A Family Affair - First Born

by Marilyn McPherson

  There was magic in that moment; it was an experience which burnt its way into his memory. In a flash he was given the most perfect clarity. Somehow, someday, he was going to marry this girl. He knew right away that he wanted her.

  To Jack’s surprise, later that night he had the opportunity to talk to Nikki in person. He ordered her a drink which she liked, and they started chatting. She laughed generously at his stories, and gradually the spark he had felt from watching her on the stage grew and grew. It blossomed in front of them until there was an undeniable chemistry. Nikki had smiled broadly when she realised, and wrote her number down for Jack.

  “Will you call me tomorrow?” she had asked apprehensively.

  Jack had grabbed the moment with a youthful confidence. “I can do better than that. How about I take you to brunch? I know a great place.” He had been thinking of the spot where Margaret refused to go, but he loved. They served goats cheese with eggs, and the coffee was strong.

  Nikki had liked his confidence, and the date had gone well. It had progressed naturally to dinner because they hadn’t been able to stop talking. He couldn’t exactly remember who had suggested flying to Vegas, but at some point one of them had challenged the other to do something bold and spontaneous. It was a wild, reckless thing to do, but Jack hadn’t been able to think of one good reason not to. He was not going to live forever – why not throw caution to the wind once in his life. Nikki was a breath of fresh air, and it would sure as hell annoy Margaret, if nothing else.

  Telling Tom had been the most difficult part of the adventure. Tom was similar to Margaret in many ways – he was not prone to spontaneity and had been raised to be conservative. However, Tom was marrying Ellen rather quickly, so Jack had not given up hope that his son would approve.

  To Jack’s dismay, Tom had not understood at all. In fact, he had even started blaming himself for hiring Nikki to perform. The two of them needed to discuss the issue further, but Jack was hopeful that his son would attend the celebration despite his reservations.

  Later that night, Jack was relieved to see Tom and Ellen arrive as the first guests. Nikki welcomed them and was kissing Ellen on the cheek when he first noticed them. He hurried over, hoping to see further positive signs that his son was going to support their marriage after all. In any case, he did not want to miss a word said between the two beautiful new brides. Perhaps if Ellen and Nikki became friends, Tom would come around sooner. Nikki was laughing heartily at something Ellen said, so perhaps she had the same idea.

  “Tom, Ellen, hello,” Jack said, shaking his son’s hand. “Thank you for coming.”

  “We wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Ellen insisted, smiling and looking at him and Nikki with curiosity.

  Jack could tell that Tom was still unhappy with things, yet his new wife was obviously delaying her judgment for the moment. He and Ellen had always gotten along, and perhaps she had more sympathy for his situation, given the way that Margaret had behaved towards her.

  “Help yourself to food and drink,” Jack said, pointing to everything. “Tom, a word.”

  “Certainly, Father.”

  “Ladies – please relax. We’ll be right back.” Jack led Tom out to the balcony where they could have a moment alone to talk. “Son, I really appreciate your being here tonight. I can’t tell you how much it means to both Nikki and myself.”

  “Ellen insisted on coming.”

  “I see.”

  Tom paused. “You should know that Mum is not handling this marriage of yours too well.”

  “Your mother was the one who divorced me,” Jack reminded him. “Don’t forget that I didn’t instigate a thing. We weren’t happy, but I would never have divorced her.”

  “Yeah, I know that,” Tom admitted, looking down.

  Jack felt a pang of sympathy for Margaret. He didn’t want her to be distressed. “Does she need anything from me?”

  Tom shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’m keeping an eye on her.”

  “Good. I appreciate that. You know, as hard as it is to believe, I don’t want anything bad for your mother.”

  “I know that, Dad. It’s just an unfortunate situation.”

  “Not for me. I can’t tell you how alive I feel right now. It’s as if I’ve been given a new life. I don’t regret anything, and I’m not going to apologise for falling in love, and for marrying Nikki.”

  Tom looked at him and then nodded. “Yes, I can’t remember seeing you like this before.” He paused. “I know you want my support.”

  “I do, son. Both Nikki and I do.”

  “I can’t pretend to understand why you had to get married so quickly, but I will try and support this decision without any more questions.”

  Jack beamed. They were the words he had wanted to hear. “Thank you, son.”

  “I guess I should get to know Nikki better now.”

  “We’d both like that.”

  Before long, more and more people started arriving. The string quartet played, the champagne flowed, the cocktail bar became crowded with people ordering fancy drinks, and the finger food arrived on decorated trays. As the noise levels started to increase, Jack realised that people were having a terrific time.

  None of Jack’s friends voiced any concerns at the party about his quick marriage, and in fact, of few of his friends threw him sly looks of envy as Nikki sauntered around the place meeting everyone. She was so adorable and likeable – there would be no worries left by the end of the night.

  Suddenly Nikki found Jack’s hand and squeezed it. “Sorry to barge in. I’m going to go freshen up. My parents have just arrived.”

  Jack looked where Nikki indicated.

  “Why don’t you go introduce yourself, and I’ll be right back.”

