The Mistake Pt. 03

"What?" I asked. Did I even want to know? How could she possibly top murder?

She hesitated again, throwing a glance my way. It was eerie, the way she seemed to silently judge me. She was smart, yes, had always been, but wasn't I suppose to be the older one?

"Well there is one other... alternative," she said, drawing it out almost like she wasn't sure she wanted to tell me even as she spoke. "It's... something I've been thinking about for a while."

"What is it?" I asked, too intrigued and desperate not to. If even she was hesitant then it couldn't be anything good. "Wait," I quickly added, holding up a hand. "Does it involve murder? If yes then I don't want to know."

"Jackass," she said, rolling her eyes. "No it doesn't involve murder. Learn to read a joke."

Yeah... a joke... for some reason I still wasn't sure about this 'joke'.

"Okay... tell me," I said.

"Well..." she said, sitting back up again. "It involves probably the biggest lie you would ever tell and yes, it would hurt people. However as we have already established that will happen anyway. On the plus side it puts an end to it, the sneaking around and the lying."

Over the next fifteen minutes she explained what her idea was. I remained silent throughout and just listened. At first I was horrified but when she explained her reasoning it became a lot less... sinister. A lesser evil among evils. When I thought about it the idea made a whole lot of sense. Not only would it, as she said, put an end to the sneaking around and most of the lying but also definitely the cheating. It would also give a high chance of keeping my relationship with dad intact.

It was even versatile enough that it could be adapted to solve both our problems at once. Or perhaps not versatile but limited would be a better word. It would require a whole bunch of planning and yeah, probably the biggest lie I had ever told and would ever have to tell in my life.

Was it worth it? It wasn't the be end of all lying, far from it, but it ended most of it. The rest? Time would take care of that.

Most important of all, if it worked, and there was a high chance that it would, it would give me exactly what I wanted.

Her.

It was certainly an opportunity, and well... thou shalt not waste.

Fuck the rest, right? Yeah, fuck the rest.

"Yeah," I said once she was finished. "Yeah, that one. Lets go with that one."

The grin on her face was almost frightening.

-o-o-o-o-o-

The Next Day
Claire

"I'm not sure I like this," he said with his eyes focused on the road. I could see the hardness in them even from the side.

"Which part is it you don't like?" I asked.

He didn't immediately answer but I could see the gears turning in his head.

I had told him about the plan Sam and I had come up with the day before. He had been shocked but most of all very skeptic. It had taken quite some convincing to at least get him to agree to discuss it. That's where we were going now, to see Sam and mom.

"All of it," he said. "It's too risky. Too many unknowns."

"Which is why we're going to discuss it and work out the gaps," I said, reaching out to turn down the radio a bit. This was a serious conversation, after all.

"I haven't agreed to anything other than this meeting," he quickly said and I rolled my eyes. "Which, for the record, I also think is a bad idea."

"Ever the lawyer," I mumbled, clear enough for him to hear it. "But you realize something has to change, right? Yeah, we can go on like we are now but what would the future in that be? I keep lying to Liam and you keep cheating on Rose... and then what? It's not going to last forever. Sooner or later we'll either get caught or something else happens."

I could see the muscles in his jaw flex. His mind was working overtime trying to get at every angle, see every loophole.

"I agree that something needs to change," he said after a long moment. "But I'm not sure this is the best way to go about it."

"Do you have another alternative? A better one?" I asked. "I've been thinking about this for a long time now and this is the only way I can see us both getting what we want and cause the least amount of harm."

Again a long moment of silence.

"No I don't have another alternative," he said and I could see the muscles around his eyes soften a little. "But this is..." He trailed off.

"... not decided yet," I filled in. "I'm not trying to spring anything on you. This is merely a meeting to discuss our options, to work out if it's even feasible."

He bit his lower lip for a quick second before shaking his head a little bit. "Does... does your mother even know... you know... about us?"

I couldn't help to chuckle at that. He had gone from hardcore analytical lawyer to insecure teenager in less than ten seconds. Really, it was kinda cute.

"She does not," I said but shrugged. "Well maybe she does now, but that's Sam's headache. I'm sure she'll have a few choice words for me and probably you too once we get there though. Just let me handle that."

