“What do you mean?” Vicky asked.
“That I was the one adopted, not Peter.” Silas’s voice was soft. “Peter, he was the favorite.” He held up a hand to stop Vicky from speaking. “Don’t pretend otherwise, Vicky. We both know. He was the golden child. In your eyes too. He could do no wrong.” He shook his head again. A tear ran down his cheek. “I don’t know why I’m upset. It doesn’t change anything. Peter is... or he was... still my brother. It doesn’t change how I feel about him.” He looked toward Vicky. “Or you. It was all so hard on you. Dad was absent so much. Working late at the school, taking trips with friends. Mom was half in the bag most of the time. You got us ready for school. You made us school lunches.”
Vicky was crying now too.
“I don’t get it,” Silas continued. “They had three kids they barely wanted. Why would they adopt another?”
No one had the answer. The three stood there for a moment in silence. Then Silas turned to Wilde and said, “Hold up. If Peter was adopted and you matched Peter, then, well, we aren’t related, are we?”
“That’s right,” Vicky said. “He has no obligation to us. We aren’t blood.”
“Except,” Wilde said, “we are related.”
That surprised them. Then Vicky said, “You mean, like, because an adoption still counts as family? I guess in that case, but genetically—”
“Genetically,” Wilde said, “we are related.”
Silence.
Vicky said, “Do you want to explain what you mean?”
“Silas, you said you signed up for MeetYourFamily-dot-com, right?”
“Right.”
“And they gave you a user number?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember it?”
“Not off the top of my head. It began with a three-two. But I can look—”
“Was it 32894?”
He looked surprised. “That sounds right.”
“And you said you matched someone at twenty-three percent?”
“Wilde,” Vicky said, “what’s going on here?”
“That’s right,” Silas said.
“And when you reached out to the match, did you give your name?”
“Sure. Why not? I have nothing to hide.”
“And the person you matched didn’t reply?”
“No.”
“The person you matched,” Wilde said, “was your brother Peter.”
Neither spoke. They both just stared at him.
“Aren’t siblings like fifty percent?” Vicky asked.
“Yes,” Wilde said.
“Oh my God,” Silas said. “Now it all makes sense.”
Vicky turned to him. “It does?”
“Perfect sense. It’s what I suspected when I first saw the match. I just didn’t think it was Peter.”
“Could you explain to me?” Vicky asked.
“Twenty-three percent,” Silas replied. “That’s a half sibling.”
Vicky still looked confused.
“Come on, Vicky,” Silas said. “It’s Dad. Dad messed around. He knocked someone up. Don’t you see? DNA doesn’t lie. Dad got a woman pregnant. With Peter. Mom and Dad decided to raise him on their own.”
Vicky started to nod slowly. “Dad got a woman pregnant,” she repeated. “Mom took him in. It explains so much.”
“Peter looked like us for one thing,” Silas said. “Better looking. No doubt about it. I bet his real mom was hot.”
“Silas!”
“What? I’m trying to have fun with this because otherwise...” Silas stopped. “My whole childhood feels like a lie now.” He turned his gaze toward Wilde. “You asked me before if I ever suspected. No. But now that I think about it, something wasn’t quite right. I guess that’s true of all families. I haven’t met one that wasn’t messed up in one way or the other. But now, I mean, what the hell, Vicky? Why did we move? I guess Mom would have been ashamed. There’d have been whispers. Our parents were pretty religious.” Silas spread his hands. “So who is going to ask the million-dollar question?”
No one spoke.
“Okay,” Silas said, “I’ll do it: Who was Peter’s mother?”
“She,” Vicky added, turning to Wilde, “has to be the connection to you.”
“Wait,” Silas said. He faced his sister. “Did Peter know that he was adopted?”
“Yes.”
“When he was a kid?”
“No.” Vicky explained how Peter learned the truth via Love Is a Battlefield.
“I don’t get it,” Silas said. “Peter learns he’s adopted. He puts his name in DNA sites. He stays anonymous because, I don’t know, he’s a big fancy star and people are lunatics with big fancy stars. You are a match, Wilde. He reaches out to you. Anonymously. Okay, I get that. But what about me? I matched him as a half brother. I wrote to him. I put my name.”
“So he knew it was you,” Vicky said.
“Right. So why wouldn’t he reach out and tell me? Why would he close down his account and never reply?”
Vicky looked older now, wearied and pained. “I think it was all just too much for him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everything was taken away from him. His family was a lie. His life with Jenn was a lie. He’d been betrayed by Marnie and the fans he loved. The abuse he took. The betrayals from all sides. They added up. Peter was a gentle soul. You know this. It was all too much for him.”
Silence.
“You think he killed himself,” Silas said.
“Don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Silas said. “I guess I do.”
Vicky turned to Wilde. “You promised to tell us more about what Marnie did to him,” she said, her tone tinged with both sadness and anger. “All we know are the rumors, that Marnie lied about Peter, that he never roofied her or sent her photos. Did she lie, Wilde?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Why on earth would Marnie lie?”
Wilde debated going into the long rationale Marnie had offered up about meeting another woman who claimed it really happened to her, but that didn’t feel right. He simplified it instead:
“It was what you told me the first time we met,” Wilde said. “Some people will do anything to be famous.”
“My God,” Vicky said. “What’s wrong with people?”
Silas just stood there. His face reddened.
“So that’s it?” Vicky asked. “Marnie lied about Peter. Jenn believed her. They ruined his life. Then you add on about his being adopted and...”
“There’s another theory out there,” Wilde said.
“Out where?” Silas asked.
“Fan boards, I guess. I should warn you. You won’t like it.”
“We’re listening,” Silas said.
Wilde turned to Vicky. “How much had Peter’s popularity dropped recently? I mean, the last year, say. Before Marnie went on that podcast.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I can see his Instagram posts,” Wilde continued. “The likes in the last year — they were way down, maybe ten or fifteen percent of what they used to be. A friend ran a social media marketing report for me. Anyone can do that. There are free sites, but I paid ten dollars for a more extensive one. On all the major platforms, Peter’s numbers had plummeted.”
“That’s normal,” Vicky said, taking a step back. “I told you that too. I still don’t see what you’re suggesting.”
“I’m not suggesting anything,” Wilde said. “Some of the fans are posting a theory.”
“What theory?”
“That Peter is behind it all.”
Silas’s mouth dropped open. Vicky looked as though Wilde had slapped her across the face. “That’s insane.”
“What,” Silas said, “you mean, like, he told Marnie to lie about him?”
“Something like that.”
“And say he roofied her?” Vicky added. “Are you listening to yourself? Peter is hated now. He’s been completely canceled.”
“Peter may have miscalculated,” Wilde said. “That’s the theory anyway. You know how reality shows operate. Controversy sells. Peter may have been tired of his nice-guy image. It’s almost like when the hero pro wrestler suddenly turns into the villain.”