Secrets That Bind Family

By Alex Mitchell

The secrets that Bind Families

The twins Nicky and Cole grow up realizing they are bound by love and trust.  Their strong connection protects them later. As private investigators for some of the most convoluted of cases, they learn that there are other way brother and sister relationships are bound. Nicky and Cole discover that are those bonds in some families that must be held secret.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alex Mitchell
• Release date: Nov 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798891980587

Alex Mitchell

Alex Mitchell is a journalist, author and gardener. She has a regular column in The Sunday Telegraph where she covers everything from how to deter slugs to the best hand cream to use after a day in the elements. She studied at the Chelsea Physic Garden and grows her own fruit, salad, herbs and vegetables.

Book preview

BOOK ONE Chapter 1 Birth

For most young couples, the birth of a child is one of the most incredible events of their lives. This event changes and redefines the union in a ways no other event can.

It stands to reason that the birth of twins should signal twice the blessings of the union.

However, not unlike many other events meant to be glorious and great, if overshadowed or wrongfully attached to challenges born of desperation or ill intent, some level of failure is destined.

Which one is the boy? Jeremy asked. Jeremy Braden was the newly minted uncle to Nicolas J. Braden and Nicole L. Braden. He stood with his brother, Norman Braden, the twins' father, and Holley Braden, the new aunt. The children were being displayed from behind the safety glass of the nursery only moments following the delivery. 

That one is the boy. Holley pointed to Nicolas, who a young nurse was holding.

Shit. Holley, what does a muff muncher like you know about babies? Spit don't make no baby. Jeremy shot back. Jeremy frequently took opportunities to harass his sister. In his mind, blaming or shaming her might effectively cure her lesbian preference. 

Fuck you, Jeremy. Dad is gone, and I still have to hear his bigotry and hatemongering echoed through you.

I need both of you to stop that stuff. Today is not about either of you. It isn't about me or Collette; it's about those two. They represent the future of this family, not the past. Norman spoke. But his words did not reflect all that were his hopes.

Norman desperately hoped the dizygotic twins would save his sad marriage. In his mind, this was his misplaced attachment. 

Chapter 2 SCHOOL

Through most of high school and slightly beyond, Norman had dated Tara Dover. Most people thought that Norman and Tara would indeed be married. It was Tara who initiated the couple's first sexual experience.  Norman loved Tara, and Tara loved Norman. There was, however, one significant problem. Tara was larger in body style than she wished herself to be. She was by no means massive. Tara had a firm, stocky frame that, despite all efforts to slim, trim, or exercise herself to the shape of the models she saw on the cover of magazines, she was unsuccessful. Her view of herself grew into an obsession, and when Norman asked her to marry him, she refused to because she said she would not be known as the big fat girl in the wedding photos for all time to come. This event led to the breakup of the couple. Norman felt that the problem was in her head; somewhere he could not fix it.

This change in relationship left Norman sad and alone until Collette Newman entered his life.

Collette Newman was known for two things in high school: her good looks. She was gorgeous, and she knew it. Her good looks led to the second of what she was known for her promiscuity.

Collette was known for having sex with most of the boys in her graduating class. She was also reputed to have slept with a couple of teachers to get grades turned around to allow her to graduate. Collette lived with her mother Agnes, who drew disability checks for various spurious maladies.

No illness, however, kept Agnes from being drunk from sunup to sundown. Also at home was Collette's stepfather, Dewy. Dewy liked to watch Collette dress. He also used to expose himself and pretend it was by accident.

Once Collette was home, she walked past her mother's room. Dewy was screwing her mother. Agnes was completely passed out, and Dewy looked like he was having sex with a life-size rag doll. Dewy paused momentarily and made eye contact with Collette as if to say, "One day, girl, this will be you. Collette closed the door. Collette saw hopelessness around the corner until someone from Colfax mentioned Norman Braden.

Colfax was the primary manufacturing plant in Sexton, Missouri. It was the only significant business there, and Collette went to work there shortly after high school. Norman worked there also. Some of Norman's relatives had been supervisors there, and Norman was put on a path to be a supervisor and, someday, possibly the plant manager. Collette heard that Norman had little to say because he had had a difficult to navigate breakup and had little experience in amatory affairs. It also was passed on as general knowledge that Norman was inheriting the Braden home.

His brother Jeremy had moved out to live in apartments close to work and close to the young girls who worked at the plant. His sister Holley was taking over the home of their elderly aunt, whom she had visited and nursed through the latter years of the older woman's life. Holley loved her aunt and developed a flair for sewing and knowledge of classic cars from her.

As Collette lay in pain from the births, she reviewed how things now stood in her head. What had gone wrong? She had planned to stay as Norman's wife for a couple of years, then find a good lawyer and take the house. She had gotten greedy and thought a child would mean regular child support to supplement whatever income she could manage. Now, nurses on both sides of her were trying to get her to be a milking cow for two screaming children. All she had attached to marring and then departing was now circling the drain. This attachment was not proving fruitful.