He drew in a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. "How old is your mother anyway?"

I stifled another chuckle, settling for a grin that he couldn't see unless he turned his attention away from the road. I knew why he was asking.

"Turned thirty eight a few months ago," I said, enjoying the groan he let out.

"This would have been far less awkward if I hadn't been a full year older than her," he said, shaking his head again.

"Naww," I countered, giving him a pat on the arm. "I don't think she's going to care about a year or two. But hey, at least you're younger than dad."

He tried to remain calm but I could see that he wasn't very successful at it. I suppose he had good reasons for it though. I mean, how do you introduce yourself to your girlfriends mother when you're older than said mother? They had met a few times in the past, less than a handful, but only as Liam's dad. That had gone fine but this, this I was pretty sure was going to be very different.

"Relax," I said. "I mean what's she going to do? Forbid us from seeing each other? I think a quick reminder of whom she's sleeping around with will take care of that quite nicely."

He gave me a worried glance but otherwise didn't respond.

"Fine," I said, rolling my eyes. "Maybe this will calm you down."

I unlocked my seatbelt and before he had a chance to say or react I leaned over and down into his lap.

"Cla-"

"Shush," I said, working on his belt. "Focus on the road. You're boring company so I think I'll have a nice long conversation with my friend here instead."

It turned out that it took a little longer to reach our destination than expected. Mostly I think it was due to the traffic but I suppose I couldn't rule out the blowjob. The car velocity did significantly reduce the moment his dick passed my lips.

Fun though.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Samuel

"Claire is doing what?!"

Oh boy. This was why I had chosen to save that little tidbit for as long as possible. I knew this was going to happen. She had remained quiet throughout the whole thing, just staring at me with disapproving eyes, arms crossed, but when I got to the end and had to tell her about Claire and Nicholas she couldn't retain herself.

"Come on mom," I said and rolled my eyes. "Did you seriously think Claire would go out with a guy like Liam? He's nice and all but completely not her type."

She leaned back in her chair and narrowed her eyes at me. "I don't believe you."

"That's fine," I said and stifled my exasperation. "They are both on their way here so then you can see for yourself. I just wanted you to have a chance to prepare yourself."

Her eyes narrowed another fraction. "One, that doesn't sound like Claire at all. Two, if it's true then why haven't you told me sooner?"

I knew from the get go that nothing about this was going to be easy. This, though, was probably one of the harder things to get through. At least initially.

"Claire's smart, extremely smart," I said. "You know this. Hell, growing up she was the one helping me with homework." She reluctantly nodded. "She knows exactly how to present herself to be perceived exactly how she wants. She's always done it, even when we were kids. Why do you think she never got into any trouble whatsoever? Because no one ever thought she was capable of doing something that warranted getting into trouble. And that's exactly how she wanted it, still wants it."

"I'm her mother-" she began but I cut her off.

"-and probably the hardest one for her to fool. But fool you she did and still does. The only reason why I know any of this is because I caught her and Nicholas in the act and forced her to own up."

She still looked skeptical. "Then why didn't you tell me or your father? It's entirely inappropriate for her to fool around with a man twice her age. A married man."

I slowly raised my eyebrows at her. To get my point across I also slowly extended my hand towards her, more specifically, towards her chest. She didn't stop me, just followed it with her eyes. She did slap my hand away after I gave her left breast a squeeze.

"It's not the same thing," she said and scowled.

"Yeah, good luck getting that argument across," I said. "As for not telling you, well..." This was going to go over well. "I didn't really feel it was my place to tell."

"Not your..." she trailed off, glaring at me. Yep, she was definitely about to blow it. I could see it in her eyes. "She's your sister goddammit! You're supposed to look out for her! Not let her-"

I let out a sigh of relief. Saved by the bell. Or rather, the sound of the front door opening. I was extremely grateful that those fiery eyes of hers would soon have another target.

"Sam?" Claire's voice echoed in the house.

Mom still looked like she was about to destroy something and I just gave her a pleading look. I knew It wouldn't do anything but at least I had tried to give her a moment to prepare herself.

"We're in here," I called out.

