I wish to thanks all my loyal readers and reviewers...I don't know when i'm going to post next part, right now i've got a little writers block and right now I've got another story that begs to be written.
After seeing that Jarrod had accepted Heath, Tom took a breath of relief, at least his eldest had no quarrel against Heath. Tom was sure that the twins would welcome Heath; they were too young to understand, so he decided to tell them first rather than Nick.
When he arrived in the nursery he watched them playing blissfully unaware of what happened.
"Father!" They exclaimed together running to him.
He engulfed both of them in a bear hug, he had missed them fiercely, prior to Heath's arrival, they were his children that still needed cuddling and fussing since Nick and Jarrod were too old to admit that they still needed parent's attention.
"I missed you Father."
"Me more." Added Gene.
"And I missed both of you!"
"Father, downstairs Nick said a bad word!"
"Yes and Jarrod said that you will wash his mouth with soap."
"There was a kid downstairs and Nick said that he's a bast.." Said Gene interrupted by Audra hand on his mouth.
"You don't say that word or Father will wash your mouth with soap."
"But you said that word before..."
"Yes but I didn't know it was a bad word, I asked Jarrod what it was but he told me that it was a bad word."
"Jarrod is right you will never use it!"
"But Nick used it and he was pretty angry."
"I will talk to him later, now both of you must listen to me. The boy you saw downstairs is your brother, his name is Heath and he's eight, and he's my son."
"But it's impossible Mother isn't his mother."
"I know. Nine years ago I was away and some bad men attacked me and when I woke I had forgotten everything, I didn't know who I was..."
"You forgot Mother, Jarrod and Nick?" Asked an incredulous Audra.
"Yes, the only thing I remembered was that my name was Tom. Heath's mother helped me and I fell in love with her, remember that I didn't remember I was married, we were going to marry and we did things that only married people should do...then one morning I recalled everything, I remembered how much I love your mother, Nick and Jarrod and I returned home."
"What happed to Heath's mother?"
"She died two years ago."
"Where did he live, will he stay here with us?"
"Yes Gene, he will live here with us; after his mother's death he went to live with his uncle, but he's a very bad person." Said Tom trying to simplify things as much as possible.
"Father, Nick is very angry with him!" Said Audra.
"And you? Are you angry with him?" asked Tom, curious.
"No, I'm not angry, I'm happy I have an older brother, Nick always says that he doesn't want to play with me and Audra always wants to play with dolls."
"It's not true, I play with your fort, but you always want to use the soldiers and you make me play with the Indians..."
"I think your brother will be happy yo play with you, you can both show him all the toys you have and you must learn to share them with him."
"Does he have any toys?"
"I don't think so..."
"That's bad, he can have my hoop."
"You are very generous, Gene. There's another thing, maybe for the next several days I will spend more time with him than with you..."
"Why?" They asked together.
"I was always with you since your birth, but Heath has lost so much time, and he needs time to be a kid."
"Do you love him more than us?" asked a fearful Audra.
"No honey, I love you all the same. What about if we going downstairs a meet your brother?"
"Heath, I want to introduce Gene and Audra, they were eager to meet you."
"Really?" Asked a doubtful Heath.
"Yes, I'm happy to have a new brother, Nick is always bossy and he doesn't want to play with us."
"Yes, he says that he's too old to play with us." Added Audra.
Tom silently left the kitchen, followed by Jarrod who was looking forward to have some answers from his father.
When they were in the study, Tom had a more in depth conversation than the one he had given to the twins, Jarrod listened in silence and only when his father finished he started with his questioning.
"Father it's not my place to judge you, as you said you are only human but I have a couple of questions, why didn't you check that you have fathered a child?"
"I really don't know, maybe I thought that Leah would have wrote if she was with child. You know I keep on blaming myself that I didn't check, but sadly I can't change the past and I must learn to live with the repercussions."
"What are you going to do with Nick? He was pretty upset, he won't accept Heath as well I or the twins did."
"I will tell him the truth, he's old enough. I know he looked at me as a hero but sadly he must learn that I'm not a perfect man, I think it's one of the thing you have to learn when you grown up that your father is a normal man who makes mistakes."
