AN: Sorry for the delay, but here's chapter six.

They'd only been in the car for a few minutes when Ephram realized that it was now or never. He had to tell Will today, or the truth might never come out; His only problem was that he didn't know how to say it. Then again, if there were an easy way to give his son this information, Ephram never would've kept the secret in the first place.

He slowly pulled the car over to the side of the road. "Will, listen, there's something I've gotta tell you."

Will shifted postions in the seat next to Ephram, staring expectantly at him with those almond-brown eyes. Madison's eyes.

"I guess I should start from the beginning." Ephram said, his throat getting dry. "It's about your mother." He stopped suddenly and sighed heavily, pushing his hand through his hair. "I should've had this conversation with you a long time ago."

"Dad, Mom isn't sick or something, is she?" Will asked, alarmed.

"No, Amy's fine, that's not what I meant." The pianist reasurred his son. He was trying so hard to get the words out.

Will was puzzled. What was his father talking about? Why had he just referred to his wife by her first name? He never did that when talking about her to he or Eva.

"What's going on?" Will demanded. His father was never at a loss for words like this, he knew there was something he wasn't being told.

"Son, your mother, I'm not exactly sure where she is." Ephram's vision blurred for a second after the words left his mouth. He waited for his son's reaction.

"What do you mean you don't know where she is? She's at home with Eva like she was when we left." Will was worried, was his father having a mental breakdown or something?

"I know where Amy is." The older Brown gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. "I'm talking about your mother."

His son looked at him in realization and fear.

"Are you telling me that I'm adopted?" The sixteen-year-old choked out.

"No Will. I'm telling you that Amy Brown isn't your mother." Ephram winced, as though in pain, and Will's faced drained of color at his father's statement.

"What the hell-" Will started to say, but Ephram cut him off.

"I want you to understand why I never told you the truth. So I'm going to tell you everything, from the beginning."

The young man expected a story similar to the one he'd been told since he was little: He'd noticed when he was about ten that his parents were younger than most of his friends' parents by a considerable amount. When he'd asked his mother and father about it, they'd explained that he was born when they were only seventeen years old. They'd told him how they'd both managed to finish high school, despite having to take shifts to care for their newborn son. And finally, the then-small boy was told how hard his parents had worked to graduate from Colorado State University; His father with a degree in concert piano, and his mother with a degree in the history of dance. At least, that's what he was lead to believe. So, as his father spoke he listened on in complete scilence.

"When I was about your age, I fell in love for the first time." Ephram began, his voice cracking slightly at the painful memories. "Don't get me wrong, becuase I'd fallen in love with Amy long before I met your mother, but this was the first time that anyone ever loved me back. She was your Aunt Delia's babysitter, and she was four years older than I was." A visible lump formed in his throat now, but he continued. "I was on a high, I couldn't get her out of my head. No matter what I was doing I was thinking about her. We were together for a few months, but,like we both expected it to, it ended. There wasn't any peticular reason, but we were both young, and there was nothing between us anymore."

"So, what happend?" Will asked, his voice hollow and dry.

Ephram almost shrugged, because sometimes he himself didn't know the answer to that question. "We went our seperate ways. She resigned as Aunt Delia's babysitter, I started dating Amy, and I didn't see her again for almost a year."

"How'd you find out about me?" His son interupptted, his face was a strange white color now.

"I was in New York for a Julliard audition, and I ran into her."

"You auditioned for Julliard?" Will's eyes were wide for a second. He'd never known that his father even applied to an out-of-state college, much less somewhere like Julliard.

Ephram nodded sullenly. "At one time, I thought I had a pretty good chance at getting in, too. I guess it wasn't in the cards for me though, because the morning of the audition, I met with your mother for coffee."

"She had me with her?" Will assumed.

"No, she didn't. It turned out that the reason she wanted to meet with me was to tell me that she'd had you, and she'd put you up for adoption." He swollowed hard. "She put 'unknown father' on the adoption papers, and It took me months of clearing my head and going through the courts to get custody of you."

"Why the freak did she do that? Didn't she care that I'd never know my own parents?" The tears fell freely out of Will's eyes as he screamed in anger.

"Try to calm down." Ephram said, handing Will his handkericf. "I know how you feel, I felt the same way when I found out." He paused for a second, a bit of his old hurt resurfacing. "There's a reason she didn't tell me."

His attention refocused, Will took in the rest of the story.

"When she found out she was pregnant, she went to Grandpa Andy for help. At the time, I was doing really well with my music, and your Grandfather didn't want anything to get in the way of that. So, when your Mom came into his office, he asked her not to tell me about you. He promised to pay for anything she needed if she'd leave Everwood forever."

"Grandpa?" The younger Brown said in shock. Ephram knew that his son and his father were very close, and though he didn't wish to compromise that, he couldn't keep anything more from Will, because he knew it would only end badly.

"Will, I know how this whole thing sounds, but I don't want you to blame your grandfather for any of this. I didn't realize it then, but I know now that he only wanted to protect me, just like I wanted to protect you when I told you Amy was your mother."

"I don't give a shit." Will spit. "How could you lie to me all these years? Why didn't you just tell me the truth?"

"I really don't know why." Ephram repiled. "I guess because I was seventeen years old, and all I cared about was making sure my son was okay. I didn't want you to think you weren't wanted, Will. I mean, at first, I really didn't know what I was doing. I'd just graduated high school, I didn't have any money except for my college fund, and I was mad as all hell at my father. But that changed the first time I held you. Right there, I made a promise that I would do anything to make sure you didn't have to feel the pain from this whole situation."

"After that you and-" He stopped in fear of mentioning Amy, because he was unsure, in light of this new information, of what to call her. "you just got married?"

Ephram shook his head."Amy and I broke up for a few months after I found out about you. We both needed time to think about what we wanted. She didn't know if she wanted to be a mother figure so young, and I didn't know how much I could andle at once. After a while, we decided that we could make everything work if we tried, and she really helped when I was going through the court process. She helped take care of you, and she taught me a lot of the things she'd learned from babysitting. From the start she did everything she could for us. And she always loved you, just as much as I did. Remember that Will, she's not your biological mother, but she's your Mom. She always has been. By the time we were ninteen, we'd both agree to it: We'd get married and just tell you that she was your mother. You weren't even two yet, so you didn't really understand much of it, but Amy legally adopted you shortly later, and, just like that, you were her son.

"My real Mother, you-you said you don't know where she is?" Will asked when his Dad had been quiet for a few seconds.

The pianist looked at his son sadly. "I'm sorry, but I wouldn't even know where to start looking. I talked to her once more after that day in New York, to tell her that I planned to get custody of you. She wished me good luck, and after that I guess she moved becuase I couldn't reach her by that number again. I couldn't find her, and I don't think I ever really tried to. She needed to move on; after everything that'd happend, I guess she wanted a normal life again, not that I blame her. It was hard for her to do what she did. It may not seem like it, but I know it was, son. And I know she loved you, if she hadn't I don't think she would've ever had the courage to get through it all."

It was a lot to take in, that was evident on Will Brown's face. But, there was one thing more he had to know.

"What was her name?"

"Her name was Madison. Madison Kellner."