Taboo

by Jo Tannah

  “Do you know it was Tita Jo who told me to never stop calling you Mom?” Joshua said walking over to where Mark stood, wrapping one arm around his younger brother when he reached him. He turned to face his mother.

  “How I hated you for what you did to Mark.” Joshua continued. “It’s true, you never hit me or Margaret, but you didn’t hesitate to hit Mark. I wonder why he can’t remember? Maybe he was too young? Maybe he blocked it off? But I remember. Margaret remembers. We’re your kids, so somehow we wanted to protect you by not saying anything to Dad. We were wrong, we should’ve told him. That way, maybe I would’ve been spared walking in on you and your men. You totally disgust me, do you know that?” He pointed to Joanna. “You want to know how I feel? What I see? Tita Jo? She’s our mother. If Zach and Dad get married, I’ll start calling her Mom. Zach? He’ll always be Zach. He’s our best friend. Now that he’s with Dad, I’ll still call him my best friend. You? I’ll erase from my memory.”

  Hearing the hate and despair pour out of his son made Tristan’s heart thump once, twice. The third punched him hard in his chest. He doubled over, winded from the intensity of the pain, unable to breathe. He lost feeling in his legs and he began to fall, but Zach’s arms around him prevented it. Zach called out his name and he opened his mouth to take in air, but found he could not.

  The one thing that he never wanted to happen was have his family broken. The thought of what Amanda had done to his children was too hard to accept. He opened his eyes and saw Zach’s tear streaked face. Zach shouted something to him, but he couldn’t understand what was being said. The loud thumping in his ears echoed that of his pounding heart. He tried to reach up to the beloved face looking down at him and found he didn’t have the strength to lift a finger. He heard his children’s voices rise in alarm, but couldn’t do anything to reassure them.

  “I love you,” Tristan wanted to say, but instead of the words, a whimper came from his mouth. An indescribable, unbearable pain shot through his chest. He blinked back part in surprise, part in confusion, the world began to darken, and he knew no more.

  Epilogue

  As long as he lived, Zach would never forget the terror he’d felt when Tristan slumped in his arms, unconscious. If he’d not been there holding on to him, Tristan would most likely have fallen and hit his head. He sure wanted to hit him right now.

  Acute indigestion with accompanying mild panic attack.

  Relief washed over him when he heard the words the doctor said as he stood facing them. He didn’t have enough adjectives to express his feelings. If he followed Dr. Samuels correctly, Tristan developed indigestion because of the rich foods he’d indulged in the past three days. As for the panic attack, he could understand how that happened. The events over the past three days were enough to drive a strong man to lose control. The discovery that Mark had been abused by his mother as a child must have been the final straw. He knew how Tristan loved his children to the point of overprotecting them, and he must have felt such a failure as a man and as a father.

  “Are you certain it wasn’t his heart?” Zach said in near panic. “Did you do a blood test? How about MRI? Should we ask for one? I need to be certain he’s healthy. That his heart is healthy.”

  Dr. Samuels looked at Zach, blinking over his reading glasses in confusion. “And you are?”

  “He’s my dad’s husband,” Margaret said from beside Zach. The doctor looked at everyone in the small waiting room for confirmation. Everyone except Amanda nodded their heads. She stood alone on the far end of the waiting room, arms wrapped around her body. Why she was there in the hospital when she’d been the cause of Tristan’s collapse was beyond Zach. He ignored her, preferring to focus his attention on what the doctor was telling them.

  “I apologize, Mr. Maxfield,” the doctor said. “Yes, we did run all the tests on your husband. At least, all that we could do for now, and I can assure you, he is very healthy, other than his cholesterol and blood sugar levels are a little high. The last two I can dismiss as having been caused by his rich diet the past few days. However, I still would want to check them over again and ask his doctor to follow up on his levels. For now, if you insist that he have the MRI, of course we can have one.” He looked around him and when everyone nodded their assent he continued.

