yeah dying liking us mortals. So the funeral am I welcome. "

" nobody will make issue if you want to after all very few people actually know what happened, so if you want to go. "

" I just want to be with you. " she smiled, " so we have another sister did you say. " yeah melody I think dad married her mum I forget her name they managed about a year I think but divorced now dad has another girlfriend but shes dealing wiith the grief by flying to miami apparently. "

"Guess we inherit fucked up relationships from our dad. "

"I guess I mean I hid our son for 6 years, I'm engaged and oh yeah we're siblings. It's about as fucked up as it gets."

"it is indeed fucked up but what I feel for you baby that's real." she smiled but it was a sad smile.

"we did have an amazing journey didn't we." I frowned not sure how to take that why did it sound like a goodbye. Sarah pulled off the road into a driveway pulling up outside a large house.

"were here." she said getting out of the car quickly and almost ran around the house to the back door, leaving me scampering along in her wake. She ran into the kitchen

"kat" she said brightly. Hugging her great aunt who was a perfect stereotype slightly plump kindly face a floral apron and even a smudge of flour on her cheek.

"hey dear."

"thanks for letting us turn up so last minute."

"oh your always welcome you know that."

"this is."

"your brother Chris?"

"um yeah." Sarah said looking a little surprised she knew that. She smiled at me,

"oh my you grew up handsome didn't you." she said holding out a hand I shook.

"sorry have we met?"

"a long time ago. At your dad's wedding of course you were only little."

Suddenly she frowned her eyes flicking from me to Sarah and back again. Horror then Comprehension settled she closed her eyes for a second breathing deeply for a second before opening her eyes and her smile returned.

"well Chris just wanted to meet Theo." Sarah said gently clearly she noticed the look too.

"well I'm sure he'll like that I sent him upstairs to tidy his room can you go get him dear?" she smiled seeming relieved to be able to scamper off.

"um well thank you for letting me meet him." I said gently Kat nodded.

"you two are sturing up a fucking hornets nest aren't you." I frowned,

"sorry?"

"your sons down in the orchard"

"what?"

"Chris I'm not stupid you were disowned and 9 months later Sarah has a baby she's told she has to get rid of."

"well... Um... I" kat smiled,

"I'm not looking for an explanation Chris it's not my business go to the orchard meet your son but you have to choose if your his uncle or dad."

"thank you." I said heading out to the orchard wondering what I wanted to be. As I entered the orchard I was forced to dodge a fallen apple.

"sorry." said a sweet childish voice from amongst the leaves, a small boy jumped out of the tree in front of me instantly frowning as I looked into Sarahs bright blue eyes. My mouth went dry and my heart hammered rapidly.

"who are you?" he asked and I smiled, there was the question.

Thank you for reading. Hope you are still enjoying the story. As always I really appreciate any comments and suggestions ❤️❤️❤️