Bosco and I sat side by side, so close together we looked like one person, as his father approached the leather couch opposite us. He wore a dark blue velvet smoking jacket with black dress pants and black velvet slippers. He looked very dapper and aware for a man who seemed so old. He smiled widely, looking very pleased to see us there. Otis held onto his arm as he slowly guided Arthur down into a comfortable position.

I could not get over how much Bosco resembled his father. They were about the same height, with the same rich texture to their hair, although Arthur's hair had long since turned from brown to a very dark silver. Their eyes were the exact shade and they had the same smile that gently rippled from the corners of their mouths to their cheeks. I knew that Bosco had gotten his infectious smile from the paternal side of his family. Arthur's face was still very handsome and I could tell that underneath the weather lines and the deep creases he was just as handsome as his son was now, in his younger days. He reminded me of James Brolin, the famous actor who had been married to Barbara Streisand. His jaw was firm and well shaped, showing off his high cheek bones to perfection. He smiled at us with perfectly spaced white teeth.

'Will that be all sir?' Otis asked pleasantly, but with great professionalism.

'Yes Otis, thank you.' Arthur said softly, leaning forward slightly to get a good look at the son he had never seen.

'Very well, sir. I shall be in the common room if you need anything else.' Otis said with a little bow, then turned and walked quickly from the room.

Bosco hand tightened around mine and I felt his fear and nervousness as if we were connected by an invisible wire. He stared at the man who had given him half of his genes, obviously shocked to see the similarities that they shared. I glanced over at him and saw that his eyes were wide and his jaw was tight. He always clenched his teeth when he was nervous or upset. Right then, I'd say that he was both.

'Well, hello there. You're Maurice.' He said slowly, stating the obvious.

'Hello...Arthur.' Bosco said awkwardly.

'Thank you for coming to see me. I had my doubts as to whether or not you'd come.' He said sincerely.

'I...well...I thought that it was about time that we met.' Bosco said, running his free hand over his hair.

'It was entirely too long in the making, I'd say.'

'You're right...Arthur...I...feel the same.'

'Yes...I have waited for this day for many years and I must confess, I'm a little nervous.' Arthur said, truthfully. 'I bet you both have a million and one questions for me. I'll try and answer them to the best of my ability.'

'Uh...ya...about a million at least...' Bosco said, looking over at me. I squeezed his hand again.

He then looked at me. 'And this lovely lady must be your wife, Faith.' He smiled kindly at me, his eyes sparkling. He looked so happy.

'Hello Arthur, it's nice to meet you.' I said politely, smiling at him.

'How did you know her name?' Bosco asked, confused, for he hadn't mentioned me in his short conversation the night before.

Arthur chuckled, amused. 'I know a lot about you...Rose told me that you were getting married years back and she told me that you were marrying a lovely woman named Faith.'

Bosco's eyebrows raised. 'You talked to my mother? Why didn't she tell me about you before? Why did you wait so long to contact me?'

Arthur looked away for a second before answering, lost in a memory of yesterday. 'Yes..My dear, sweet Rose...she was the apple of my eye, you know. She could make me run to her like a dog to a bone.' He smiled, remembering.

'Rose and I kept in contact through the years and she always let me know how you were doing. I wanted to get to know you for a long time, but she didn't think it would be a good idea. Thought it would confuse you.'

Bosco blanched, not quite sure how to digest that information. 'You mean you two kept in contact even when she was married to my fa...Anthony? How did that work?'

'It didn't'. He said sadly. " It was mostly me asking her to send pictures of you and begging her to tell me what was going on in your life, but after a while she began to resist, saying that Anthony was starting to get suspicious. I begged her to leave him, even after she had your brother. I would have put them up somewhere and taken care of them, but she wouldn't leave him.'

'Put her up some place nice? Why not with you?'

Arthur took a deep breath and looked away, ashamed. 'I'm not going to lie to you, Maurice...It wouldn't be fair after all of these years, and I'm so old now. I just want to do what's right. I was married when I met your mother. Married with a baby on the way.' He confessed, sadly.

'You were married...that's why...' Bosco whispered. 'I should have known as much.'

