Turning Tables (BoyxBoy)

I dedicate this chapter to MaryMckenzie80. Hope you like it! :D

Sebastian -->

Have you ever felt like the earth stops rotating and the clock stops ticking at one moment? Like you have nothing to hold on to while you're falling into an endless black pit? Like someone punches your stomach and now you're gasping for air? That's how I'm feeling after Jared tells me that our dad is dead.

I know that I haven't seen this man since I was ten years old, and we were far from being close. But he's still my dad, and I always hoped that one day we could reconcile and make things better between us. And now he's dead. He's gone, and he brought my hope with him.

"Kiddo, are you alright?" Brock sits gingerly beside me and takes my hand into his. That's when I realize that my hands are shaking like crazy.

"W-Who told you?" My voice comes out as a faint whisper, but still it sounds too loud in my ears.

Jared takes a seat on the other side of me before he answers my question bitterly, "His new wife came to my office today. She told me the news. He died six months ago, and she thinks today is the right time to tell me about it."

Why? Why now? What makes her decide to tell us about his death today? Why didn't she tell us any sooner? After all, although we haven't had any kind of interaction with him for years, we are still his sons.

But once again, this is his new wife that we're talking about. The same person that could convince him to break off any contacts with us. I don't know what exactly she told him, but after he married his new wife, he only visited us once. And after that, it was like he disappeared into thin air.

Of course I'd tried to call him and send him texts. I even went to his new house (he gave our childhood house to us before he moved into a new house with his new family. As soon as Jared got enough money, he sent that house and bought a new apartment for the four of us), but he was never home. At least that was what his wife told me.

Jared, Cooper, and Brock, who were so angry at our father's selfish decision, stopped talking to him the moment he chose to walk out of our life. They told me to do the same, that it was useless for me to try as my father had turned into a different person since our mom died. But I just couldn't bring myself to do that. However, two years after my dad's blatant rejection to take part in his children's life, I gave up. I finally accepted the harsh fact.

"Why didn't she tell us any sooner?" I ask quietly as I think that saying it louder only makes the current situation more real.

Jared scoffs, expressing a great dislike. "That woman came to ask me for some money. She knows that I'm the head of a big company, and like a gold digger that she is, she told me to give my stepmom some money."

"And Jared was not the only one that she came to, Dan. She also came to my firm and Brock's workplace. She is persistent when it comes to money," Cooper chimes in.

"I... I don't know what to say," I tell them, still clutching my stomach as if it had been punched, "did she tell you why he died?"

"Heart failure," Jared says indifferently like he just delivered the news that our neighbors' pipes leak or something. And it hurts me to see how he doesn't give a damn about our father anymore.

"Please don't speak like that," I mumble under my breath, "he was still our father."

Jared looks angry after I say that, the angriest that I've ever seen him all my life. "Our father?? You call that man our father??? Can't you remember what he did to all of us? He bailed on us once he saw a beautiful woman! He easily forgot mom and his children for a younger woman! Don't you remember that?" he yells at me furiously, "I lost my teenage years because of him! I did all the things that he should have done! I worked until my hands bleed to give you food and shelter, so don't you dare tell me to call that worthless man my father! Our mam died with our father!"