WANT TO KNOW A SECRET?

(2)

A few minutes later, I parked in our driveway. I frowned when I saw our mother's car was there.

"I thought she was supposed to be away till next week this time..." Nathan mumbled, knowing life was about to get more stressful as soon as we stepped a foot inside our house.

Our mother's job as a sales and marketing representative for Rochester's very own spring water, Oh so Pure! , had her travel the US all the time, so we saw her one or two days every other week.

I still remembered our Dad's face when she'd told us about her big promotion. I often recalled how defeated he looked when he understood that it was over for them as a couple.

I was so sad for him at first, that during the week that followed the news, I made sure to cook his favorite meals and to iron his shirts just the way he liked them.

How stupid of me.

When Nathan and I came back from school the following Monday, half the furniture had disappeared from our medium-sized two levels log house.

Worse, when I'd called my mother at work to let her know, she'd laughed at me and said, "What did you expect?"

We'd never heard of him since and that was two years ago.

Two weeks before Cam died.

"What's taking you so long?" She called us from the front door.

"She sure sounds excited..." Nathan commented drily and I couldn't help but feel guilty.

He's too bitter for a twelve years old, I thought. I should have protected him from all that grown-up stuff instead of relying on him to get through everything.

I clenched my hands three times before following him up the wooden stairs.

"Hello, Nathan, Poppy, come in..." Her wannabe accepted by rich people voice alerted me that she was not alone, and I rolled my eyes when she went as far as air kissing us as we walked past her through the door.

I sent a glance Nate's way and saw that he was thinking the same thing.

A man cleared his voice behind her, and both mine and Nathan's eyes grew wide when we recognized who he was.

What was Bryan Van Houten, the owner of Oh so pure! and co-president of the oh so rich! – Note the sarcasm, here - Van Houten Group with his cousin Christian, doing in our house?!

"I don't need to introduce Bryan..." She actually giggled. We shook our head to humor her. "Bryan, this is my daughter, Poppy Louise..." As if placing my middle name would make us sound wealthier or something!? "And this young boy here, is Nathaniel Robert..." That's new! I thought and one look at Nate's grimace told me that he'd had enough of her fake niceties.

"What's going on, Mom?" I asked softly, unwilling to trigger one of her outbursts when she repeated over and over again just how ungrateful we were when she was working so hard for us and blah blah blah.

"Straight to the point, I like you already, young lady!" Mr. Van Houten exclaimed, revealing the whitest smile ever.

I can't say that the feeling is mutual... I thought bitterly.

"Your mother and I have been seeing each other for quite a while, now..." You're kidding me!!! I sighed. "We wanted to see if it would last before telling you guys..." He explained, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "But we're more in love than ever after all those years..." My mom had the decency to look guilty at that point.

"How long have you been together?" I heard myself blurt out.

"Three years and a half..." He answered, ignoring our Mom's signs. "They deserve the truth, Bianca..." He told her sternly.