The Return of The Forgotten Son

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gne tasted

e from our mother's piano lessons. Twenty years gone, and I could still hear him

other appeared at my elbow, her perfu

diculous party. Sixty years old, he said. Time to celebrate

end we weren

e same lie I'd been te

d new money, all mixing together like oil and water. Father held court by the fireplace, his silver

der. "You should mingle

that. What people thought. What people saw.

m notice

. "Don't make a s

what we'd already done? But Thomas didn't like thinking about that night.

t that

rom the entrance hall. I watched Father raise his glass, ready to make some speech

front doo

People kept talking. But I felt it. A change in

d in from t

s black, touched with grey at the temples. He moved slow

into the light

shattered on the marble floor, the sound

rned. Every

e had our father's sharp jawline and our mother's elegant hands. He looked e

oice was quiet but it filled th

raw and terrified. Her champagne flute fell, shattering next

om in three strides, putting himself

Thomas said, his voice hard.

he was studying an insect. "Do

ther is

hen who buried me? Who lit the fire

had stopped playing. A hundred guests sto

e. "Security! Remove

know about the accounts in the Cayman Islands. Not when I know what you did to the Peterson fa

turned grey. "

at, forming puddles on the floor. "I remember. I remember everyt

caught her before she fell, h

whispered. "You're dead. W

Mother. You of all peo

something that made my blood freeze. Something ancient

neath was something else. Something that had crawled

away. They sensed it too.

homas ordered. "T

er to reach the doors. Within minutes, the ballroom emptied. Only o

u want?" Fa

ant what was taken from me. I w

et mine, I saw a flicker of something. Recogniti

e said, "I wan