He nodded. 'I was only thirty years old, which makes me eighty-seven, and I had been married for less than three months to Caroline, whom I called Caro for short, when I met Rose at her father's bar. She was a server then, you know. She was so beautiful with those deep blue eyes and that long hair. She was only twenty years old and she had more charisma and sexuality radiating from her than half of New York City. She knew how much I wanted her but she turned me down time and time again. I would come into the Haven's after a long day at the office and order a beer with a whisky chaser. I didn't even drink, but I had to see her. She was like a drug and I was addicted from the first time I saw her. I know it was wrong. I was married and she was courting this Anthony Boscorelli guy, but he didn't treat her right. I could see it in the way that he'd come to the bar, all liquored up, watching all the rest of the guys to make sure no one hit on her. He was one jealous sonofagun, he was.

I couldn't understand what she saw in him and every time I asked her she'd look at me, coy like, and bat her lashes and say, 'You're married, Artie. That's your answer.'I knew that if I hadn't been married to Caroline that she'd probably have run away with me, but I couldn't change the past. I realized after I met Rose that I had made a terrible mistake in marrying Caro just because I had gotten her pregnant, but I came from a very old traditional Catholic family and divorce was forbidden, especially when she was carrying my child.' He stopped to see if we were paying attention, or to see if he was upsetting Bosco in any way, looking at us closely.

Both Bosco and I were enraptured by his story. It told so much, so many things about the woman who had given birth to my husband, about why she was so unhappy in her marriage to Anthony, among other things. She had been in love with Arthur Logan. Poor Rose, I thought. We were anxious to hear the rest.

'Is what I'm telling you okay?' Arthur asked softly, seemingly sensitive to our feelings.

'It's fine. I'm glad I'm finally getting to hear the truth.' Bosco said encouragingly, letting go of my hand and leaning forward to give Arthur his undivided attention. He rested his hand on his knees, his fingers entertwined.

'Faith?' Arthur looked to me for my answer. He was obviously a very educated man who had been schooled in the area of fine manners. He was very elegant as he spoke.

'Oh? Yes...it's fine. Please go on.'

He tilted his head back and cocked it to the side. 'Well...where was I...Oh yes!' He said triumphantly, very proud of remembering the thought. 'Well, anyway, I finally convinced her to have dinner with me, although it took a couple of months...and she agreed solely because Anthony was out of town for a few weeks at some kind of family emergency..whatever...I didn't care what it was as long as I got to see her. We had dinner at an out-of-the-way place in Manhattan and talked till the sun came up. Finally, around dawn, we crawled into bed at the hotel room I'd rented and caught some...well...some sleep and...'

He cleared his throat, his implication quite clear. 'Anyway, we saw each other a few times intimately after that and not soon after, she told me that she was pregnant. I begged her to let me put her up somewhere nice...that I'd take care of her and our child...but she refused and told me that if I didn't leave Caro, that she would never let me be with her. I raged at her, terribly upset that she wouldn't give it a shot with me, and that I couldn't leave now, not with a new baby daughter being born less than

eight weeks previous...She told me that my daughter, Cara, would never know her half sibling unless I divorced my wife and married her.

My wife was very unhappy with me for spending so much time away from home, nights even, and eventually she figured out what was going on between me and another woman and she threatened to take Cara and leave for good. I knew she'd make good on her word, too, for her family had connections all over the world and would be able to hide her easily enough...and I'd have never seen my beautiful little girl again. I couldn't risk losing both of my children and I had to tell Rose that I simply could not go through with it. In the end she told me to get the hell out of her life.'

Bosco nodded sympathetically, feeling sorry for Arthur.

'Oh don't worry.' He chuckled, lost again in another memory of Rose. 'She didn't mean it. She was hurt, after all, and I had been responsible for that hurt. It was only a few months later that she married Anthony Boscorelli. He knew you weren't his child but he married her anyway and I'm sure he punished her in ways that I don't want to know about...anyway, after you were born she called me from her room. Anthony had gone home or back to work or where ever it was that he went and she told me that I had a son. She told me that I could name you, too.' Bosco's eye brows raised in surprise.

'You named me?' Bosco squeaked, so shocked to learn that someone other than Rose had named him.

'Yes...she said that at least if I wasn't going to be part of your life that I should get to name you something special and so I named you after my grandfather, Maurice Logan, who was one of the greatest architects that New York has ever seen.' He said proudly, puffing his chest out like a peacock.

Then he stopped talking and wiped a hand over one brow, as if the story was draining him of any energy he might have possessed previously.

