Page 41 of Imperfections Forbidden
“And he wants you?Is that what he told you, Cat?You can spread your legs as far and wide as you want, but he will be back here with me and his child.I’m going to be the mother of his child, not you.”
I’m so angry at her, the words are coming out of my mouth before I have a chance to think.“You might be carrying his child, but he doesn’t love you.He loves me.You weren’t even a choice, you were a mistake—just like that bab—” My mother stops me before I finish saying the words I know I will regret later.
“Catherine Reed, you stop this!Right now!How could you do this to your sister?”
“You didn’t hear anything I said, did you?”I say to my mother.
“I don’t need to, you are out of line.I don’t know who you are.The daughter I raised would never do anything like this.You slept with her fiancé, the father of her child?what were you thinking?Do you know how this makes me and this family look?”
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”She looks at me disapprovingly as she continues to blast me with her anger.
“It looks like I raised a daughter with no morals.You’re running around here acting loose, like a little slut in heat.”
“Well, Mother, if I’m a slut, you must be a two-dollar whore.”
Before I know what’s coming my way she rears back, slapping me so hard across my face I’m momentarily stunned.Kate’s hand flies over her mouth in shock.I close my eyes against the stinging pain in my face from the impact of the slap across my cheekbone.When I’m finally able to look at my mother, the fury in her eyes is mixed with what one would consider concern.
Too bad she wasn’t concerned enough to say anything else other than, “How dare you speak to me that way in my house?”
How dare I speak to her like that?How dare she act like she has never committed a sin in her entire life—when she has committed the greatest sin of all to her family.I’m going to show her how much alike we truly are.
“It amazes me how self-righteous you are, Mother.You are no better than me.If anything, what you have done is far greater of an embarrassment to this family than anything I could do.”
“I have never done anything to disgrace this family.”
“I think having an affair with one of your husband’s friends and getting pregnant with his twins would be called the height of embarrassment and disgrace.”
My mother gasps, the color draining from her face.The shock and terror on her face and Kate’s is palpable.
“I don’t think anything I’ve done could surpass that.”
“How did you know?”
“I found out the same time Kate and Chris did.I overheard you telling Grandmother how Chris and Kate found their original birth records in a safe you forgot to lock.How their father left you when he found out you were pregnant, and you had to beg Daddy to take you back.He loved you so much he took you back and agreed to raise the babies as his own.”
I look at Kate, who is looking at me with fire burning in her eyes.All these years I knew Daddy wasn’t her biological father, but I didn’t say anything to anyone.No one else in my family knows.When my mother was pregnant with Kate and Chris, Jay was a little boy.He must remember what happened, that’s why he is so protective over our family, and he always stresses the fact that no one should come between us and break us apart.I think that’s the reason he tried so hard to hold on to his own family with Vanessa and Sasha.
“I was never jealous of you, Kate.I knew why Daddy gave you everything you wanted and asked for.That was his way of showing you how much he loved you even though you weren’t his biological daughter.It didn’t matter that we had different fathers; I loved you the same way I did before I found out the truth.I didn’t know how much you disliked me because I was Daddy’s biological daughter until now.”
I refuse to cry in front of them.I feel the tears stinging my eyes, and my voice is breaking with every sentence.
“I’m leaving, I can’t stay here anymore.”
“Good, I think that would be for the best, right, Mother?”Kate says to her.
“I have to tell your father everything.”
I cut my eyes to her.“No, you won’t, Mother.I was there for the end of your telephone call to Grandmother.If you tell him about any of this, I will tell him the rest of the story.”
“You wouldn’t’t.”
“Yes, I would.When I find a place to stay, I will send for my things.I’m sure you can come up with something to tell Daddy about why I left.He loves his devoted wife so much he will believe almost anything you say.Obviously.”
She doesn’t say anything.Neither does Kate.I take a look at them before I leave.This is not my home anymore.
I didn’t makeit to the school that day.I ended up walking in the cold for hours, thinking about what had happened back at my house until I was so cold I couldn’t walk anymore.I took the train to Manhattan and called Ava.I didn’t tell her what happened till she opened her door and saw me.The look on her face told me exactly how I looked.
“What the hell happened to you?”
