I had always dreaded this moment, the moment when my parents’ unusual and unconventional marriage would be revealed.
I tried to explain to him, to calm him down, but he didn’t listen to me.
“Call your father, Sasha,” Adam demanded. “Tell him your mother is cheating on him in his own house.”
It seemed logical, even simple. And I understood why Adam thought involving my father would solve everything.
But I was completely wrong.
Before I could react and begin to explain, my mother entered the room, adjusting her clothes.
“I can explain,” she began, but my fiancé interrupted her.
“Explain? What is there to explain? You’re cheating on your husband in his own home!”
“It’s not deception, my dear,” he said softly. “Sasha knows and she’ll explain everything to you. Shaun and I have a different kind of marriage. Very different. It’s unconventional compared to a typical wedding. You have to understand that, Adam, before you judge us.”
Adam turned towards me with his eyes wide open.
“Did you know? Did you know all this and not tell me?”
I tried to calm him down, but he walked away.
“I didn’t know how to tell you, and I’m not proud of keeping this secret. But it wasn’t my place to reveal it.”
“Sasha!” he said, throwing up his hands. “You should have told me! This isn’t something you hide from the person you’re going to marry. I don’t know if I can trust you now. It was a trap, wasn’t it? You wanted to lure me into this lifestyle, didn’t you?”
At that moment, I felt overwhelmed and didn’t understand what Adam was trying to say.
I remembered a moment from my youth. I was 16 years old and my friends were planning to spend the night at my house.
I.
“You have the biggest room, Sasha,” my friend Brielle said. “We’ll do it at your house.”
“That sounds good to me,” I said. “I don’t think my parents will mind! And we can watch movies in the living room because my parents now have a TV in their bedroom, so they won’t bother us.”
“I’ll bring my cotton candy machine,” Brielle said excitedly. “We can eat it with popcorn!”
I remember coming home from school and telling my mother everything. She smiled and nodded enthusiastically.
“Of course, darling,” she said. “You can manage. Your father and I are having dinner that night.”
I had no idea that that same night I would discover the truth about my parents’ marriage.
My friends and I were sitting on the sofa when my parents came home with another couple. My mother was holding a man’s hand tightly as she took off his shoes. My father was kissing the other woman.
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