'Can I get you some water or something?' Bosco asked, standing up.

'What a thoughtful person you are...but I need to finish my story for you first...then you must stay for dinner and we can continue getting to know one another...you will stay, won't you?' He asked anxiously, from one of us to the other.

Bosco nodded and sat back down. This time he leaned back on the couch, seemingly more relaxed, although I thought this new information was coming at him too fast and we would probably be in for it later, but I was very interested to learn all I could about Bosco's real father.

'She sent me pictures every so often of you. Your grade one picture and grade two, I think...yes and even your grade three picture...but it got too hard to keep seeing this son that I could never claim. Caro was very understanding and cooperative of my situation after I told her that I would never see Rose intimately again...she didn't so much love me as she loved the money behind me and we stayed together for Cara's sake. She didn't so much as have to lift a finger because I had so much money and she had basically blackmailed me with my own child as bait. We had another baby four years after Cara, a son, whom we called Mackenzie, or Kenzie for short. He was a lovely boy, so bright and sincere. He had the same eyes that you do and your hair.' Arthur said, tears welling up in his eyes.

He looked away for another moment to compose himself. He breathed in deeply and looked up at the ceiling, as if to offer up a prayer for God to heal his open wounds that had embedded themselves upon his soul.

' Cara and Kenzie grew up in this house, surrounded by all of the fine things in life. They had everything that they ever could have wanted. That also applied to my wife, Caro, and she took every opportunity to let me suffer for what I had done wrong...but she was a classy woman, a real dame, as they say, and she got so that she could live totally apart from me, although we were living in the same house. She lavished herself day in and day out with my money and spent less and less time with our children. She always had a party to go to, a dinner or a broadway play and by the time Cara was fifteen and Kenzie was eleven, she hardly knew either one of them. And then, one day while I was at the office, Cara and Kenzie were walking to the park down the street and Kenzie was hit by a car. Hit and run driver who never even stopped to see how my son was. He just drove away like a thief in the night...'

I felt tears stinging behind my eyes, burning, the way they always did when I heard about someone who lost a child. Even though it had been years and years since Emily and Charlie had died, it still felt new and just as hurtful as it had the day they had died. I knew how painful and devastating it was. I wiped my eyes quickly, not wanting him to see and be upset.

' Cara ran to the nearest house and banged on the door until someone let her in and called an ambulance. By the time they got him to the hospital it was too late and my son was dead. I cannot describe to you how painful it was for me, for Cara. I raced from my downtown office and hailed the nearest cab and screamed for him to get me to Mercy Hospital as fast as he could. I ran in the front door and saw Cara standing with her back against a wall, her small shoulders shaking with sobs. As soon as she saw me she screamed out 'daddy, Kenzie's gone! He's gone!' Arthur replayed the whole scene to perfection and I actually felt as though I had known Kenzie and Cara.

'That's awful. I'm so sorry, Arthur' I whispered, hoping he could see the sincerity in my eyes.

He nodded, tears now trickling down his lined face. 'The worst part of it was that I had always told the children not to go to the park without one of us present. I worried about them and I always had a protective way about me...and Caro and I fought about it a lot. She thought I was babying them by wanting them to have adult supervision, and had given them permission to go out that day...essentially, I felt that it was her fault. I blamed her. I cursed her. I hated her.' He said bitterly. But enough about the sad things I have gone through in my life. I want to hear about you two, how you met. Do you have children?'

Before Bosco or I could answer, Otis came into the room and cleared his throat. ' Would you like me to set two extra places for lunch, sir?'

' Oh yes, please do, Otis.' Arthur said becoming happy again, beaming a broad smile in our direction. 'I would be very pleased if you would stay.'

'Uh...yes..thanks.' Bosco said, after looking at me for my confirmation. I nodded and smiled at Arthur. ' We'd love to stay.'

After Otis left to give his order to the chef to prepare extra food, Bosco began our story. I curled my feet up beneath me and sank back deeper into the leather sofa to listen.

' Well, Faith and I met in the Police Academy years ago and we became partners when we joined the 55th precinct. We stayed partners until we finished our service with the city. We have three children, Mike, Brett and Emma and a granddaughter named Faith, but we call her Little Faith. We probably shouldn't, but we spoil her something awful. ' Bosco explained, happily. If there was one thing he was comfortable about it was talking about our children and Little Faith.

