Member-only story
What Father Knows
And Son Will
Swanning down the wide staircase in the courthouse, Gordon left Gordon up in the office and for these isolated, precious moments became herself. Regally erect, carriage impeccable, she knew every eye was on her and did not deign to return the looks. She could almost hear the rustle of taffeta, the soft murmurs and perhaps even the sounds of an orchestra tuning. Heels clicking, alabaster white hand gliding down the wide sweep of the marble banister, she arched her back ever so slightly and allowed herself full access to her real power. A complex and indefinable state of being that evaporated the moment her foot left the stairs and Gordon accepted the plunge back into his life, tightly circumscribed and inescapable.
Each day, Gordon did as was expected of him, maintaining his respectable life and coveted position in the ministry. Looking back, he saw his complicity in every step of the way that had brought him to yet another intolerable day of suffocating deceit. He nodded to his undersecretary and took a dossier from a colleague. He heard soft conversation behind him, knowing it had nothing to do with his secret and everything to do with a certain unpopular but necessary policy change he was proposing. Gordon understood that the simple, easy to define power he actually did possess often resulted in the making of enemies.
And people desired…
