Chapter Thirteen

Lida was quiet for what felt like the longest moment of Georg and Maria's lives. Max had wisely faded into the background, allowing the parents to deal with the shock they had brought upon their daughter with the truth.

Lida stood up and started to pace back and forth. "I'm not your daughter," Lida said straight to Georg. "I'm not your daughter and I was always told I was. That I was your precious little flower…" Lida hiccuped. "You lied to me!"

Georg closed his eyes and answered with a simple, "Yes."

"Why?" Lida began to sob so hard her body bent over at the waist all on it's own. Maria was still sitting down, watching this, hating every moment of this for her daughter and her husband.

Georg moved closer and tried to take Lida in his arms. One of the things Maria loved the most about Georg was his fatherly ability to step into chaos and create peace. That ability failed him this time. "Don't touch me!" Lida sobbed and backed away. "You're not my father, you're just…just Captain von Trapp. That's all you are."

"You're so wrong," Georg whispered. "You are so wrong about that, Lida. No, I'm not your father, I did not create you in love with your mother, that is so true. You were created in terrible circumstances, circumstances that still scar your mother to this day. Lida, you will see, it was because of that we have you, because of that we have this family. I might never have spoken up if you weren't conceived. You helped me do that. I'm not your father, I'm Papa."

Lida wiped her face with the back of her hand. It stung; her cheeks were so raw from her tears. "No," Lida whispered. "No, a Papa doesn't lie like this. Mama, I understand, she's ashamed of it, of me, I know but you…could have told me. You should have told me years ago. Were either of you ever going to tell me that I'm a bastard?"

"Lida!" Maria shot up and moved closer to her daughter. "Don't ever say that again! Papa and I love you so much. We never wanted you to find out even tonight Papa was trying to protect you by telling you he didn't want you to date Will, but you pressed it. I'm sorry you found out this way, I truly am. We never saw you as anything but our little girl. You were born from my body, literally into Papa's hands and you've been in his heart long before even I…He loved you first, Lida Rose. For you to treat him this way…"

Georg had his back turned. He didn't want Lida to see the tears on his face. She had a terrible shock, Georg recognized that she had to lash out at someone, and he was the target. He was supposed to protect her heart after all and he'd failed. Why shouldn't she direct her anger at him?

"I have to get out of here," Lida said after a few minutes. "I have to get out…I can't stay here, I can't look at you, either of you."

Max saw his cue to step in, "Perhaps, it would be better, Maria, if I drove Lida to one of the other children's homes for the night. Everyone needs time."

"Curtis and Marta," Georg said as he bit his lip to keep his voice even. "Curtis knows about what happened to Maria and Marta's no fool."

Max nodded, "I agree. Why don't you get some of your things together, Sweetheart. I'll drive you, then I'll stop off at the soda shop, explain to William you won't be seeing him anymore."

Lida looked at Max like he grew a second head, "Why not? He's my brother after all. He's just as much blood to me as Catherine or Julia. The other seven, they're nothing to me. Nothing."

"That is not true," Max replied. 'I'm not blood related to any of you either, but I'm still your Uncle Max and your Papa's best friend. I knew your birth father, your biological father, that is and trust me you lucked out, Kiddo. Go pack a bag, things will look different when you settle your mind."

Lida chose to obey Max. She was too angry to even make eye contact with Maria or Georg. As soon as Lida disappeared upstairs, Georg retreated to the bedroom to have his emotions in private. He knew Maria would soon follow and they would start to heal together and figure out a way to help Lida and the rest of the family move on from all of this.

Maria's first move was to alert Marta that Lida was coming. She didn't want Lida to show up on Marta's doorstep in a puddle without some explanation. Marta listened in her quiet way to Maria's warning, then set about making some tea, jam, and bread for her sister's arrival.

"Everything okay?" Curtis asked as he came into the main house from the doctor's office adjacent.

"I don't think so," Marta replied. "My mother called, told me Lida's going to stay here for the night at least, something about a terrible argument with Father about William and some things they had to tell her. I don't know Curtis, this just feels so…"

"Startling?" he offered. "It'll be all right. Your parents have a love as strong as I have ever seen, and they love the ten of you so much. Your father and I don't get along very well, but I know his resistance to our getting married, to our even dating was because he loved you so much."

"So, Dr. Leland, you're saying love conquers all?" Marta asked. "Not very scientific of you."

"Perhaps not," Curtis replied pulling Marta in close with one arm. "But in our case, it was certainly true."

Lida arrived fifteen minutes later. Her face looked like a punching bag and her entire body was shaking with anger and shock. Marta just opened her arms to Lida pulling her in tight for a hug. "Hey, we're going to figure it out, okay? Father didn't like Curtis very much at first, we are going to figure this out."

Lida shook her head, "No, we aren't. There's nothing to figure out. I cannot be with the man that I love romantically anymore. It would actually be criminal, not to mention sinful for me to do that and I'm likely already destined for Hell."

"Lida, what are you talking about? Father forbade you seeing William and you got into a fight, isn't that what happened? How is that criminal? Sinful, maybe, but criminal. Come sit, I have tea, jam, and hot bread, well reheated bread. Explain this to me. Start at the very beginning."

Back at the farm, Maria did indeed follow Georg to their bedroom only moments after hanging up with Marta. Maria wasn't surprised to find all Georg had done was sit on the edge of the bed. He hadn't removed his shoes, unbuttoned his shirt, nothing, he had quite literally just sat on the edge of the bed.

