A Trip Home || Sutton Bonavitz Self Para #003
When Papa emailed Sutton a ticket back to New York, they were not looking forward to going. But they knew they had no choice but to go. On the plane ride back to New York, all they could think about was Leo and if he was okay when they were worrying about why Papa only wanted to see them. Well, it seemed a little obvious to Sutton why it was only them coming back and not Brownwynn as well. But they thought that that had all been taken care of. And usually Wynnie was part of it. After all, everything that happened with one twin usually involved the other. Flying without their twin by their side was strange. No inside jokes or games to play with their other half. No shoulder to sleep on it anybody to hold on to during turbulence.
The last hour of the plane ride they were convinced that this was the end. The intricate web of lies that Papa had crafted over a year ago had finally collapsed and they were going to have to face the music. Or worse, Eliza didn’t want Papa living the lie anymore and convinced him to give it up. It didn’t seem to be the first time she had convinced Papa of something that wasn’t in the best interest of his family or children. After all, it was because of Eliza—the one person Sutton had trusted, since she was the woman that raised them—who had told Papa that she didn’t want the twins living with them once the new baby had been born.
Landing at JFK Airport, Sutton was dreading seeing their father and step mother. They took their time wandering through the airport to baggage claim. But sure enough, it wasn’t their parents waiting for them. The only person who stood at the baggage claim for them was a sharply dressed chauffeur holding a sign with Sutton Bonavitz printed across in boring black letters. With a sigh, they dragged their feet over to the man, dropping their bags at his feet, more than prepared to act like the spoiled brat he no doubt already thought them to be. They barely waited for him to pick up their bags before heading for the exit of the airport, ready to be done with this trip already.
For the most part, the trip was what Sutton expected. Lectures from Papa about what had happened last September. What the new arrangement was. What lie they needed to uphold. The reminder that they weren’t to tell anybody the truth. He told them that so many times, as if they really thought about telling somebody the truth that they were keeping hidden. Only Fane and Win knew some of the truth and that was because of Mama. While the lecture went on, Sutton wondered if Papa was going to give this new information to anybody else in the family or if it really did only pertain to them. After all, not even their three older siblings knew the real truth.
These lectures easily could have been done over the phone. Seeing as Papa was at the office most of the visit and Eliza seemed to want to keep the child away from Sutton at all costs, they were alone in the mansion for most of the week. So they did what any sixteen year old would do. They snooped. Through everything they could get their hands on.
In the attic they found trunks of all the things they and their siblings had done over the years. Accomplishments and achievements. Boxes inside with lost baby teeth and baggies with their first haircut inside. Baby books with all kinds of pictures. First outfits and other special outfits. Suttons first competition swimsuit. Yuriy’s first football. Vira’s first set of ballet slippers. For a few moments, Sutton’s heart swelled with a feeling of love, thinking that at least at one point Mama and Papa cared. Until they saw that the handwritting on the keep sakes varied from trunk to trunk. It took them a moment to realize that everything in their own truck and Brownwynn’s was labeled in a curly script that looked vary familiar. All of these trucks were put together by their nannies. After that they left the attic, realizing that their parents never truly cared about them.
In their old bedroom they found toys they had forgotten about but none of them worked anymore. Practically everything had been emptied out of their older sibling’s rooms when they all moved out on their own. Although they found Dariya’s secret food hiding place behind a trap door in her closet, empty snack wrappers and unhealthy junk food still tucked away.
Knowing that Papa’s office might hold some juicy secrets, they left it for last, slowly taking their time sifting through everything. Recipts from his affair with Eliza, vacations with the nanny he had written off as business trips to the letter she had written him with the first sonogram of the child. It was heartbreaking to see that Papa cared more about the affair he had with the nanny than he seemed to care about his own children. The more they sifted through things, the more stuff the found.
The most interesting file they found was from an affair Papa had with a woman named Alice. Pictures of a beautiful woman with flowing brown hair were tucked away in the file. Her covered strategically by bubbles in a bathtub at a fancy hotel, on the beach with the sun beaming down on her, making her look like an angel. It was clear where Sutton got their obsession of photography from. But just as quickly as the affair seemed to start, it ended. Maybe it was a one time thing they thought as they sifted through documentation of hospital visits in the same file. Papa had been sending this Alice woman money.  Scandalous. Then they stumbled across the new photograph of a new born boy on a scale in the hospital, crying loudly. The name of the boy was written on the top of the page. Elliot.
At that monent, Sutton became even more invested. They had a half brother?! Why didn’t Papa fight for him like he did for the child? When they came across a copy of his birth certificate a couple pages later, they saw why. The child’s birthday was only a few months before Sutton and Brownynn’s. Carefully, they read over the birth certificate. The name listed under father wasnt Papa’s name. It was Nathaniel Mills. A strange sensation filled Sutton as they read and reread the name of the child that was Papa’s bastard son. Elliot Mills. It couldn’t be. But the more they flipped through the thick folder the more it became obvious that it was. Hospital bills for eye surgeries and copies of doctors reports as the boy slowy went blind. Eventually they found a picture of Elliot on one of his birthdays, seemingly requested by their father. Even without the sunglasses, Sutton recognized their friend. This was the first time that they ever got a look at his eyes. Those were without a doubt Papa’s eyes.
Once they finished reading through the thick folder, they went over to Papa’s scanner and made copies of every single thing in the manilla folder. There was no way anybody would believe them if they didn’t have proof. Tucking their copied file deep into their suitcase, they thought of what they were supposed to do as they packed up to fly back to New Zealand. Eliot had the right to know that the man he called dad shared no genetics with him. Right? They had to tell him. But how were they supposed to? They had heard the rumors that Elliot’s mom had died the year before. Which meant all the poor boy had was the man he thought was his father. It would shake his entire world if he knew that his dad wasn’t his dad. But wouldn’t it be wrong for them not to tell him?
On the plane ride back, they flipped through the folder again. Papa really had been taking care of Elliot for years without anybody’s knowledge. Hospitals stays and doctors visits. For both Elliot and Alice from the looks of it. Child support checks with far more money than needed to be sent. Even receipts for the Luxor tuition. How Papa had manage to keep this under wraps for so long was impressive. But also completely messed up. Especially when everything seemed to stop abruptly with a large payment for a hospital stay for Alice and an anonymous check sent to The Mills Family.
When the plane landed in New Zealand, Sutton still hadn’t come up with a plan of what to do. All they had decided was they needed to talk to their twin. It was killing them not to tell anybody what they knew. Maybe their twin sister would have an idea of what to do. If it was even right to tell Elliot the truth.