When he was in front of Nick's room he knocked the door, and receiving no answers he entered; Nick was sitting on the bed and his face was marked by dried paths of tears.
"Go away."
"I will go away only when I'm finished, I want only that you listen."
"But I don't want to."
Nonetheless, Tom started to tell the same story he had just told Jarrod, with some editing, Nick didn't look at his father he simply stared out the window.
"I know you probably hate me, but you must understand that I did only my duty as a father by taking Heath into our home." He concluded.
"I hate him too." He murmured.
"Hate is such a big word, he didn't do anything wrong, he's only a little kid grown up too fast, eager to have father and a family."
"But I don't want him here."
"And what should I do? Should I send back to his uncle? You listened to me when I said that his uncle beat him? Should I send him back to a life of poverty and hunger when we live here in heaps of luxury?"
"But every time Mother will look at him she will see the proof of your unfaithfulness."
"This I a matter between you mother and I, what I want from you is the acknowledgment that Heath is your brother."
"Half brother," he remarked. "and I still don't like him." He added.
Tom knew that the conversation was over, it was a little step: at least, right now, Nick thought that Heath was his brother although only by half and he only didn't like him a far change from hating him. He was in the study when the twins arrived announcing that supper was ready and he sent Audra upstairs to call her mother and Nick.
"Gene, what do you think about Heath?"
"He's nice and he don't yell like Nick. We talked when we helped Silas baking some cookies and I promised Heath that I would teach him to play go fish. I'm happy he's here."
Tom mussed Gene's hair and both went in the parlor, where there was already Heath and Jarrod, soon they were joined by Victoria and Nick.
"Victoria, Nick this young man is Heath." He said introducing his son.
"Heath, this is my wife Victoria and your brother Nick."
"Mrs. Barkley, thank you for allowing me to stay here, I will work hard and I won't bother you at all." He said while he hesitantly extended his hand in Victoria's direction.
"Nice to meet you." she replied too shocked by Heath's words, 'something is wrong with this boy, I will try to love him, I know I will be hard but I will try.' she thought.
"Nice to meet you, Nick."
Nick's reply was only a grunt and Heath decided not to push his luck by approaching him.
When they arrived at the table, Heath reached the seat he had occupied during the previous days.
"Hey squirt, that isn't your place, it's Jarrod's."
"Sorry I didn't know." He looked around and found out that the only seat not taken was between Nick and Victoria, who sat in the head of the table facing her husband. He didn't know what to do, she was his papa's wife and he thought that she wouldn't want him sitting near her.
Luckily Jarrod came to his help. "Heath, what about we trade places, soon I will leave for college, and I want to stay near my mother as long as possible and I reckon you want to stay near father. What do you think?"
"Thank you, Jarrod." Heath was elated by his brother's solution, he was still dumbfounded that his brothers and sister, with the exception of Nick, had accepted him, maybe his papa was right when he told him that his siblings would like him. He wasn't sure about Mrs. Barkley, she didn't say anything when he sat at the same table and her eyes weren't filled with hate and this puzzled him. 'Maybe if I work hard and I'm not too clumsy she won't beat too much, after all I'm her husband's bastard and she has every rights to do so.' He thought.
During supper Heath observed the exchange between the family members, the twins and Jarrod talked with his papa about the days they spent with their uncle while Mrs. Barkley and Nick stayed silent all the time.
After the dessert, Nick and Victoria excused themselves and on the way to their room Nick talked with his mother. "Mother how can you allow that father's bas...I mean father's son live here?" He said after correcting himself after a poignant look from Victoria.
"He's my husband son, I'm pretty angry with your father but Heath didn't do anything wrong. Nick, your life so far had been pretty sheltered but from what your father told me, your brother lived an harsh life; we should try to make feel him welcome in our family."
Nick didn't reply, he simply went to his room, slamming the door behind him.
Soon the three youngest Barkley's were led to bed by their father and just before retiring to his guestroom Tom had some words with Jarrod.
"Son, you make me proud with your acceptance of Heath."
"Father I only saw a scared kid that isn't responsible for his father's sins." He replied before heading to his room.