It was a tense few seconds before Claire's form appeared in the kitchen door. Her and mom's eyes immediately locked and if gazes could wage war I was pretty sure the entire house would've exploded. A moment later Nicholas appeared behind her and mom's scowl grew even deeper.

"Claire," mom said, or rather, punctured the silence, not taking her eyes off Nicholas. "Can I speak to you in private for a moment?" It was very obvious from her tone that she wasn't asking.

"That's quite alright mother," Claire said, voice neutral. She reached out and grabbed Nicholas hand, a very marking gesture. "If there's anything you want to say-"

Mom stood up, the sound of the chair scraping against the floor loud enough to silence Claire.

"Nicholas, a word please," she said and without waiting for a response she turned around and walked out of the kitchen.

The lightning in Claire's eyes were unmistakable. Nicholas, for his part, just looked extremely awkward. Funny that, seeing a thirty-something, almost forty year-old guy squirm.

"Fine mother," Claire snapped and while she didn't storm after her it wasn't far from it. She didn't slam the door though, instead closing it gently behind her, leaving me and Nicholas alone in the kitchen.

Awkward.

I nodded to a chair and said, "Might as well sit down. This'll probably take a while."

He did. And then more silence, pressing, bordering on unpleasant. I had half expected to hear shouting coming from the other room but there wasn't so much as a peep. If this was a good sign or a bad one I wasn't sure. Probably the former but it could just as easily be the latter.

From the few times I had talked to Nicholas he had seemed like a pretty cool guy. It was understandable, though, that he might not be interested in casual conversation precisely at that moment. Still, after a good few minutes of nothing but silence I was feeling almost compelled to break it. And of course I had to choose the absolutely most inappropriate way to do it.

"So," I said. "You're banging my sister, huh. What's that like?"

I realized just as I finished how it sounded.

One of his eyebrows rose as he turned to look at me, previously been staring at the door leading to the other room.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "That's a weird thing to ask. What I meant was... how do you do it? Claire's... well she's weird."

He chuckled at that, some of the tenseness dissipating from the air. "She's... a handful, that's for sure."

From what Claire had told me the day before it seemed that things between the two were pretty serious, far beyond just casual sex. That he had even agreed to this meeting showed that it was definitely not one sided.

"So," he said after a few more seconds, a shiteating grin on his face. "What's it like banging your mother?"

I matched his grin. Yep, I definitely liked this guy. "Well I'd be lying if I said it wasn't weird at times."

"I can only imagine," he said.

The kitchen fell into silence again after that. Still pressing, yes, but not nearly as awkward. They had been gone for a good six or seven minutes and there was no sign of it ending anytime soon.

Another ten minutes, that's how long it took before the door opened. The sound was so sudden that both me and Nicholas jerked in our seats. Claire, face completely neutral, stepped through. Her left cheek was flaming red and I thought I could make out the outline of a hand.

She looked at Nicholas. "She wants to talk to you," she said, her voice giving away just as little as her expression.

"Is everything...?" he asked, obviously noting her cheek.

"It's fine," she said, walking over and sitting down in the chair next to him.

He looked like he wanted to say something more but seemed to decide against it, instead getting up and walking into the other room, closing the door behind him.

Yet more silence.

"That looks like it hurt," I said, nodding to her cheek.

Her jaw tensed but then relaxed as she averted her eyes. "I... I deserved it," she mumbled. "I was out of line."

"She's going to fight you?" I asked. If she and mom didn't get along I didn't see how we could go forward with our 'plan'.

"I dunno," she said, staring at a point on the table. "Depends on how that goes." She gestured to the door.

It was a little weird, seeing her so timid and subdued... cowed almost. Yeah, mom could be frightening when she wanted to be but it had been years since she had really gone off on someone. Indeed, I couldn't even recall the last time she had actually hit anyone. I could certainly see how Claire could work her up enough for it though.

They were in there for a long time, far longer than Claire had been. After fifteen minutes she began to look nervous. Ten minutes later she looked ready to rush back in there. In total it took over half an hour, probably closer to forty minutes before the door opened yet again.