Would you like a warm water bottle, Ms. Braden? One of the nurses asked.

No bitch, what I want is a goddamn drink.

Chapter 3 EXPECTATIONS CRASH

Of the failed attachments of having a child, what had worked worst for Collette was motherhood. Collette had read somewhere in a classic book in high school where a rich woman had a little girl and chose to dress them in similar outfits.

This would not happen since Collette now had two children, and funds were limited. Norman was promoted to supervisor, which meant he had to go on the night shift. Collette hated working at Colfax. She thought the work was hard and the people did not like her. If Collette worked at Colfax dayshift and Norman worked nights, not only did they barely see each other, but that meant she was left alone to care for the children all night, and seldom did they sleep throughout the night. It was only a short time before Collette left employment at Colfax and began working part-time at the local supermarket. Even if the local market did not provide the cash flow that Colfax offered, it did offer one other thing. The new job also allowed her to flirt and make clandestine arrangements to meet with men, both customers and associates. It was only a short time before Collette put much more effort into secret rendezvous than anything remotely related to motherhood.

For the infants Nicolas and Nicole, life was simple.

Both infants suffered from object permanence; if one was not in the site or could not be heard by the other, the remaining child became frightened and angry. As toddlers, they played together and even seemed to look after each other. If Nicole lost her bottle or pacifier, Nicolas would try to find it or give her his.

Norman had tried to hide which child was born first. Norman planned to eliminate anything that might cause sibling rivalry between the two.

The concept of competition between the two, either by design or nature, did not exist. When the two were sleeping, they often huddled together in heartbeat synchronicity, two separate hearts that seemed to rhythm together to accomplish a single goal. To the toddlers, they were one unit with two physical bodies, and this was the natural state of their being as they understood it. 

COLLETTE'S DOMESTIC skills never seemed to improve.

By the time the twins were small children, it seemed even more apparent to them she was failing as a viable mother.

Tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and washing were beyond her to any degree whatsoever. Norman would do not only his share but also try to pick up the slack imposed by her lack of efficacy and her general desire to avoid being involved in day-to-day tasks.

Collette had, by this time, begun having regular affairs. At first, the experiences started as casual encounters when she said she had stayed over for work at the store. Not long before, she was sneaking men into the house at night after Norman was at work. Collette would close the bedroom door after telling the twins they had to do their homework and go to bed. She would say to them not to disturb Mommy and her friend, or she would get mad. Colette's bullying seemed to work well until one evening when she rushed to get the twins food before her date arrived.

Collette lost track of the cooking process and burned the meal. She then placed it in front of a young Nicole.

Eat it.

I can't. What is it.

Why?

Because it's burned.

If you don't know what it is, how do you know it's burned?

Because I can smell the smoke.

Nicolas, having heard the exchange, chucked slightly.

This caused Collette to slap Nicole. Collette walloped Nicole. Her tiny body flew from the chair and landed in a corner.

Collette was angered and slightly intoxicated and walked toward Nicole. Nicolas ran over and stood between them. When Collette looked at Nicolas, there was something she did not expect. This was something she had never seen in him or any other child. His eyes had an animalistic stare. There was something in his eyes that went far beyond anger and rage. Collette took a step back before realizing she was the parent and, as such, should be in charge.

Good, I guess you both skip a meal, Collette said, backing away and throwing the dishes, food, and all in the garbage. As Collette walked away from Nicolas, she never took her eyes off his stare, and he never took his eyes off her. Something now different existed in the emotional atmosphere between the two of them. Collette would be careful not to strike Nicole in front of her brother. And Collette would watch for signs of the beast that peaked out through her son's eyes.

Chapter 4 When first we view the beast, we do not know his name. 

On the first occasion of viewing whatever it was that showed with such fury through the eyes of young Nicolas, Collette was not the only one to notice it. Nicole had seen it, too. Collette had made it a point of general practice not to mention anything in front of Noman that would reveal her extramarital misdeeds. Collette had bullied the twins into a conspiracy of silence, which is why young Nicole adopted so readily not to discuss possible angering issues with her brother.  Nicole could feel something equally disturbing within her own person. Since children do not always know what is expected, let alone premiant, she treated it like a friendly dragon. When first we view the beast, we do not know his name. 