  “All right, let’s see if we can have the MRI scheduled for tomorrow. The nurse will come by later and ask you to sign a consent form.” Dr. Samuels waited until Zach nodded again before continuing. “I will caution you, Mr. Maxfield, for both your sakes, please make sure he eats right. At his age, he can be prone to heart diseases, and from what you’ve said about his diet these past few days, they’re not the best for anyone.”

  “He has heart disease?” Zach’s eyes widened in fright. Why was he hearing this just now? He had no idea Tristan had a bad heart. His eyes began to tear up.

  “No, no,” the doctor said, waving both hands for emphasis when he saw Zach’s distress. “He does not have heart disease. All I meant is that he can develop one if he doesn’t have the right diet and exercise.”

  “Oh, okay. Thank you. Yes. I’ll make sure he eats right,” Zach said, his shoulders sagging in relief. He gripped his trembling hand tight around his mother’s hand. She visibly winced in pain but didn’t retrieve her hand.

  “We’ll make sure everyone eats the right foods.” Margaret announced. “Right everyone? With Dad in that condition, we have to make sure we support him in every way possible.”

  She turned to her new husband, brothers, and Zach and delivered her ultimate pronouncement. “Giles, Joshua, Mark, and especially you, Zach. From now on we shall all eat vegetarian! Right, Tita Jo?”

  Zach was quick to agree, nodding his head furiously and not caring how the rest groaned out in disbelief. Fortunately, no one dared argue with Margaret’s decision, especially when she shot a razor sharp look at all of them. He and Joanna did a double take when, beside them, Jonathan nodded his head in agreement just as fiercely as Zach had.

  * * * *

  Tristan lay on the hospital bed, his eyes closed against the memory of how he’d totally embarrassed himself. He’d frightened everyone, including himself. He knew Zach had been panic-stricken, and he’d never forget the look of despair on the beloved face. Tristan resolved he’d do anything and everything to make sure that never happened again. He was just glad when the doctor told him it was nothing more than indigestion and a panic attack and not anything more dangerous. When the door opened, he opened his eyes. He gave a weak smile when Zach walked into view.

  “I love you. I just wanted you to know,” he said in greeting.

  Zach reached the bed, leaned over and combed his fingers through the salt and pepper hair. “I love you, too,” he said with a soft smile. Then his face hardened, his eyes narrowed in an angry glare. “If you ever do that to me again, I. Will. Kill you. Do you understand me?”

  “Okay,” Tristan said. There was nothing else he could say.

  “How’s Mark?” Tristan said, worried for his son. “Is he okay?”

  Zach nodded. “Yes, he’s outside with Mom, Dad, and the rest of the crew. Joshua’s talking to him.”

  “Tell him I want to talk to him, okay? I don’t want him to think I failed him.” Tristan’s face turned grim. “Where’s Amanda?”

  “She’s outside, though I don’t know why she even bothered to come here. I blame her for everything, and there’s nothing you can say right now to tell me otherwise. Everyone agrees by the way. No one’s talking to her.” He straightened the sheet that was the hospital’s version of a blanket. “Oh, before I forget, Margaret told everyone I’m your husband, so you just nod your head when they refer to me as Mr. Maxfield.

  Tristan wide grin of delight made Zach smile in return. “I bet you liked that.”

  “Yes, I do.” Zach said with a smirk. “I’ll give you time to get used to it and then we can make it official.”

  Tristan looked at the hope in Zach’s face. He kne
w it was still early on in their relationship, but he liked the thought of making Zach permanently his. “Remind me when you decide on the date.”

  With a muffled shout, Zach attacked his lips. He felt his heart pound again. However instead of the feeling of fear he’d had earlier, it soared with happiness.

  “You mean it?” Zach searched Tristan’s eyes, and Tristan tried to convey all the love he felt for his lover.

  “Yes. I mean it.”

