looking in from the outside

Eric knew he had no right to judge anyone, but he'd learned in the last few conversations with his dad...that he didn't want to have a life nearly as complicated as his dad.

Of course, he was seeing now that his Dad had possibly met the wrong woman. Ian's mother. It was just.... they had a history. And it wasn't history yet. Even if Ian and his Dad had came back from England.

"What are you trying to tell me?" Eric was doing his best not to be furious with his Dad.

"I shouldn't bring it up. Your mother wouldn't want to know." His Dad acted as if it might be the end of them if he were to bring up Oliver.

"Dad, Mom has always wanted you to just be honest. Really." Eric believed that. If it was so, that Oliver really was his brother. Shouldn't they be there for him? Like this was all he needed to dwell on before his wedding with Syd, that was hardly an hour away.

It was an accident that his Dad had confessed everything to him as it was. He guessed his Dad had to unload on someone. This secret he'd carried for a good long time. Not that he wanted to, but that was the way Oliver's Mom had wanted it. She'd planned on getting a hefty sum of money from this old professor who she claimed was Oliver's father. Only, it hadn't really panned out that way.

"So you told him?" Eric felt a little queasy, a bit sad to the fact that his father had dumped even more baggage on the fellow he hardly knew.

"Yes, he knows." His Dad sounded as if he were in some sort of interrogation that might turn explosive. "I tried to get him to come home with us. I did."

"Well, I wouldn't want to have anything to do with you, either." Eric scowled.

"What?" His Dad looked at him as if weren't his fault.

"Its just, I see things differently. All right." Eric gritted. "I would have never done that to Evan. Never." Eric bit his upper lip, hoping he hadn't said too much. But it was true. He felt himself almost melting into tears. This was suppose to be a happy day. It would be. One way or another. Eric took a deep breath and let his father help him with his tie then. But a little of him wondered what Oliver was doing right now.