Black Rose

Fifty

"You were awfully quiet at dinner tonight." Venus voiced to Mel as they walked down the path in the backyard.

"Didn't have much to say." She shrugged, looking out at the pond.

"Honey, if you're that worried about the babies, you can always take them back to the hospital for a second opinion."

"I probably will tomorrow. I'm gonna wait and see how tonight goes first." Venus nodded and stopped in front of the lake, watching the flock of ducks. Mel had the conversation from earlier weighing heavy on her mind and although she wanted to start an argument, she didn't want to aggressively approach the situation. "I overheard you and Chris' conversation."

Venus heart stopped, she slowly turned to see Melrose staring at her with a look she couldn't pinpoint. "You-you did?"

"Yeah. So, he's my dad?"

"Yes."

"How? Why? I need answers Venus."

"Come, sit down. I'll shorten the full story since we're pressing for time." They sat on the nearest bench that faced the pond. Venus slightly turned in Mel's direction. She hadn't been this nervous in a long time and she never wanted to feel this wave of emotion again. Fiddling with her fingers, she began speaking. "I met him when I was sixteen and we started dating shortly after. We dated for three years off and on because he cheated an awful a lot of times, so I called the relationship off. During our breakup, I found out I was pregnant with you and didn't get to tell him until you were three years old. I found out at that moment, he had a child when we were together, who's yours and Kelsi's older brother. And I found out about her as well. He didn't believe me when I told him about you. I even offered to agree to a DNA test, but he refused to do it, so I never reached out to him again."

"Ok, but why pretend like y'all didn't know each other in Bali?" Mel queried, not understanding their logic.

"We weren't pretending." Venus started. "We just didn't tell you we knew each other prior to the trip."

Mel scoffed, shaking her head at the nonsense coming from her mother's mouth. "Well, do Kelsi know about this?"

"No, neither of his children know. We wanted to tell you first since you grew up without him in your life. Then, we'd work on telling Kelsi and Kalum."

It was too much for Mel to take in all at once. Her entire life she grew up thinking and dreading being an only child when she had siblings out there and Venus didn't tell her. Those times she needed a sisterly talk about finding boys attractive, her period, sex and other things a teenager couldn't talk to her mother about. An older brother to protect her from bullies and irritate her just because that's what brothers do. Mel was robbed of it all for twenty-six years.

"You should know I'm very upset right now. More so hurt that y'all kept a secret this huge and this long from me. You should've told me, but I can understand why you chose not to...when I was younger that is. If you did, I would've wanted to meet them and seeing that my deadbeat father opted out of my life, it would have affected me."

"I can honestly say that is exactly why I didn't tell you. You used to nag me constantly about having another child. I couldn't break your heart like that Melrose. As of the present, you definitely have the right to be mad with me. I can't defend my actions." Venus was admissive of her illegitimate reason for hiding the truth. It was the only path to take in order to refrain from starting a war with Mel.

None other than Chris came outside and stood on the patio shouting for Venus to get up. Mel rolled her eyes, annoyed with his presence. Just because she held back the attitude on Venus doesn't clear his part. She had some choice words for Chris Hartman. Ugly ass last name, she thought, standing to her feet, marching towards the house.