A series of unexpected revelations

The next day I arrived at Mom’s study after breakfast and knocked on her door.

“Come in,” comes from the other side.

I step into the room and close the door behind me.

“Is there something you need, Zen? You haven’t mentioned anything during breakfast,” Mom asks from her desk and I walk towards it and take a seat in the chair in front of it.

“There is something I wanted to talk to you in private,” I say.

Mom puts her quill down and looks at me with interest. “What do you want to talk about?”

“It has to do with the night of first sex tradition,” I tell her.

“Do you not want to do it?” Mom asks looking upset.

“No, that’s not it,” I quickly say.

“Then what is it?” Mom tilts her head a little in confusion.

“I don’t think Arti should do it,” I tell her.

Mom frowns. “Why?”

I take a second before I reply. Part of me feels like I am about to betray Arti’s trust, but it is foolish. I am not revealing any secrets that Arti told me. I am about to reveal a secret that he hasn’t told anyone, even me. Granted, I am not a hundred percent sure, but I do have a strong feeling that I am right.

“I think… that Arti might not be romantically attracted to women,” I finally reveal.

Mom doesn’t look as surprised as I expected. She nods slowly and speaks. “I had a feeling that he was into men, but I thought he was into women as well. Are you sure?”

“I am not completely sure, but I have a strong feeling that I am right. Arti doesn’t like girls,” I nod.

“That changes things then. I don’t want him to do something that goes against his nature,” Mom sighs. “I will talk to him.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea. I believe we should give him time before he can tell us himself,” I reply.

Mom hums for a few seconds. “You might be right. It is better to give him the chance to tell us when he is ready.”

I nod. There is momentary silence in the room before I hear Mom mutter under her breath. “I guess Arti is more like his father than I thought.”

That caught me off guard. “W-what? Do you mean Father is gay as well?”

Mom sighs and nods. “Yes, he is.”

“How come you got married to him then?” I ask.

Mom’s sigh becomes even deeper. “It was a political marriage. Rarely can there be love found in a political marriage. Mine was no exception. Let me be clear, I don’t mind that your father is gay. Nor do I have anything against homosexuality. The problem in our marriage is two-fold. First, he didn’t reveal that he was gay until right before our marriage. That was a low move on his part. I was pissed but had to go through with the marriage. The wedding night was extremely awkward. Primarily because there was another man in bed with us, who was his gay lover.”

I cringe at that. Mom sees that and chuckles sadly. “Yes, it was even more awkward than you can imagine. Aldon took my virginity with his fingers for crying out loud. His lover then had to get him hard and jerk him off until the last second, when he would insert himself inside and shoot his sperm into me.”

That is really hard to hear because I can hear the sadness in my Mom’s voice. “At least something good came out of it. I got you and Arti,” Mom smiles. “In fact, I would go through that again if it meant I had you both.”

I smile back at Mom. Hearing her words makes my chest warm.

“It was similar when I got pregnant with Tiana. Aldon wanted another child to make sure that the royal blood goes on,” she sighs again. “The second thing that pissed me off was that he had forbidden me to have lovers. I mean, who does that? First, he lies about his sexuality. Then, when I am trapped in a marriage where I cannot have sexual gratification, he says that I can’t even have a single lover. According to him, a wife must remain fateful. But it is fine if he has male lovers. What a hypocrite,” Mom continues to vent. I just sit there and try to keep my head from exploding from all the revelations. “I must remain celibate but it is okay for him to have Emerik in his bed almost every night. What nonsense.”

Now my head exploded.

“Emerik is gay? And he is Father’s lover?” I gasp weakly.

“Yeah,” Mom finally sags back into her chair, finished venting.

We sit in silence for a little while, before I stand up from the chair and walk around the desk to Mom. Mom looks up when I give you, my hand. She takes it and stands up. I then hug her tightly.

“It is going to be okay, Mom. We will figure something out,” I say caressing her back.

She hugs me back just as tight. “Thank you, Zen.”

We stayed like that for what felt like hours.

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