  “Can do.”

  “They’ll be thrilled to meet you, Jack. I’ve told them so much about you.”

  “Don’t keep me waiting too long, Mrs Bradley.”

  She smiled, enjoying her new title.

  Jack made his way through the familiar crowd of friends and family until he reached Mr and Mrs Lucas. “Hello there,” he said, getting their attention. “You must be Ken and Janet.”

  “Are you Jack’s father?” Janet asked, removing her coat and smiling.

  “Um, no.” Jack realised too late that Nikki must not have told her parents about their age difference. He took a deep breath. “I’m Jack.”

  They both looked at him in shock. “But you are our age,” Janet murmured.

  “No. He’s older than us,” Ken said, with disgust in a knowing sort of way.

  “I’m sorry.” Jack wasn’t sure what was going on here, and wished that Nikki would hurry over to calm what was quickly becoming an awkward situation. Luckily, the noise around them was preventing their conversation from being overheard by his other guests; otherwise Jack would have been mortified.

  “I know you!” Ken said angrily. “I’ll never forget who you are, and my daughter is not staying married to you. I’ll tell you that right now.”

  “Excuse me.” Jack looked around for Nikki again but still couldn’t see her anywhere. Neither Ken nor Janet was at all familiar, and Jack had no idea what they were talking about.

  “You are the scumbag that got Sarah pregnant and broke her heart in the process.”

  “This is him?” asked Janet.

  “Yeah, I’d recognise him anywhere.”

  “Oh.”

  “Wait,” said Jack, trying to keep up. “What? Are you talking about Sarah Rush?”

  “Who else?”

  “How did you know her?”

  “We were friends. I supported her through the break up. She gave the baby away, you know. She couldn’t keep something that reminded her of you.”

  Kane was the baby that she had given away. Jack looked around the room for him, and was about to explain that her son was grown and here at the party when he stopped. Perhaps meeting Kane would only upset Ken further.

  “I asked her to marry me when she said she
was pregnant,” Ken continued. “To make an honest woman out of her, even though I knew it was your baby she was carrying.”

  Jack tried to explain quickly. “I never knew she was pregnant. She wanted me to end my marriage, but I couldn’t. After that, she just disappeared. She quit her job, and I never heard from her again.”

  “You broke Sarah’s heart, that’s why. She couldn’t bear the pain of seeing you every day, after she thought you loved her. You’re an animal! You did that to Sarah and now you want to do the same to our Nikki? You broke her heart, and she never recovered. She couldn’t trust a man again.” Ken’s face had turned bright red as the anger was building up in him.

  “Your heart, Ken,” Janet suddenly warned, tugging on his arm. “Try not to get so worked up.”

  Jack shook his head. He loved Nikki and would never leave her. “I don’t understand where this is all coming from, Ken. That was so many years ago. Nikki knows all about Sarah – I’ve been completely honest with her.”

  “We should have insisted on meeting him before now,” Ken said to Janet. “I would never have thought this was possible.”

  Jack suddenly spotted Kane in the distance. He and Nikki were talking together near the champagne table. Why hadn’t she come over yet? Something about their body language bothered him... but there was no reason to feel jealous, so he stopped worrying. He and Nikki were in love, and he was not going to have the relationship ruined by the girl’s parents. “I made a mistake. I admit it, but my marrying Nikki is hardly related to an error of judgement on my behalf twenty-eight years ago. I love your daughter. I am committed to her one hundred per cent. You don’t need to question that.”

  Ken only shook his head in response.

  Jack kept going, “After Sarah’s passing, you obviously moved on with your life. You married Janet here, and had Nikki, so everything has worked out in the end.”

  “Let me tell you something. That pretty little picture you just painted isn’t how it was. You caused havoc in our lives.”

  “No, Ken. Now is not the time,” Janet pleaded.

  “He needs to know the pain that he caused. I tried to help Sarah. I was there for her. She got pregnant again a few years later, but she wouldn’t marry me. She couldn’t trust anyone after what you did. I told her I loved her but she didn’t believe me. She was convinced that I would leave her. She ended her life shortly after giving birth. She felt alone and unloved even though I was there. Her heart couldn’t heal.”

  “What are you saying?” Jack asked. Did Kane have another brother or sister?

  “I’m saying that she couldn’t even feel love towards me or her own two children after what you did.”

  “What happened to the second child?”

  They both stared at him dumbfounded. It was obviously not something that Janet wanted to hear, as she was shaking her head at Ken.

  Ken lowered his head, and whispered. “I was drowning after Sarah died. Janet was there for me. She wasn’t able to have her own children, so it all made sense.”

  “What did? What are you saying?”

  “Janet has always loved Nikki as if she was her own flesh and blood.”

  Nikki hadn’t mentioned that her biological mother wasn’t Janet. Was it possible Ken had just told him something that Nikki herself didn’t know? “Is Nikki Sarah’s second child?” They stared back in silence. Words weren’t needed though as their expressions gave the answer loud and clear. This news meant that Nikki and Kane were related as half-brother and sister. They were both children of Sarah with different fathers. “So Nikki has a sibling,” he concluded.

