Can't Let You Go

On paper, my mother had been a vice president in charge of Savis Entertainment, SE. It started out as a production company which made a couple of mom's movies and some indie flicks that she felt passionate about. At some point, SE left movies for online content production and talent management. Focused on social media stars, it brokers deals with sponsors as much as it does anything else. 

I don't know who paved that path, but a few weeks after her affair with my father became common knowledge, Bethany officially took the helm. Not long after she was also given the title of executive vice president of Savis as a whole.

If there was nothing in my mother's power to stop that, then there certainly wasn't anything I could do about it. The only solace was that if Bethany wasn't coming to our house to update my mother on SE matters then I wouldn't have to see her. That small amount of peace was shattered when my father announced she was moving in. A month later I was told Bethany was pregnant.

They probably knew she was pregnant before she moved in, but thankfully, by then I was already living in a dorm at Alaris University. That wasn't far enough for her apparently. She pitted us against each other in a war that I didn't know existed until it was too late.

Winter's chill was still hanging in the air when Dad had called me to suggest that I help Bethany set up the nursery together. "I want you to give Bethany a chance. As your brother's mother, she'll always be in your life."

"My half-brother. Quill is my brother."

"Don't distance him with a meaningless label. He's my son so he's your brother. Come after class on Thursday."

Agreeing was a foregone conclusion because I'd always done as I was told. Without ringing the bell, I let myself into my house and trudged up the three flights of stairs to the nursery. Bethany was lying on the floor. I called 911 and rode in the ambulance with her. A diagnosis of preeclampsia meant she had to be admitted to the hospital. 

Later, I came to suspect she already knew she had high-blood pressure, but I'll never know if she'd laid a well planned land-mine or dropped an opportunistic bomb. Either way, I didn't feel the blast from it for over a week.

I'd wanted my dad's advice about summer program options, but couldn't reach him on the phone, so I had to go where he was. I knocked on Bethany's hospital door, but when I opened it, Dad stormed over to me and pushed me back into the hallway.

"The baby is out of danger now, but I will not have you upsetting Bethany and cause her to go into labor."

"What is with you? I have no intention of upsetting Bethany. I admit I don't like your relationship, but I've always kept that to myself."

"You only say that because you think I don't know about what you've said and done. Bethany covered for you out of the goodness of her heart, but the staff couldn't bear it after she was hospitalized."

"What are you talking about?"

"I know what happened on the day Bethany was brought to the ER."

"Well that makes one of us."

"Don't get snotty with me. I know you shoved her. The housekeeper let me know that she'd heard you shouting followed by a thud that must have been Bethany falling."

"Dad. I don't know who Bethany was arguing with, but it wasn't me. She was already on the floor when I found her. The housekeeper wasn't anywhere in sight when I got there. She's entirely mistaken. Ask Bethany."

"Oh, I've asked her. She tried to brush it off at first, but I made her tell me the whole story. Not just about that day, but about all the other days."

"I seriously don't know what you are talking about."

"Bethany doesn't want herself or our child to be the cause of problems between you and I, but I'm not going to listen to this little innocent act of yours."