The Nuclear Family Pt. 01

I turned, walking out of the room and down the hall. I heard them moving but not trying to stop me.

I yelled back over my shoulder. "Remember, don't be here when I get back!"

They were smart enough to let me walk out, though as I got back in my ute and drove away from my house, I noticed the curtains move as they peaked at me leaving.

I drove around for a few minutes, thoughts flying through my mind, I had no idea what they were, but strong emotions and the feeling of betrayal ran deep. Then, finally, I took a breath turning my car towards my parents. It was the only place that I thought might be a haven.

When I arrived, Mum and Dad were already on the front porch of their house. I got out of the ute and walked up the front pathway towards them.

I looked up at them. I was willing to bet that my parents could see the pain evident on my face.

"Hi Robbie," Mum said.

"Son..." I stopped walking up the path to my parents as my Dad spoke much deeper, more stoic than he usually did. Neither of my parents could meet my eyes for more than a moment.

The realisation set in; they knew!

"No, no... please tell me it isn't true, tell me that you didn't know about it?" My injured voice wheezed out.

Mum stepped towards me, glancing briefly at my father. "We're sorry, Robbie, it's just..."

I snapped, not only betrayed by my wife and brother but my parents. A snarl appeared on my face even as tears ran down my cheeks.

"You're sorry, Mum. You have the nerve to say you're fucking sorry!" I almost screamed. "How long... How long have you known my brother and wife have been fucking in my house, my marital bed?"

"Son, I know you are angry," My father said, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. "But that's no way to talk to your mother. We raised you better than that." What caught me off guard was that it wasn't pain commiserating with me but instead a strong note of disdain in his voice towards me.

"How. Fucking. Long?" I asked again, my voice a low growl. I was suddenly seething.

My mother looked down at her feet, then over to her husband, then back to me before sighing. The most telling thing was that there was almost no remorse written on either of their faces. Mum's eyes showed some shame, but Dad showed some twisted version of pride.

"Three years," she said, "we've known since almost the beginning."

If I thought I was broken by betrayal before now, I now knew that wasn't true. They were managing to push me lower.

"What... The... Actual... Fuck!" I shouted at them.

"Now, son, this is not the way to talk to either of us. We're your par..." he started to say.

"Fuck off Dad." I interrupted, intoning sarcasm in the word 'Dad'. I could feel the presence of neighbours looking out windows, watching the scene. I did not care.

"You've known your oldest son has been fucking my wife, your youngest son's wife, for three fucking years, and you have said zero, zip, nothing to me. Some great fucking example of upstanding parents you are. I bet you even know the baby is my fuckwit brothers and not mine?"

They said nothing but just looked at me. It spoke volumes.

My head was pounding. A headache was building, the edges of my vision began to blur as my sanity began to crumble. I said nothing and just started breathing. If nothing else, martial arts had taught me control and breathing. No one said anything for a couple of minutes.

I cocked my head to the side, my parents and I glaring at each other.

"Does Joanna know?" I asked.

Mom responded without thinking, "She's the one that caught them on one of your trips. She came to your house to see Georgia finding them together."

"I see," I said.

Dad went to say something. I held up my hand.

"No, I do. I see it. I'm just the poor youngest child that is so trusting that I have no concept of right from wrong that it was okay for my entire family to keep a secret about my brother going to bed with my wife, getting her pregnant, and keeping me in the dark.

"I see it because I might think what you all see as right is wrong." My face contorted into a snarl. "You obviously don't give two shits about me. You must have laughed so hard every time you sent me away to fix my goddammed brother's mistakes that you kept him fucking my wife while I was gone."

"Son, it is not like that..." Dad started to say.

"Like fuck it's not!" I snarled back at him. He even took a step back seeing the look on my face. Dad knew my martial arts history. In the early years, he had even encouraged it.

"Robbie, please." My mother pleaded, looking at the windows of the neighbours. "Come inside, sit down so we can talk about this. There must be a way to fix this, there must be a way to have Brad, Gregoria, and yourself sort this out."

