He reaches across the table and grabs my hand. The touch is very comforting, and I’m grateful for it.
“That must be tough. Are you alone? Do you have any siblings? Grandparents?”
I take a sip of my wine, then look at Tegan. His gaze is steady, silently telling me it’s up to me how much I want to reveal. I set my glass back down and take a deep breath.
“I have a brother. My twin. He didn’t take my father’s death very well.” I look down at my hands closed into fists, before looking back at him. “He’s not in a good place right now. It pushed him into doing drugs, so he hasn’t been a very good person in a long time.”
I feel oddly safe revealing all this to Tegan’s dad. He looks at me with empathy, sending support through his eyes. Tegan puts his arm around me, and I look over at him. He’s there for me, but I also see the hidden anger lurking in his eyes.
There’s no comfort that can be had in this situation, so Ben doesn’t try to offer any, just looks at me with understanding and moves on, as if he knows the subject is hard for me. It makes me like him even more. Tegan was right. There’s nothing I need to worry about with his dad. He’s wonderful.
“What do you do for a living?” he asks next.
“I actually work for Tegan’s friend, Nathan, as his secretary.”
“That’s right,” he says. “He just opened up his security firm, right?” Tegan nods. “How is Nathan? Still grumpy?”
Tegan chuckles. “That boy will always be grumpy.”
Samantha walks over just then carrying a steaming bowl of vegetables laced with strips of steak and sets it on the table.
“Hey honey, grab the rice out of the microwave, please.”
“Sure thing, sweetie.”
We eat and make idle chitchat. I learn that Samantha’s been a nurse at the local hospital for the last three years, and she’s currently taking classes to become a nurse practitioner. Tegan’s dad is a retired transportation engineer. He used to help design railway systems. Ben’s taking Samantha on a cruise next month, and she and I make plans to go shopping for bathing suits for her. The whole time the conversation flows easily, and by the time Samantha sets a homemade lava cake on the table, I feel like I’ve been a part of this family for years.
Tegan takes a bite of his cake, then asks, “Dad, do you know who Bruce is?”
The bite that’s halfway to Ben’s mouth falls back to his plate and his eyes jerk to Tegan. The look he gives is glacial.
When his eyes slide to me, Tegan says, “She knows what the woman did, and I assume so does Samantha.”
The pain that crosses his face is unmistakable, and I know immediately that they’re talking about Tegan’s mom. I’m surprised he brought up whatever he’s referring to in front of me and Samantha. This seems like a conversation that should be had between the two of them.
“I’ll take the plates to the sink,” I say, rising from me seat.
Tegan grabs my arm, but it’s Ben’s words that stop me. “No, if you already know, then you may as well stay to hear this.”
He sets his fork back down on the plate. Samantha reaches over and grabs his hand and he laces their fingers together.
“Where did you hear that name?” he asks, his tone hard.
“One of her nurses said she used to wake up screaming the name. Said she was so hysterical they had to give her sedatives to calm her down.”
He closes his eyes for a minute, then opens them, and a flood of emotions swirl in their depths.
“Bruce is Linda’s brother.”
“Wait. I thought Mom didn’t have any siblings,” Tegan says with confusion.
“She did, but she wishes she didn’t. He was seven years older than her. When she was six, he started sneaking into her room at night. At first he would just crawl underneath the covers with her and touch her on top of her clothes. But then he started getting more aggressive. The night before her seventh birthday was the first night he raped her.”
I gasp while Samantha throws her hand over her mouth in shock. Tegan doesn’t respond physically, but I can see the disgust and hatred flaring in his eyes. The hard edge to Ben’s tone says he’s just as pissed.
“Why in the fuck didn’t she go to her foster parents?” Tegan growls.
“She said Bruce threaten to kill them, and once he was done with them, he’d kill her as well.”
“What happened to him?” I ask with a shaky voice.
His eyes meet mine when he answers. “He was taken out of the home and put back in the system when he was caught stealing stuff from their foster parents. They had been having trouble with him for a while and couldn’t take it anymore. Linda never saw him again, but she did see his name in the obituaries years later. He was stabbed to death in prison.”
“Were they just foster siblings or were they related by blood?”
“Blood. Their parents died in a car crash when Linda was five.”
I sit in my chair, shocked at the revelation that Tegan’s mom was abused just like what she put him through. You’d think someone that’s been through something similar would do anything to protect their child from the same kind of harm.
Tegan’s squeezing the bottle in his hand so much I’m surprised it’s intact. “Did she have nightmares when you were together?”
Ben nods. “She had them more so in the beginning of our relationship, but they trickled off over the years. It would be six months or so between them.”
“I wonder why she’d start having them again,” Samantha remarks.
Ben’s jaw gets tight. “My only guess is what she was forcing Tegan to do brought them on. I’d never wish what happened to her on any living soul, but I just can’t find it in me to feel sorry her dreams returned. It’s not enough, but it’s part of her punishment for hurting him the way she did.”