Chapter 8 - Emily had thought Marcus hated her because she wasn’t “real family”
Emily already had her own explanation for Marcus’s behavior.
Children always did.
During therapy with Dr. Susan Hale, she said:
“Marcus likes Lucas more because Lucas is his real kid.”
Susan did not correct her immediately.
“What makes you think that?”
“He doesn’t get mad when Lucas talks about his mom.”
“What happens when you talk about your dad?”
Emily hesitated.
“Marcus gets quiet.”
“Which dad?”
“Dad Evan.”
That distinction mattered.
Emily still called Evan Dad.
Nobody intended to take that away.
She continued.
“Marcus says I need to stop making everything sad.”
“Does he say Lucas makes things sad?”
“No.”
“So what did you think that meant?”
Emily looked down.
“That I’m not really his.”
Victoria cried when Susan later relayed the conversation.
The irony was brutal.
Emily had spent two years believing her stepfather treated her harshly because she was not biologically his child.
Meanwhile, the adult truth was the opposite.
Victoria asked how to tell her.
Susan recommended simple honesty in stages.
No dramatic reveal.
No family meeting with twelve crying relatives.
No telling Emily that her entire childhood identity had been false.
So Victoria sat beside her daughter one afternoon.
“Remember the family test you did with Lucas?”
Emily nodded.
“The one that said we were too related?”
Victoria almost smiled.
“Something like that.”
She explained that the test showed Marcus was probably more closely related to Emily than everyone thought.
Then she said an accredited test confirmed it.
“Marcus is your biological father.”
Emily stared at her.
No reaction.
Then:
“But Dad is Dad.”
“Yes.”
“Evan.”
“Yes.”
“So Marcus is what?”
Victoria took a breath.
“Marcus is the man whose DNA helped create you.”
Emily frowned.
“And Dad Evan is the one who raised me?”
“Yes.”
“Then I have two dads?”
“There are different ways you might choose to describe it.”
Emily looked deeply irritated by the complexity.
“Families are weird.”
Victoria laughed through tears.
“Yes.”
Then came the painful question.
“Did Marcus know when he hit me?”
“No.”
Emily looked at her mother.
“If he knew, would he not have hit me?”
Victoria refused to give Marcus a redemption he had not earned.
“I don’t know.”
Emily thought for a long time.
Then said:
“He shouldn’t hit kids even if they’re not his.”
Victoria pulled her close.
“No.”
May you like
That was the cleanest moral truth in the entire story.
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