' Three children and one grandchild? How wonderful!' Arthur exclaimed. ' I have a granddaughter too and have always enjoyed spoiling her to no end.'

' Mike is twenty-six, Brett is twenty-four and Emma is twenty-two and Little Faith is almost two.'

' What do they do?' Arthur pursued, genuinely pleased to hear about the family he had never known.

'Well, Mike is a police officer and Brett is a writer and Emma is a consultant at a large firm in the city. Brett lives in Boston and he teaches writing at Harvard University.' He said proudly. ' Faith and I look after Little Faith most days when Emma is at work. We get to spend as much time with her as we want now that we're both retired.'

' I would love to meet them someday.' Arthur said softly, his face turning sad again. ' I hope that you will let me...do you think that would be possible?'

Bosco and I looked at each other, not knowing what to say. I mean we had just met this man and we didn't even know him yet. We hadn't told any of the kids about him either. I shrugged my shoulders a bit, indicating that it would be Bosco's decision.

Bosco swallowed and looked at the floor for a moment, gathering his thoughts. ' I think that in time you will meet them, but I just met you today and I don't know how they are going to deal with this. We never told them about me having another father other than Anthony and I need time to think about how we are going to break it to them.' He raised his head, a painful expression on his face.

Arthur looked crushed, but covered it well. 'I will wait patiently for that day, Maurice, after all, I've waited fifty-seven long years to be united with you.'

'But Faith and I would be willing to come again and visit you...that is if you want us to.'

Arthur beamed, grateful for that small favor. ' Yes. I would love for you to visit again, any time. You have a sister to meet and a niece, too.'

Bosco looked frightened for a moment and sat back against the coolness of the couch. He crossed one leg over his knee and began to shake his foot. ' I forgot about that. I don't know when I'll be ready for that.' He said softly, not looking at either of us.

Arthur clapped his hands together and smiled. 'Of course. When ever you are ready, just let me know. Cara knows all about you and wants to meet you as soon as possible. She wanted to be here today but I told her that she had better wait.'

With that, Otis showed us all into the dining room. There was a huge cherry wood table, similar to the one we had at home, but his one seated up to twelve people. There was a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling, raining diamonds down upon us and a breakfront that held different cups and saucers in all patterns of expensive looking china. There was also crystal goblets lined up on the top shelf and a huge painting of a lady in a garden that was carrying a basket of vegetables.

We sat down at the three places that had been set for us. I marveled at the cutlery, the plates and the crystal goblets that contained some kind of wine. There was a white silk table runner that covered the entire middle section of the table and draped over both ends and two silver candelabra in the middle, their bone white candles lit. We were to eat off of heavy looking crystal plates, which I had never seen before.

Otis served us a wonderful lunch of beef wellington with mashed potatoes and baby carrots smothered in some kind of brown sugar sauce. It was delicious and I had to force myself not to lick the plate when I was finished. We had a chocolate pie with whip cream and coffee for desert. I felt so full I thought my stomach was going to explode.

Throughout our meal, Arthur asked more questions about our family and told us more about Caro, who had died shortly after Kenzie had, leaving father and daughter alone. Cara was an actress and worked on a soap opera that I watched as often as I could. It was called ' In love & Lust. It excited me to think that I could meet her someday, considering that I loved her show and the character she played. On the show, she was a mean and feisty socialite who made trouble everywhere she went, breaking up families and having affairs all over the place. I hoped that when we got to meet her she would be nothing like her character on tv.

As we were getting ready to leave, we thanked Arthur and promised to come back in a week or so to have lunch with him again. I had promised him that I would bring pictures of our children and Little Faith and had decided that I would spend my free time during the next week making him a scrapbook that he could treasure, and I knew he would.

Spending the morning with him, I felt that he was a sincere man who had been deprived of a life of love and he had spent every day of the last fifty-seven years feeling guilty for what he had done to Rose and his son. I liked him and I was so glad that we had come to meet him. I was happier than I had been in a long time.

But like happiness, like the sun, only comes out for a few short hours and then leaves you in darkness, wondering when you will see it again. Like the fools we always were, we believed that this meeting marked the beginning of something special, that it was destiny calling us.

Neither Bosco or myself had any idea of the trouble that was yet to come.