He Missed Our Daughter's Birthday Again novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: Clifton Falls
"My father has a son I didn't know about," Roderick said.
The ballroom went silent.
"His name is Sammy. He's six years old. He has leukemia, and he is on the fourth floor of the children's hospital tonight."
Clifton reached for the microphone.
Roderick turned his shoulder, and his father's hand closed on air.
"The boy's mother is a woman I used to date. My father was seeing her at the same time, while my mother was sick upstairs in the house on the lake."
A woman at a front table put her glass down so carefully that I heard it.
"He has paid her every month for six years. I have the statements here." He took folded pages from his jacket and held them up. "I was made trustee on the account in March, and until two weeks ago I never opened it."
"This is a private family matter," Clifton said, louder.
"You made it public when you used my mother's name for this dinner."
Clifton's face had begun to change.
It didn't crumple.
It hardened, because he couldn't find the line that worked.
"Three weeks ago," Roderick said, "the boy's mother told me he might be mine. Her call came in the middle of my daughter's fifth birthday party. I left. I left my pregnant wife to light the candles alone."
A few of the guests looked toward me.
I looked back.
"The boy isn't mine. The test says so. My father knew that before I did, because he's the boy's father."
"Roderick, that's enough."
"He sent her to me with a story, because he couldn't be the donor himself, and he knew I'd move the earth for my own son."
He turned and spoke directly to the room.
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