nothing about his father's tone nor the grim faces in the room bode anything positive. Seth began to shake from nervousness but tried to hold on to some semblance of control to hear what it was that his father was trying to tell him.
'Starting tomorrow it’s just going to be you and your brother looking out for one another, and the gods know your brother is going to need some looking out for with his grand dreams of battle and all.' James said.
Seth let out a sigh of relief and even managed to smile a little at his father's comment. This wasn't any new information, in fact Seth had been thinking the same thing earlier in the evening. He nodded his understanding to his father and sat silently letting James continue. James stood a second seeming to steady himself and gather his thoughts. He was a large man both tall and muscular so Seth found it odd that he looked so worn. Where he usually stood tall, his broad shoulders held back as if daring the world to face him, now he stood slumped, eyes downcast, ashamed.
'You're a wonderful young man and we are all very proud of you, and I know if your mother was here today she wouldn't be able to let either of you go tomorrow.' With his last statement James nearly lost his resolve and his voice faltered slightly. He could barely keep his emotions at bay.
'What I'm meaning to tell you Seth…' James paused looking to his friends for support. All of them had tears in their eyes, and Emily was openly weeping by this point. Taking a deep breath James continued.
'Seth, Garret isn't your brother, I'm not your father, and your mother wasn't your mother.' James barely finished with a sob as he lost control of his emotions.
Seth sat open mouthed, tears streaming from his eyes and just shook his head in disbelief. All eyes were on him, every look a mask of pain and sorrow. Seth could hardly breathe and it felt as if in a single moment his entire life was stripped away, if it had even been his life to begin with. Seth could find no reasoning to his father's words, the repeated over and over again in his head but just did not ring true.
'What do you mean dad? That's not possible we're twins, how could we possibly not be brothers?' Seth asked.
James tried to settle his own nerves and took several deep breaths before even trying to respond to his son's questions. 'You have the same birthday it is true Seth, and the two of you do nearly look identical, but the truth is you are not brothers. I only tell you this now because your mother…' James paused for a second not wanting to takes Seth’s feelings for granted. 'I mean Cassandra and I swore to each other that when you were ready we would tell you. Bus she is gone now, so it is up to me to tell you the truth like we agreed when we decided to raise you as our own.' James said
Seth took several minutes just sitting with his eyes closed not wanting to believe what he was hearing, and not wanting to see all the faces around him, the people who had lied to him his entire life. Feeling deceived and betrayed Seth gritted his teeth to try and gain control of his emotions, and without bothering to open his eyes growled more than spoke.
'Then who are my parents?' He asked.
Inwardly Seth hoped that soon he would just wake up to realize that this was just some twisted nightmare, or at the very least some kind of cruel joke, but he knew deep down it was true. Something about it made sense. He had never been treated any different than Garret, in fact everything besides the loss of their mother had been damned near perfect until now. Seth wasn't sure if he even wanted to know the rest but his father began talking before Seth could rescind his question.
'The night your mother was in labor with Garret I was at my wits end. There was water to boil, your mother was screaming, she was bleeding, Emily and Rose were taking care of her, but I was a nervous wreck.' James said a glazed look of remembrance in his eyes. 'I was running back and forth from our room to the kitchens with towels and water, unsure if I was doing anything right. There was a terrible blizzard outside and it was all I could do to keep a cooking fire lit in the kitchen to boil the water. As I rushed from the kitchen back towards your mother's and my room there was a faint knock at the door. Worried about your mother I took whatever it was I was carrying to the room first then returned to open the door. The wind had been howling so bad outside I had had to bar the door just to keep it closed. The door burst open just as soon as I had it unbarred and outside in the storm stood this woman. She was just a tiny little thing, and to this day I can’t say for sure, but it appeared that the only thing she was wearing was a bear skin pulled over her shoulders. She was shivering terribly bad, and it was obvious she had no money so I invited her in, barred the door behind her, gave my apologies and simply ushered her into a room on my way back to your mother. Just an hour later your brother was born and I spent the next few hours with your mother and cleaning up our room just happy that everything had gone well. I had completely forgotten the young woman in the other room.' James paused to think a moment before continuing. “It was an hour or two past midnight when your mother awoke believing she heard Garret crying, but upon waking she found him still sound asleep, yet the sounds of a crying babe remained. She was too exhausted from giving birth to go find the source of the sound so she woke me up. I found you in the room I had allowed the young woman to stay in. You were in the middle of the cot wrapped in the bear hide that she had arrived in. You had only been born in the previous hours as your skull was still elongated to permit birthing, yet the young woman was nowhere to be found. Jack and I looked all over for any signs of tracks or blood in the snow outside but found nothing. The woman had vanished without a trace. Your mother was already nursing Garret and so put you to the breast as well, thinking that the woman would soon return to claim you. Days passed and then weeks, she never came nor did we ever see any sign of her so we decided to raise you as our own, and swore to one another that someday, when you were ready, we would tell you the truth of it. So in keeping a promise to your mother, bless her soul, I am breaking my own heart.' James said tears still running down his face. 'Your my son damn it no less than Garret no matter what.' James said after a moment of thought.
Seth sat a moment choking back sobs, barely able to take a breath. His entire life had been a lie. Or had it? Just because he hadn't been born to James and Cassandra didn't make them any less his parents. Truth be told, they had saved his life by taking him in. Seth decided that it didn't matter. His family was still his family no matter what, the only problem Seth had with the sudden admission from his father, is for the first time in his whole life he didn't know who he was. Seth’s family was James and Garret, and even all their neighbors, who apparently all knew the real truth of the situation, but it was now also possible that Seth had another family entirely out there somewhere. Seth still felt a bit betrayed that everyone had seemingly kept this secret from him his whole life, and by doing so may have stolen from him a whole other life and family entirely. It just didn't fit though, Seth knew his father, he knew his neighbors, and he loved them all and knew that they had only done what they thought was best for him.
'Does Garret know?' Seth asked
James just shook his head, just beginning to recover and reign in his emotions.
'I hope you can forgive us and understand that we just wanted you to have a normal life, the best life we could give you, and that we all love you very much. James pleaded.
'I love you all too.' Seth said looking around to everyone in the room. 'But, do we have to tell Garret? I don't think I am ready for him to know yet if that's ok.' Seth said.
'I had already decided to leave that up to you son, I've never seen a pair of siblings as close as you two.' James said
'So what do we do now?' Seth asked. He took a deep breath, finally able to breathe again as the knots in his stomach began to subside.
'That too is up to you Seth, none of us knew just how you would take the news, but we all hoped…' James said trailing off.
'I think that you and mom and everyone else did what you thought was best.' Seth said. 'Though I wish you had either been honest with me all along or perhaps never told me at all. In any case you are all the only family I have ever known, and just because I am adopted don’t make us any less family.' Seth said.
James grinned from ear to ear with a sigh of relief. The whole room seemed to feel lighter all of a sudden and James stood tall and grabbed his son in a monstrous hug. Before long Seth had hugged each of his neighbors, and with lots of apologies and words of encouragement Seth was finally ready to join his brother in their bedroom and get some rest for the journey tomorrow. Thus he said his goodbyes and left the alcove and quietly went to his room hoping not to wake his brother if he was already asleep.
Seth crept into the room he shared with his brother and was pleased to find Garret snoring lightly. A small candle burned on Seth’s bedside table, Garret had apparently lit it before going to sleep so Seth could see when he finally came to bed. Seth quickly and quietly undressed and crawled into bed, reassured by his brothers' actions that