  Ken leant against the wall, consumed with his story and the emotions that had resurfaced along with it.

  Janet stood up straighter, and took charge of the conversation. “We don’t know what happened to Sarah’s first child, and we don’t care to be honest. And listen up - we don’t want our daughter knowing any of this. Ken shouldn’t have said so much. It was all so long ago. I’m her real mother in every way that counts. Do you understand what I’m saying? If you tell her, we’ll never forgive you.”

  Jack thought over all the information he had just been told. He had cared about Sarah, but he hadn’t had the strength to leave Margaret. Now he was married to Sarah’s daughter. Nikki would not be happy to learn this. In fact, she would probably walk out on their marriage the moment she found out. It would be devastating for her. Perhaps, it was fortunate that Nikki’s parents wanted the secret to remain. Jack was now as committed to maintaining the secret as they were. It was all so long ago in any case. The biggest downside was that Nikki now had a half-brother and wouldn’t be allowed to know that fact. But it was a small price to pay.

  “I won’t tell her,” Jack promised them.

  “Thank you, Jack,” Janet said, taking her husband’s hand. “We won’t be staying.” She headed for the front door, and they left without another word.

  Chapter 24

  Kane walked around his father’s party in awe. Jack was certainly splashing the cash around. The waiters were serving truffles and black caviar, and he tasted things he had never even heard of. There was a cocktail bar serving one hundred-year old whiskey, and a champagne station popping two hundred dollar bottles of champagne as if they were going out of fashion.

  Many of the people were over sixty with grey hair. The odd young person, he imagined, was a friend of Nikki’s, but no one particularly interested him. Jack’s friends were probably from the exclusive golf club where he was a member – the club where Kane had been reintroduced to the woman he couldn’t get out of his head.

  Ellen – he breathed in her name. She was a goddess to him. She was the girl who haunted his conscious and his dreams. He could smell her scent when he closed his eyes, and felt disappointed each time he opened them to see her not there. Ellen. She was the girl who would rather sleep with his aging brother than with him. As much as he wanted to get her out of his head, he couldn’t. Her presence wouldn’t leave him, despite the fact that she wouldn’t even look at him now.

  Nikki Lucas, on the other hand, was more available to him. He was going to meet her properly tonight, and would try to understand his father’s choice to marry a girl he hardly knew; a girl who was younger than Kane himself. She was well known in the music industry apparently, but he hadn’t heard of her. Had she bewitched his father, or tricked him into marriage? Nikki had sung at Tom and Ellen’s wedding, but he hadn’t taken much notice of her then. It had been a surprise to hear that she and Jack had gotten married shortly after. As far as Kane knew, they hadn’t known each before that night. It was a bizarre sort of decision to rush off and get married, obviously one that no one understood, given the mutterings Kane had overheard around the room.

  Kane caught the eye of various women as he walked around the party. It was mostly bored housewives on their husbands’ arms who noticed him. He was used to attention from these sorts of women. Sometimes he played with them, and sometimes not. In trying to deal with Ellen’s rejection, he had bedded more of these women than usual recently. But it didn’t seem to be helping. The more women he seduced, the more he wanted the one girl he couldn’t have.

  Kane looked to see what she was doing, and not surprisingly, he saw her on Tom’s arm, laughing heartily while chatting to another couple. She seemed genuinely happy, he had to admit. Sometimes he wasn’t sure whether he wanted her to be happy or miserable without him.

  Family parties were now the only opportunity Kane had to be close to Ellen. If he called her phone from his own phone, she refused to answer. If he called from a public phone, she would hang up as soon as he spoke. It was literally killing him to see and feel her rejection so often.

  He knew if he approached her at this party, she would make polite small talk with him, but actively avoid being alone with him.

  Kane compared Ellen to Nikki again. They were both young and vibrant women, and had both chosen to marry old men. In Nikki’s case, it was almost disgusting to imagine her shacked up wi
th Jack. He was more than twice her age. Kane supposed that money must be an important factor to both women. Certainly looks and personality were not strong points in either his brother or father.

  Kane suddenly noticed that Nikki was walking in his direction. She was obviously heading back to Jack who was regularly looking in her direction. This was his opportunity to understand exactly why she married his father. He stepped directly into her path, forcing her to look at him.

  “Oh, my God, you must be Kane,” she squealed. “Jack told me how good-looking you are.” Her spoken voice was expectedly high, and sounded nothing like her singing voice.

  “How do you do?” asked Kane, putting his hand out to shake hers.

  “I’ve been meaning to introduce myself to you,” Nikki said, ignoring his hand and pulling him in for a hug. “It’s great to meet you... finally. The two of us are new to this family, so we need to stick together.”

  During the embrace, Kane’s attention was diverted to Ellen across the room, whose hands suddenly rested on her small rounded bump. She wasn’t far enough along for other people to notice, but Kane couldn’t take his eyes off it. How he wished it was his child inside her. Things would be so different.