Chapter Eighteen

Zac Hanson

I'd probably be lying to you if I said that I didn't have even the vaguest suspicion of what my parents were going to tell us as we entered the hotel room that day after the uneventful trip to the local zoo. In fact, to say it was nothing more than a vague suspicion would also be a lie. I knew. I knew what they were about to tell us. I just kept silently praying that I was wrong.

I knew I wasn't when my father started off by saying this:

"Before we tell you what you need to know, we have to make you promise something.

We all nodded in agreement, exchanging glances with each other. I knew I wasn't the only one who knew what was coming.

"You have to promise us that after we tell you this, you won't treat Taylor any differently than you did yesterday. He'll always be your brother, no matter what and you need to treat him with the love and the respect that you would treat a brother." That was it, it was over.

Once again, we all nodded. My eyes began to dampen before the words had even begun to come out of his mouth. I knew that if he said what I was now sure he was about to say, I wouldn't be able to keep it together.

I looked down at my feet and then to Isaac. I knew that it was his big brotherly duty to keep it together for all of us, but if he didn't, there'd be no hope. His own eyes were filled with tears. Just seeing that, I nearly lost it right then and there but struggled to keep it for a little bit longer.

Dad sighed. He looked to my mother. She looked back. No one seemed aware of the woman who had(to us) mysteriously appeared in front of the dressing room, standing with the guy who looked like Taylor when we came back from signing autographs.

"Taylor....Taylor and Parker, are, um, they're twins," he told us. He was wringing his hands now. It's something he only does when he knows he's about to let on to something unpleasant. Still, I had to hold on to my last sliver of hope.

"Who are their parents?" I asked, crossing my fingers so hard that it hurt.

"Their mother was a friend of ours in high school," he told us. I assumed that "ours" included the woman. "We don't know who the father is."

Isaac leaned forward and dug his palms into his eyes. Jessica put her hand on his back, knowing that this was probably hurting him more than it hurt any of us. Avery and Mackenzie both grabbed my hands. I tried to smile at them reassuringly, but when I turned the corners of my lips upward, they shook and faltered and it wasn't long before I, too, started to cry.

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Index
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Nineteen