This time both Nicholas and mom walked in and I could spot no physical marks on either of them. That was most likely a good sign. Neither of them spoke but I could see the single nod Nicholas gave to Claire.

"Everything good?" I asked when it became evident that neither of them would speak up.

"More or less," she said as they sat down at the table. This time, I noted, mom sat in the seat right next to me. Claire and Nicholas was on the opposite side, sitting just as close.

I did not miss how mom's eyes narrowed when Nicholas gave Claire a pat on the shoulder. She didn't say anything though.

"Um, right," I said, clearing my throat. "I, ah, I assume we all know why we're here. For clarity sake we probably should go through it one more time now that we're all present. To, uh, avoid any misunderstandings. Claire?"

She looked a little startled, being put on the spot like that. It had been her idea though.

It took her a good thirty minutes to go through everything, including the loose plan she and I had come up with the day before. It was all basically what I already had told mom but I did notice a few differences. Claire was much better at explaining and there were a few times when mom went from near scowling to looking thoughtful. Nicholas, for his part, looked completely unreadable. It was, I assumed, a trait he had developed over the years as a lawyer.

"And that's it," Claire finished. "That's as far as Sam and I got. There's still a lot to work out but it seemed pointless to go further if we're not all in agreement."

A long silence passed and I looked from Nicholas to mom. Neither seemed like they were going to say anything.

"Well?" i said. "Any input?"

"I think..." Nicholas began, looking at the table with furrowed brows.

"It's too risky," mom cut in, arms crossed. "Too many ways something like that could go wrong."

Well, at least she didn't outright dismiss the idea like she had earlier when I pitched it.

"Which is why we're here, talking about it," Claire said.

"You were right mom," I said, looking at her. Her eyes softened a little when they met mine. "The other night when we talked. What future is there in what we're doing? What's the endgame? This gives us that, a way forward." I turned to look at Claire. "For all four of us."

"But it's..." she said but paused. She drew in a deep breath and let it back out. "This, what you're proposing... it's dangerous, bordering on illegal."

"I agree," Nicholas said, drawing everyones attention. "With Ava. It doesn't border on illegality, it is illegal."

"See?" mom said, looking at me and gesturing to Nicholas. "Even he-"

"But," Nicholas continued, cutting in. "It doesn't have to be. There are other ways, semi-legal ones, of accomplishing the same thing. The gray area lies in what we're doing now, talking about it, planning, conspiring."

"But you think it's possible?" Claire asked, leaning forward.

"It's..." he said, meeting her eyes. "The short of it, yes, I think it's very possible. Do I think it's a good idea? That's... harder to say. It's morally wrong, definitely, but so is what we're already doing."

"But this would put an end to most of that," I said. "Remove the need for further lies."

"What if something goes wrong?" mom asked, still very much skeptic. "What if it somehow got out, what we're doing?"

I had no answer to that. And neither did Claire it seemed. It was a worst case scenario that I didn't want to think about, didn't even want to consider.

"Legally speaking I could make sure we would be covered," Nicholas said, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Socially though... we'd be outcasts, you two a lot more than us."

There was no disputing that, even if mom very much looked like she wanted to.

"I think it's worth the risk," Claire said. "None of the alternatives are very appealing, including the one where we do nothing."

"I also agree with that," Nicholas said.

"What about your wife?" mom asked, staring straight at him. "And your son? Could you really do something like this to them?"

He met her eyes, staring for a long moment. Then, without breaking eye contact, he reached out and grasped Claire's hand in his, placing them on the table.

"For Claire? In a heartbeat," he said.

I got a sense that they had already talked about this in the other room and that this was just a way for mom to 'test' him. Her eyes were hard and narrowed for a long moment but then she gave a single nod and looked away.

"It's a good point though," I said. Turning to mom I said, "What about dad?"

She immediately softened and I could see turmoil in those green eyes of her.

"He would be... devastated," she said, a little sombre.

I nodded, more to myself than her. He would be devastated. But what was the alternatives?

"That would happen either way, wouldn't it?" Claire said, speaking low from the other side of the table. "I dislike the idea of hurting him just as much as you do mom, but unless you intend to stay with him he's going to get hurt no matter what." She turned to Nicholas. "The same goes for Rose."