"Sort this out?" I retorted. "Can you hear what you're saying? Hang on, let's think about this, it would be like." I posed my hands in a thinker pose affecting a silly sarcastic tone. "Oh, we're sorry for keeping you in the dark for three years about how your wife and brother have been fucking behind your back. How about we're sorry we sent you out of town so they could get together and fuck in your marital bed."

I paused looking at them; then, I laughed a sick, almost maniacal laugh, my hands patting the air in mock humour. "Hang on. I've got it. How about we're sorry that we lied to you about how your brother impregnated your wife. We thought it would be fine that we were all going to let you raise his child without ever telling you."

I dropped the act and stared at the woman I once thought was a loving mother.

"No?" I asked, listening for a reply; none was given.

"Is this the type of fix you were thinking of Mum, getting me to raise Brad's bastard child as an unknowing cuckold?" I finished.

She looked away from me. I got the impression that was exactly what my parents wanted. I stared at her, wondering who these people were.

"Look, son," my Dad said. "We get it. We really do. You are upset and hurt, perhaps when you calm down..."

I cut him off again. "Calm? There is no calm. Has neither of you picked up that I am fucking atomic on this entire family, that I feel like everyone has betrayed me? And not only don't you appear to understand why I feel that way, but you're advocating that you want me to accept it. Fuck you! What's worse is I can't even see a single ounce of remorse for the pain you are causing me!"

They again said nothing, just staring at me as aliens come to earth to study the emotions of humans on this planet. What wasn't being said could fill libraries. They honestly thought I should accept the situation even if I were not on board with everything.

For the first time since arriving, I looked away from my parents, my shoulders slumped, and I felt my mother's first stirring of empathy. She took a step toward me. I felt the movement. My head and shoulders squared back up instantly; my whisper was harsh.

"Why would no one tell me?" I asked, feeling the first part of a plea coming from myself.

Dad grabbed Mum's arm, squeezing it, stopping her from moving closer to me or responding to my question. Then, as he looked down at me from his front porch, he studied me for a moment before making a decision.

"We have spoken about it many times," Dad said. "But each time, we thought it would be better for everyone if you didn't know." My father delivered the statement like a report, factually and unemotional, to a supplier. Not in sympathy for one of his children in pain. "You were happy in your blissful ignorance. You were doing a good job within the company keeping everything running smoothly, so we didn't want to upset that rhythm."

"The company?" I asked, again cocking my head to the side with a questioning look.

"Yes, son, you're too valuable. We knew if you found out, it would cause issues all over the business, from sales to production to delivery and quality. Look at yourself now. I can see this will disrupt so many things, and we'll lose so much momentum now. This is why we didn't want to tell you." My father said like he was reading a statement.

This time Mum grabbed Dad's arm and squeezed as he was about to continue his monologue about how I should just accept what was happening to me. She saw the look in my eyes; my fists started to clench and relax as he spoke.

My voice went lower than ever before, sounding like gravel. Deep, clear, hard. "So let me get this right." I started. "You didn't tell me about the fuckwit and the pregnant cunt because you were worried that company productivity would suffer. You all knew that she wasn't pregnant with my child, and you thought it was okay not just to make me a fucking cuckold, but everyone was to lie to me then let me unknowingly raise someone else's child just because the company might lose ground if I got upset!"

"Robbie..." Mum started, but Dad overrode her, grabbing her arm and squeezing.

"Yes, son, we decided for everyone's benefit, including yours," Dad replied. "Georgia told us the next one would be yours, not your brothers."

At that moment, I would have happily killed each of my family without a worry in the world. Instead, I breathed. Everyone had betrayed me for nothing but operational momentum and profit.

"Well then, don't I feel fucking special," I said in the most sarcastic tone possible. "I have such a loving family looking out for me, keeping me busy, making everything easy so I wouldn't see the mess right under my nose."

Dad missed the intent of my comment, but Mum didn't.

"Robbie..." she started to say again; Dad again overrode her.

"I'm glad you see it that way, son," Dad smiled for some reason, thinking I was calming down and accepting all of this bullshit.

"All of you can go screw yourselves sideways and then eat shit sandwiches for breakfast. I quit!" I said, my tone now deadpan.