  Zach moved so he lay beside Tristan on the bed. “Dr. Samuels said you can get out of here once your blood test results are released. That should give us a few more hours, so why don’t you close your eyes and sleep for a while?”

  “I can do that. What else did he say?”

  “He told me you needed to change your diet. I agree. The rich food did nothing good for you. I don’t want you developing some sort of heart disease because you don’t eat right. Also, we’re turning vegetarian. Margaret declared everyone is from now on.”

  Tristan winced. “I hope you told her no way.”

  “Oh no, everyone agreed—even Dad, who especially didn’t want anything like that happening to him. He said he’d never let you forget how embarrassing your little stunt was.” Zach looked up at Tristan’s face from where he lay. “I am moving in with you, right? I mean, once I start working with you, I’ll need a place to stay.”

  “Yes, you can move in with me. And, hon,” Tristan said, laughing nervously. “I like meat too much. I can eat lean meats and lamb or turkey, so I don’t need to turn vegetarian. There’s really no reason to, you know.”

  Zach narrowed his eyes at his lover. “Honey, when Margaret declares we’re turning vegetarian, we’re turning vegetarian. If you want me to stay with you, you’re going to eat right. And if that means you don’t eat steak, you don’t eat steak.

  “No steak! Why?”

  “Because I want you in my life for the next thirty or more years you still have left. I refuse to accept anything less than that. I’ve waited too long to have you, and now that I do, I’m not giving up that easily. Your diet is going to change. Beginning now.”

  “Not even a little bit?”

  “No, not a bite.”

  * * * *

  Tristan had fallen asleep when a nurse came in two hours later, a clipboard in hand. She gave Zach a smile before walking over to check on Tristan’s IV line. After taking down a few notes and recalibrating the flow, she turned to Zach.

  “The doctor said Mr. Maxfield can go after his MRI tomorrow morning, just as soon as his hydration’s done. Can you go outside and sign the consent form?” she said in a soft voice.

  Zach nodded, gently eased away from Tristan’s side, and left the room with her. Outside in the waiting room, he saw his mother raise his dad’s hand to her lips and kiss it. She was looking at him with love in her eyes. Margaret and Giles were sitting in one corner saying lovey-dovey words to each other. They’d announced to everyone earlier their decision to postpone their honeymoon trip to help Zachary get Tristan in line with his new diet. Mark sat on a chair set against a wall, staring down at his shoes, speaking in a low voice to Joshua. What they were talking about, Zach couldn’t hear. It must have been something serious, from the glistening of tears in Mark’s eyes when he looked up at his brother. Joshua wrapped his arm around him and said something, and again Mark nodded. Looking around the waiting area, Zach didn’t see Amanda. She’d disappeared.

  A nurse placed several documents on the station counter and Zach looked them over. His mouth curved to a smile when he saw his name had somehow managed to get inserted as Tristan’s next of kin. Turning around, he saw his family watching him. Joanna and Jonathan both looked tired, though the grin on his father’s face said it all. Zach shook his head in wonder and smiled gratefully at him. He didn’t know how his dad had done it, but he’d worked fast. Zach turned back to the documents in his hands and started signing the papers.

  This was it.

  The End

  About the Author

  I am a wife, mother and blogger by day, a writer by night. It can be difficult to say the least, but it is a challenge that keeps me on my toes.

  I grew up listening to folk tales my father and nannies told either to entertain us children or to send home a message. These narratives I kept with me and finally I wrote them down in a journal way back when I kept one. Going through junk led to a long forgotten box, and in it was the journal. Reading over the stories of romance, science fiction and horror I had taken time to put to paper, brought to light that these were tales I had never met in my readings.

  The tales I write are fictional, but all of them are based on what I grew up with and still dream about. That they have an M/M twist is simply for my pleasure. And I hope, yours as well.

  Amazon Author Page:

  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00RCKB5J6

  Twitter: @JoTannah

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  Website : http://jotannah.com

  Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/JoTannah

  Email: jotannah1@gmail.com