We rang the doorbell and Justin opened the door. “Mom, Michael and David are here together,” he yelled

and then Juliette was running to the door to hug us both. She practically dragged us in to the hallway. “I’m

so glad you’ve made up,” she said and started crying

“Mom, don’t do that,” David said and he hugged her again.

We walked in to the living room and then my dad came downstairs from his study. He looked relieved to

see us both standing there.

“Before you say anything, there’s something that we need to tell you,” I said. There was a slight tremor

in my voice but I didn’t think anybody but me could hear it.

“What is it?” Juliette asked. I could see my dad’s face go pale and harden. I reached next to me and

took David’s hand in mine. His palm was clammy from anxiety. Our fingers entwined and I squeezed his

hand hard, just to be able to go through with the next sentence.

“David and I are sleeping together.”

I could see Juliette’s jaw drop. Everything was quiet for a few seconds. I looked at my dad’s face but

nothing in his expression gave away how he actually felt.

“What do you mean with ‘you’re sleeping together’,” Juliette finally stammered, hoping that she’d

misunderstood.

“It means that they’re having sex,” my dad said. Then he sighed and his body seemed to slump

forwards. He looked old and worried for a moment, but definitely not shocked.

“You knew,” I noted.

“Jesus Michael… ,” My dad said.

“You really knew?” David asked surprised.

My dad walked to his liquor cabinet. “I need a drink, do you want one as well honey?” he asked Juliette.

She nodded and my dad poured the both of them a huge glass of cognac, even if it was only just noon.

“If you knew, then why haven’t you ever said anything?” David asked quietly. My dad’s hands were

shaking as he drank from his glass.

“I just thought that you were infatuated with Michael and that you were fighting all the time because of

it. I didn’t know that the feeling was mutual. I thought that Michael couldn’t stand you because he knew

that you were in love with him.” He took another gulp from his drink. “But when Michael just said he had

something to tell us, it all made sense immediately… All that bickering between the both of you just made

sense. I knew what Michael was going to say when I looked at his face.”

“I’m sorry,” I said but my dad interrupted me. “Jeez David, I’ve been worrying about our obsession

with Michael since you were both in high school. And all this time Michael didn’t mind at all that you

were in love with him…”

“He was scared out of his mind that you would find out. Nothing ever happened between us when we

were both living at home. If it had been up to me we would have been together for years but Michael was

so afraid of losing you that we ended up frustrated and fighting all the time.”

“Is this why you were so eager to leave for Paris twice?” my dad asked me

“Yeah it basically was. I needed to escape for a while.”

My dad’s face looked all wrung out. “I have no idea what I should say or do next,” he said. He looked at

David. “I hope you know that I didn’t mean it that I was glad that you’re not my real son. That evening, I’d

had too much to drink and I thought you’d come on to Michael or something and he punched you because

of that. I thought he broke your nose because he despised your feelings. Jesus, I’m such an idiot…” He

rubbed his temples.

“I still want you to be my dad, this thing between me and Michael doesn’t change that,” David said.

“But I’ve thinking that I might take on the name of my biological dad again, to make things less weird.”

My dad put down his glass walked over to David and hugged him hard. David looked thrown-back by

surprise but then he put his arms around my dad and hugged him back.

“Are you alright Juliette?” I asked David’s mom, who was listening to the whole scene with an open

mouth.

“I think so… What are we going to tell Christine and Brad?”

“They already know. They figured it out for themselves.” I looked at my dad. “Brad doesn’t mind and

Christine doesn’t either.”

My dad’s hands were still shaking as he took another gulp from his drink. “Can I have a drink too?” David

asked.

“Yeah sure, help yourself,” my dad answered and he poured himself a second another one too. David

handed me a glass of cognac as well. It was my dad’s finest cognac and the bottle was already half empty.

“So what should we do now?” my dad asked. His gaze was blank as he looked at Juliette.

“Well I’ve made a roast and Christine and Brad will be here any minute now. I think that we should just

have dinner,” she stammered.

“That’s probably the best idea,” my dad said. “I don’t feel like making a big scene out of this in front of

the twins.”

I hadn’t even thought about Jack and Justin. They were almost fifteen now and I wondered how they would

react if they found out.

“Are you coming back to the firm?” my dad asked David.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. I don’t want there to be gossip about Michael and me at work. We want

to keep things pretty low-key, not everybody at the firm needs to know right away. And besides, it wasn’t

really that much fun for me to work with the two of you.”

“Then what are you going to do? Are you going to be alright with finding a new job?”

“I’m starting at Hoffman’s next month. I know that they are kind of our competitors but they made me a

very generous offer and I could become full partner within a couple of years. Things weren’t really

working out for me at our firm anyway. It’ll be good for me to do my job without half the family watching

over my shoulder.”

“That’s great. It’s an excellent firm, I know the guys there very well,” my dad said quietly.

“Do you really want me to still work for you?” I asked. “You don’t have to answer right away."

“You are staying with the firm whether you want to or not. Who else is going to take over when I

retire,” my dad replied sternly.

The doorbell rang and Juliette let Christine and Brad in. They could immediately tell by the strange

atmosphere in the room that something was the matter.

“We told them,” I said.

“Oh Michael…good for you,” Christine exclaimed. “I hope that things will finally work out for the two

of you.” She gave us both a big hug and padded dad on the back. “It’s going to be alright dad,” she tried to

reassure him.

We sat down to have dinner and Juliette called the twins downstairs. They stumbled down the stairs

and rushed in to the dining room.

“So did you finally tell them?” Justin casually asked as he forked a potato out of the pan. He elbowed

Jack, who gave him a wicked little smile.

“Tell them what?” I asked.

“No need to pretend, we’re not stupid,” Justin said.

“We caught you kissing on the couch at Christmas when we were trying to sneak in to the kitchen to get

some more cake. You were so busy that you didn’t hear us,” Jack grinned.

“Jeez, you saw us and you didn’t say anything?” David replied.

“We didn’t want dad to kill you both,” Justin answered with a smile.

I looked over at dad, who was obviously feeling very uncomfortable.

“David and I were having a very difficult time with this. I know this whole thing might be weird, but

it’s important that you realize that we were very unhappy and this is the only way for us. And David and I

are not related to each other by blood…but that doesn’t mean that we don’t still want to be a part of our

family. We’re still your brothers, that doesn’t change.”

“We were just worried that you would both leave for Paris and that we would never see you again,”