"Yes, son, that's good your seeing reason, we will get it all sort... What?" Dad said as what I told caught up to him.

"I said, I quit, right now, this moment, effective immediately. I resign, and you can shove your operations, efficiency and profitability up your ass." I turned and started walking back to the ute.

"Robbie..." Mum tried to start again. I interrupted her, turning back to glare at my parents.

"You know what, Mum, Dad, you both knew all this time, not only did neither of you say anything to me, but you didn't even bother to try to get them to stop. You just accepted it, treating me like shit even though I never knew it. I get it, Right now. You both want to go into damage control mode and calm me down. But I'm supposed to be your son first, employee second. Both of you should be who I turn to in my pain. It's where I came before I understood that both of you are as culpable as them, but you know what." I paused. They looked at me, Dad's eyes narrowing and Mum's growing wide.

"If everyone in this family thinks it's alright to screw me over so royally for the last three years for nothing more than the company, then you're right. Dad, you raised me better than that, and I'm not going to stand for it. So I also quit this family; I am no longer your son."

I turned again, walking to my car, almost tearing the door off, grabbing my bag off the back seat. I slammed it shut, throwing the keys to the company ute at their feet. They just stood there.

"Take the fucking ute, don't call me, don't text me, don't write to me. Don't try to fucking contact me at all. Make sure you tell that to the rest of the family as well. Don't expect me to be there for birthdays, Easter or Christmas. And tell your fucking golden child of a son, the prick you love so much more than me, the asswipe that you would shit all over me so easily and fuck with my life, that if he ever sees me walking towards him on the street, run the other way. Because if I get hold of him, I'll tear his balls off and shove them so far up his ass that his tongue will be able to lick them.

My parents looked mortified.

"Prepare my severance pay," I barked. "Make sure my bonus includes up to today where I again fixed Brad's fuck up while he was fucking me over. If it's not there, I'll make you all regret that you chose to fuck with me."

I pulled my laptop out of my bag and threw it toward them.

"There's my work laptop. If it's broken, take it out of my severance, I don't give a shit if it works."

My parents stood saying nothing as I pulled out my phone. Fortunately, it was personal, not a company phone. I turned it on, ignoring Georgia's messages and missed calls. I ordered an Uber. My mother found some courage to try to talk to me from somewhere. Her voice was soft, weak to my ears. Her nails must have been digging into Dad's arm and drawing blood. The look on his face was screaming over what I had done to his company property, throwing my laptop at his feet.

"Robbie," my mother said. "I know it shouldn't have happened, but you will see it will all work out. We all love you."

I snapped up the carry arm on my pull-along luggage, turning to walk away down the street to meet my ride. I looked back one last time, addressing the woman who once was my mother.

"No, it won't be okay Hattie," I said using her name, "None of you have the faintest fucking idea what love is. But for me, stupid me, I loved and trusted my wife and family. Now I find out I was ignorant of all of it because I thought my family and blood would have my back out of everyone in the world. But, unfortunately, what all of you have taught me tonight is that love and trust aren't worth shit. You say you love me; try telling that to the next person you say you love and see if they believe it after they have spoken to me."

I said nothing else as I walked away, meeting my ride at the end of the street as it started raining. As I got in the uber and looked out the window, I realised that after the discussion, neither of my parents could even bother to chase after me as I walked away. Despite holding their business together for them over the last several years, I felt like I must have been a massive disappointment to them.

I had the uber drop me off at what used to be my home. At least Brad and Georgia were gone. So I started packing, throwing clothes and personal items into hastily assembled boxes. I loaded them into a second-hand Toyota Camry I bought for Georgia a few years ago. We planned to upgrade it in a couple of months once the baby was born, but I thought, fuck it. I paid for it; she wasn't having my baby, so I'll keep the car. Georgia can keep Brad's baby. I think I was getting the better deal.

I still had a few things I would like that wouldn't fit in the car, but everything in the car would suffice me for the next few weeks. So, before I closed up the house, I took down the giant wedding portrait in my former living room and went to work on it.