Maria sat beside him and slid her arms around his waist. "She was wrong to say those things to you, my love," Maria said gently. "I know how much that hurt you, for her to reject you like that, but she's had a terrible shock. Her entire world was just ripped from under her."

Georg sniffled back some of his tears and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "She's more like me than she realizes," Georg said after a moment. "When she's hurting, she pushes away the people that love her the most. I did that more times than I care to count, with everyone in my life at one point or another, even Max. The only one I've never pushed away was you, you never let me."

"I won't let you now, either" Maria comforted. "I'm so sorry. This really is my fault, I should have listened to you when you wanted to tell her before. You wanted to since she turned 18 and I resisted it. It's my fault and I'll tell her so."

"No," Georg replied. "No, I started this course of action knowing it would probably end with her hating me, I just never expected we would have to…And Max..when he gets back here, I'm going to toss his overpriced designed label crap out the damn door and…He had no right."

"He had no choice," Maria soothed. "Max Detweiler is the best friend you've ever known. He saw you were drowning, Georg and he threw you a life preserver whether you realize it or not. We had no choice, we really didn't. Lida has my stubborn streak, but I think the mean streak well…somethings can't be nurtured away, can they?"

"I just wanted to take her into my arms and hold her close," Georg whispered. "I just wanted to do what I always have been able to do with my girls just hug the fear away, and she…"

Georg covered his mouth with his hand as he began to shake with sadness and pain once again. Maria shifted and pulled her husband against her breast. "Let it go," she whispered. "Let it out, my love. Let it out."

As it turned out, when Georg did release with Maria's encouragement, he ended up letting out 23 years of pent up anger, pain, and frustration. He'd had one good cry when Maria remembered her assailant, one good run of tears when they refugeed from their home, but never again. No matter what happened, never again until now in the safety and security of Maria's embrace.

The depth of Georg's emotion was frightening to see. Maria had never heard him like this, he couldn't catch his breath, he couldn't speak. Over that last few days, that happened more and more, where Georg's feelings were too powerful for him to even make words. So, Maria held her husband tight against her, letting him know through her strength and her love, they would make it. It was a role he had always played in their marriage, being older, wiser, more worldly…but now, he needed her, she had to be the strong one, and she would not fail in that task.

"Wow," was all Marta could say when Lida relayed the information she'd learned just a couple hours before. "Except for the singing thing, I'd never have guessed. You look just like mother and your mannerisms are all father."

"Please don't compare me to him," Lida requested. "I want nothing to do with him. He's done nothing but lie to me for years. I'm sure it was all his idea; you know Mama never decides anything without the Captain's permission."

"You are wrong about that," Curtis broke in. "I think your mother has more power and control in that marriage than you think and it's pretty rotten of you to speak like that about Georg in front of Marta and in front of me. He might not have told you the truth about whether or not his sperm collided with her egg, but Lida, I'm a father, and that has very little to do with how things feel."

"If the Captain loved me, if he respected me, he'd have told me the truth," Lida countered. "I can't just act like it's nothing. My life is a lie, everything I knew is a lie. You're not even my sister, we don't share a drop of blood, not a drop."

Marta took a breath, "No, apparently, we don't, but I don't feel any differently now than I did when I let you in the door. Do you feel any differently about me?"

Lida studied her hands, "No," she admitted. "But you didn't lie to me. You didn't let my entire life be a lie. Even if Mama didn't want me to know, even if you are right, Curtis, why didn't Papa tell me when he realized William is…Why challenge me like that? I don't understand?"

"Did you ask him?" Marta asked. "I'm sure that he had his reasons. Father always has a reason for everything he does, and a lot of what he did before he met mother was pretty idiotic and downright mean, but he had a reason, and it was never ill intentioned no matter what the outcome."

Lida wiped at her eyes with a napkin, "I can't even look at him how can I ask him anything?"

Marta bit her lip. "Okay, if you can't talk to father right now, if you need some perspective first, talk to Louisa and Friedrich, of all of us they are the most like him, and they might be able to help you understand enough to at least talk it out. If you still feel like you do now after that, we'll take it as it comes. Sleep on it."

Lida looked at her brother-in-law. "Do you have something? I'm so shaky I don't think I can even calm down enough…"

"I'll give you something very light," Curtis replied. "But Lida, you have to think this through, you honestly do. It will take time, I'm sure there was so much said on both sides that cut to the quick, but you can't just leave it to fester. Festering wounds will kill you."

Lida only nodded, she was physically wired, but emotionally wiped out. She changed her clothes and slid into the bed in Marta's homey guest room. Curtis gave her a mild sedative to help slow down the adrenaline coursing through her body.

They were probably right, Marta and Curtis, the Captain, Georg, Papa, whoever he was now, probably had a reason for doing as he did, but for the life of her, Lida couldn't think of anything that could justify living a life of lies.

A/N: So there you have it. The truth is out and even I didn't expect the depth of Lida's anger. I was going to just have the story come out and that would be that, but there are so many more components to explore and an entirely new B plot that has come into my head so I'm gonna run with it and hope you come with me.

My genre is usually what I describe as "triumph through tragedy" and I am going to do that again, however, be warned I'm going to put these guys through the ringer this time. I'm so glad to see you sticking with me, I hope I don't disappoint.