SEXTON, MISSOURI, IS no different than any one of over a thousand small midwestern townships, where you knew where you were based on the giant ugly water tower that displayed the township's name for all those approaching from the highway. Sexton was half farmland and half urban township. Once, farms had largely been the source of growth in the area, but farms produce little in the way of job growth compared to the amount of revenue they take in. During the baby boom, Colfax, a manufacturing plant, opened its doors in Sexton. Labor was needed increasingly. Most of the residential housing was built around the area of the baby boom. Just as it had been a tradition for farms to transfer ownership from generation to generation, the practice was done largely with the single-family housing in the area. This meant that since most of the housing had been built around the same time by many of the same architects and building firms using the same materials, the difference between a house that looked good and one that looked bad was the amount of care the house had been given over time.

At twelve years old, Nicolas Braden, or Nicky as he now called himself, loved to read and had a sense of origination he enjoyed.

When Nicky could no longer stand the disarray of the Braden lawn, he began mowing it regularly. Nicky did such a good job he began mowing neighbors' yards for money. He also shoveled snow in the winter and bagged leaves in the fall. Nicole Braden, or Cole as she now referred to herself, loved to work with him. She was not as driven by a sense of order as he, but he had no issues with her being with him on jobs.

One day, Nicky read an article in a magazine on how to build a tree house. Nicky thought one of the trees in their front yard would be perfect for the tree.

Nicky tried to no avail to enlist the help of Norman, who kept putting him off. Finally, Nicky's uncle Jeremy agreed to help. Jeremy was very little help building the treehouse, but he decided to pick up the material. Nicky arranged for the hardware store to cut the wood. That made assembling the project was the tricky part. The project was completed, with Jeremy doing ten percent of the work and taking ninety percent of the credit. Nicky had read in a classic novel that girls in a tree house are bad luck, so he did not allow Cole into the tree house. Cole would sit at the tree's base and sulk whenever Nicky was in the treehouse.

One night during the summer, Cole awakened to the sounds coming from Collette's room and could not sleep. She went to Nicky's room and found him awake, looking at the ceiling. I got the shakes, Nicky. Can I sleep with you? She asked.

No. It's not proper.

Nicky, you can't sleep either. Nicky jumped from his bed. For an instant, Cole thought she had said something that made him mad. Instead, he rushed past her and grabbed a pillowcase. Nicky then opened a drawer, pulled smack cakes, and sealed junk food treats from the drawer, and began filling the pillowcase.

Come with me. He instructed his sister.

He led her out of the house to the foot of the treehouse. Climb he instructed.

Nicky, I'm not allowed in your treehouse. You say I'm bad luck.

Forget about that. There is something I want to show you.

Totally excited, Cole climbed the makeshift ladder to the treehouse. Cole had for some time envisioned what the treehouse looked like, but what she saw far exceeded her imagination. Nicky's natural sense of organization had been working overtime. There were quilts that their grandmother had discarded before her death. They had been washed and refreshed and given a new life. He had waterproof bins that held books on adventure and school subjects.

There was a telescope directed toward the stars that show themselves in a Missouri night in a place free from light pollution. Nicky went to work distracting her from her thoughts and the playback of the sounds of her mother's infidelity. Look there. Nicky pointed, directing his sister to take over the telescope. Cole beamed with joy as she took over.

A woman is naked with the lights out, dancing in front of the window. Nicky smiled and turned the telescope to show her something different.

Now look. She caught at first glance what he was showing her. There, in a window hundreds of yards away from the dancing woman, was a boy watching her silhouette. Does she know he is watching her? Cole asked.

Yes, she dances for him every night, but I don't think they know each other. Nicky then showed her the Little Dipper and Cassiopeia.

For a while, they sat back-to-back, thinking, and not saying anything. The man that had been entertaining their mother walked from the house and got in his car and drove away. We should tell him. Nicky knew what she meant. Should they reveal the part of the family secret about Colette's cheating?

What makes you think he doesn't know?

If he knows, why wouldn't he stop it?

If he knows and we tell him, he only knows we know. And maybe that is why he does not stop it.

Nicky, why do you watch over me and come to my rescue?

You know, Nicky said, half embarrassed as if the word he did not want to say might slip from his mouth and betray him.

What if I know and just want to hear you say it.

Nicky thought momentarily and felt he could deprive her of what she needed to hear any longer. 

Because I love you, Cole, and I will always be there to fight off the monsters.

I love you too, Nicky. I guess I just needed to hear you say it first.

The twins sat back-to-back, resting on one another for a time. Neither said anything for a while; they enjoyed the moment's peace.

Nicky, are we different? Are we strange? Cole broke the silence.

They sat back-to-back, now breathing in rhythm. Their minds now knew only peace, but it was a single peace shared by two.

Chapter 5 THE NIGHT OF THE MONSTER

Sometimes, the twins liked to stay up late on the weekend and during the summer. Cole had a habit of falling asleep on the sofa. Often, Norman would come in, find her sleeping on the sofa, and carry her to bed. She was still the apple of his eye. One night, Cole awakens to something grabbing her. It tore off her nighty and was grabbing at her panties. Cole started struggling, both with the