It was a large print that Georgia's parents had done for us on our first wedding anniversary. In the photo taken on our wedding day. Georgia and I were front and centre. To our left were my Mum and Dad, my sister and brother. Georgia's Mum, step-father, and her two sisters were to our right. All in all, it was a perfect day, and it showed by our smiles.

I pulled out some pens from the kitchen, spending fifteen soul-cleansing minutes defacing the portrait; horns and cocks were drawn all over my family. Next, I drew a large belly on Georgia drawing an arrow pointing to it with the words 'fuckwit did this.' I wrote the names 'fuckwit', 'cunt', 'deceiver' and 'betrayer' over my family's heads, alongside the metaphorical horns and moustaches. Lastly, I put question marks over the heads of Georgia's family. I didn't know if they knew. Much like my family, I had thought I had a great relationship with them. I knew that Georgia and her two sisters didn't get along terribly well, but neither did Brad, Joanna, and I associate outside work or my parent's gatherings.

I thought of pissing on the picture to deface it further, But my message would be received, so I hung it back on the wall. The last thing I did was sit down at my former kitchen table and write a note to the former love of my life.

Georgia,

By the time you read this letter, it will be evident that I have come and gone from the house. Although there will be a lot of emotions in this letter, I will try to restrain from swearing over much. What is written here is a small portion of the pain, anguish and loathing I have in my heart right now.

I believe that by now, you have been to my former brother's parents' house, discovering I have now disowned my entire family, quit Total Build and want nothing to do with any of you from this moment forward.

I came home this evening to surprise you, to spend time with you. I even called you while driving home, but you were too busy having sex with my former brother to notice. Seeing him take you analy and perceive his semen leaking from your vagina while listening to your bedroom talk that disrespected me, killed a part of me that I don't know if it will ever recover.

But what was worse is that the baby growing inside you isn't mine; it's his, and all of you were going to try and pass it off as mine. So, Georgia, you know I gave everything to you, and this is how you repay me.

Obviously, we're going to divorce. I can never forget, let alone forgive, what you and my former family have done to me. I've taken most of my stuff from the house, and I'll work out a time to get the rest soon. The rental agreement runs for another six months, and my family's company pays for it, so use it. I won't be here. I believe that divorce divides our funds and assets down the middle, I think this is unfair to me, being the aggrieved party, but I'll settle for that if it gets you out of my life.

I've told my former parents not to contact me, and I'll ask the same of you. Right now, I hate you with more passion than I ever loved you. But, look at it this way, at least now, you will be able to be out in the open to sleep together with Brad jr, raising your child without worrying about me finding out!

If I keep going, this will become an angry rant, so in signing off, just let me say.

Fuck You, Georgia. Have a shitty regretful life!

Your soon-to-be ex-husband.

Robert Other.

I know, I know. I said I would try not to swear, but it was handwritten, so I thought I did well to keep it together until the end.

I folded the letter, placed my wedding ring on it, leaving the house. It would be the following day before Georgia returned. I'm told that the cries and screams could be heard two houses over, so much that police were called. When they found out what happened, seeing my artwork, it would have been pretty obvious what was happening. They left with no reason to do anything else, but I'm sure there was some gossip around the station.

Me, I called my Muay Thai trainer Darren Bray. He had become a friend over the past few years, Darren and his girlfriend Toni had been to several barbeques with Georgia and me, but right now, he was the only person I could think of that wouldn't rat me out to my family.

Darren was happy to let me crash in their spare room for a while, and once they sat me down on their couch explaining why, Darren and Toni looked after me like a long-lost puppy come home. Over the next couple of weeks, I got a handle on a least some of my emotions. First, I arranged for a lawyer to handle my divorce. Next, I handed over the video I had taken, my lawyer's eyes bulged as he watched it. I explained my desire to be done with Georgia as soon as possible, to which he agreed. Lastly, I also found a human resources specialist to ensure I got all my money from Total Build.

As Darren was my martial arts trainer, he and I trained a lot. Darren got me taking a lot of my aggression out in the ring. However, he did need to get me to stop a few times as I almost let my anger get the best of me in fights where my opponent didn't realise until too late they were fighting for their lives.