Two days had passed since the blackout at Starbucks, and Luke couldn’t get Kimmie off his mind. He’d been so distracted that he’d almost missed his flight back to Sydney.
The opening of Hemmings Tower, he knew that his father didn't care. Since he had left him , his older brothers and his mother who had cancer alone. At age 7 luke had become to a man. His brothers Ben and Jack, much older than him. they were ready to move out and go to college in the states. But Ben stayed to watch over his dying mother.
Andrew and his sons John and Harry Hemmings were opening the chain’s first hotel on the West Coast of Sydney. Luke had followed the construction of the project, smiling at the stumbling blocks that cropped up, like the zoning dispute between the city and the contractor. Then There was the Sierra Club’s oppositions to the project, which made Hemmings Hotels spend an additional forty million dollars on LEED certification for the project.John and Andrew, which made the building of the towers more dramatic than General Hospital.l, and this was his “family.” Whatever. Why had this man, turned his back on his actual family so he thought
Luke hated that the last conversation he had with his mother, it changed his life forever
-convo with his mum-
Liz clinched her son’s hands in hers and smiled at them. Luke and her were always so close and watching cancer suck the life from her made him want to cry and Luke wasn’t an emotional man. “I love you, guys,” she said, her voice frail and quiet.
"I love you, too." Ben said crying,
"Mom you're perfectly fine," Jack said trying to cheer her up "Just see tomorrow you're gonna be skipping out her and we're gonna go get us some maccas right?" Jack said in between tears.
"Of course sweetie," she smiled
Liz broke into a fit of coughing and Luke reached for the nurse’s call button. She grabbed his hand and shook her head. “No, no. I have to tell you boys something .”
"Mum, you need to rest." Ben comanded
Liz coughed again as Luke stared into her pale face. He hated feeling powerless and helpless. He stroked her hand and closed his eyes. “Mum, I wish you would rest.”
She shook her head. “Not until you boys know,"
"Know what?!?" Luke asked scared
He wanted to tell her that it could wait, that they had time. But he knew nothing could be further from the truth, his mom was slipping away with every breath she took. “Mum,” jack said.
"Your father."
"What about our father?" Luke asked, thinking about the asshole Andrew, who had left them when he was 7.
She squeezed his hand again. “Your father is a powerful man and I loved him very much.”
Luke only remembered him and his mum fighting, he never knew there was love anywhere near them.
"But…." She began coughing again, this time her body shook like a leaf and they worried if she would be able to take another breath.
"Just rest, mum," Jack said sounding like the helpless 12-year-old. Again, luke reached for the call button, but Liz grabbed his hand again.
"If things had been different, we would’ve been together and given you a real family," she said. "I know he loved me. He took care of you from a far and I wish I had never agreed to her deal."
"Mum, it doesn’t matter." Luke kissed her head. "Rest."
"I want you boys to know…. know the truth. Andrew loved you. When you were young he would take you too baseball games remember?" She started coughing really bad "We did fight in those last few days because we couldn't handle it. She was going to ruin us.
"Mum, what are you talking about? Who is she? What does all of this mean?"
"Andrew Hemmings is your father. I told him I’d never tell you, but I can’t go to my grave holding this secret any longer."
"Yes mum Andrew Hemmings he is my dad and it doesn’t matter that he’s my father. You’ve been there for me all my life, I don’t give a damn about him," Luke raged as his mother, she took a big breath.
"Don’t say that. There is more, she was going to tell them if he didn't leave us."
"Know him? Why would I want to get to know him he left us? Who was going to tell who?" Ben said standing up now
Liz’s eyes searched her son’s faces and her mouth fell open. Her hand slipped from his and Luke collapsed couldnt take it. His mother his only true friend was gone.
Luke was 14 when she passed. He soon moved in with his aunt while his brother went back to school. They had promised to forget what Liz had said and go one with there lives.
He always joked about his dad with his friends calum and Michael. "That's not fair when I was young boy my father never took me into the city to see a marching band," everyone laughed and that was his classic depressing joke, but little did he know that he soon regrer saying that. And all of his depressing jokes would come back and haunt him.
