That Summer

Secrets, Secrets Are No Fun

As I lay in Michael's arms, staring at the moon shining brightly through the curtains on the windows, I could feel him nuzzling my neck softly with his nose. His lashes kissed my skin softly like a delicate butterfly flapping its wings against the surface of my bare skin. Our moments filled with desire and love had ended, leaving us in a heap of wonderment as to what we had just experienced as a young couple in love. My moment of silence was broken at the sound of Michael's voice filling the air,

"You know, I never hear you mention your family." I looked at him with a funny look, rotating on my side to get a clear view of him.

"You hear me talk about them all of the time Michael." I chuckled softly, earning a light pinch on the arm from him.

"Not your aunt and uncle baby, I mean your real family, your parents. You never talk about them, the only time you ever mentioned them was when you told me they died in an accident." I knew he would be asking me this question sometime soon, but I didn't expect it to be now.

"There's really nothing to say about them, they died and that's that." I wanted so badly to turn away from this conversation, but I knew Michael all too well and I knew that he wasn't going to give up so easily.

"Anna, what is it with you and your parents? Did something happen between the three of you?" You have no idea.

"No, why would you think that?"Michael gave me a quizzical look.

"I don't know, maybe because when I brought them up you immediately tried to dodge my question. I am just trying to get an understanding of what they were like and if they would have liked me."

"They would have loved you, don't worry about that."

"Then at least tell me about them." I sighed with frustration, but I knew that he had to know about my past in order to focus on our future.

"Fine, what all do you want to know?" Michael leaned his head against his hand.

"I want to know why you are so against talking about them." He rubbed my chilled arm with his large hand. It was now or never.

"A lot of things were odd about my family, my parents were always leaving me by myself when I was nothing but a child. I never had any friends since I always kept to myself, but in reality, I was always a shy child. My father was always busy, always on the job. Well when I was around thirteen, my father came home late and me being the nosy teenager I was, went into his office that was always off-limits to my mother and I. He never said why, but that's what I was always told. That night I went into his office and all around me I saw pictures of some woman that wasn't my mother. Letters to my father that had been signed by the name Elise were all over his desk, each one was scented with a light fragrance of perfume. I immediately figured out then that my father was having an affair, but I never told my mother of what I discovered. Not only would she have been upset at the fact that my father was cheating on her, but she would have been more upset at the fact that I was invading my father's personal space. I knew my mother wasn't happy in her relationship with my father since all he ever did was neglect her.

"The Winter before I met you, I remember confronting my father about my discovery and the last thing I remember was my father throwing his glass of gin and tonic at the wall before he beating me senseless for accusing him of such things and for invading his privacy, though he knew I was right, he still tried to make it seem as if I was lying. I could never look at my father the same because all that would come into my head would be his mistress and him abusing his only daughter. When my parents died, I didn't cry for my father, but only for my mother. She didn't deserve the neglect and absence of my father's love, she deserved more and if I had told her what he had been up to then she would still be alive today." I felt warm tears trickling down my cheeks as I cried at the mere thought of my horrific past with my father. I looked up to see Michael shedding his own pile of tears before wrapping me in his arms tightly.