The Lunacy of Tyler Lockhart ??

Victoria

It's rare that I go to parties and even more rare that I get invited to one. If I ever got invited it was only because Archer was my brother and he was part of the School's ice-hockey team, also part of the "popular" gangs. Even today when Kayla texted and invited me to go to a Frat party, I made up an excuse and told her I couldn't. It was my introvert behavior and my dislike for conversing outside of my circle that my mom and Archer had pushed me into doing cheerleading.

I'd rather cozy up under a warm blanket, fire up my laptop and write my blogs than socialize. Pretty nerdy thing to do on a weekend but that's exactly what gave me peace, even better if I had my chamomile tea.

I slipped my feet into the Panda slippers and started heading downstairs when I heard loud voices.

"And that's your excuse?" Mom bellowed.

I stood at the top of the stairs and looked down to find that she was arguing with Dad, who was usually busy with his business trips and was almost non-existent to his family. He'd been a good father, a good husband even, but lately he was neither. I'd tried to ignore those things as much as I could, I'd tried to divert my attention to studying, but sometimes during times like these, I just couldn't.

"It's not an excuse, Isabel; I'm telling you the truth! I was really in Sweden for a business trip."

Mom sobbed, "I've had enough of your lies Oliver! I know where you've been and what you were doing. Yes, I know you went to Sweden, but you came back to the country on Sunday. It's been four days, where were you then? Living in a hotel?" She pulled out a chair from the dining table and sat down, completely resigned.

"Why do you say that?" He asked.

And the way he asked her, I just knew that Mom was telling the truth. I'd always thought it fishy how he went on business trips for over two weeks, and when he came back to us, it was like he was pretending to be someone else. Sure he loved us, but there was something he was hiding for sure.

Mom picked up her phone and showed him a picture. I couldn't see the picture but I heard what she said, "Your secretary posted this!" She made a swiping motion and showed more. "The day she blocked me on Facebook, I knew there was something going on so I made a fake account to test what was going on. This picture right here, she's holding hands with a man in a hotel room. It's your hand!"

I held the banister tightly because I was going to collapse on the floor.

"You've been fucking other women on your trips, haven't you?!"

Dad remained silent and just stared ahead. He looked so much like Archer, it was surreal. He had the same face, hair color, and eyes. Women were easily attracted to my dad, and he had a hard time ignoring them.

"We have three beautiful children. We had a good family, where have I gone wrong?" The pain in my mother's voice cut through me like a knife.

"Bell, I...I was just stressed with everything going on at work, and at home. I keep worrying about Vicky's future. Her asthma attacks especially. I had a few drinks that night at the bar and was in a vulnerable state, Terrie...she was just comforting me."

"By opening her legs for you?" Mom asked savagely.

Dad looked defeated. And I knew that he'd cheated. Cheated on my mother, and had shattered her trust. She had her suspicions about him right from the start but she'd ignored them and I'd told her that it had been her imagination.

I guess I was wrong.

"It was just once." He said.

As if cheating and sleeping with some woman "just once" was considered normal and if he'd done it over a dozen times it could have been an offense.