Empire's Son: An Epic Science Fiction Novel Series

A steady vibration at my hip brought me out of my fog of depression. I reached down to pull my phone out, remembering I had put the phone on vibrate just before the conference meeting this morning, the meeting where the world, my life, had turned upside down and inside out.

It was Anna. And from the icons on my screen, I could tell it wasn't the first time she had tried to call me. She knew I was supposed to be in conference meetings all day. But then the alien ship came and threw everything into a tailspin. She probably wanted to know if I had seen it too, and wanted to speculate about what it meant. I didn't need to speculate. I knew what it meant now.

My finger hovered over the green talk button, but I couldn't make myself accept the call. What was I going to tell her? What could I tell her? This sort of conversation wasn't something I wanted to do over the phone, so I reluctantly set it on the table and let the call go to voicemail.

I felt my heartbreaking a little. How would she take everything when I told her the truth? That I wasn't really from this planet? And that this whole alien ship appearing was directly connected to our family, to me?

I'd known Anna my whole life. She was my dad's business partner, John Delaney's middle child, and we had been like peas in a pod from the very first. She was the sass and fire to my sweet and calm. At least that was how my mom always described us. Anna and I had been best friends as kids, and then sweethearts beginning in our sophomore year in high school. We were now looking at houses to move in together as soon as she finished up her residency at Johns Hopkins later this year. Until then, we had spent holidays and as many weekends as possible together.

I took a deep breath in and then exhaled it to calm myself and the desperation inside. I knew Anna almost as well as I knew myself, and I realized it would be okay. She would understand. She might even help me make sense of all this and help pull me out of the terrible darkness that I felt myself sliding into. I had to go to see her. The sooner, the better. I'd make sure Mom and Em were alright, then I'd hop on a train to D.C., everything else could wait.

"Michael, where's your father?"

My head snapped up to find my mom hugging herself near the kitchen island. She looked worse than when I'd seen her before, if that was even possible. Now, knowing the reason behind her being upset, my insides twisted up into a knot. How was I going to tell her about Dad?

I swallowed around the ever-growing lump in my throat. "He left."

"Where?"

I met her bright green eyes and spoke as calmly as I could manage. "He told me about them and about where we came from."

I expected her to say something, anything, but there was only silence in the kitchen between us. It felt like a cavernous amount of silence, enough to fill a lifetime, or at least twenty-five years of a lifetime. A stiffness came over my mom. Her jaw hardened. Her eyes got a defiant look.

But still, she said nothing.

"What do you mean, where we came from?" Emmaline asked.

It was the first time I had noticed her. My sister had been hovering in the space between the living room and kitchen. Like a shadow on a wall. But now she stepped forward with an obvious question in her eyes. She wanted to know. She deserved to know. But in this moment, all I could do was glare at my mother, because I felt this was all her fault, or maybe it was easier to blame her than face the horrible feeling that was growing inside.

"Go to your room, Emmaline," my mother said with a hardness in her voice. The one she used when it was clear we should do as she asked.

But Emmaline stood firm. "I want to know what's going on."

Our mother whirled around and yelled, "Do as you are told!"

Emmaline stood ramrod straight with fire in her eyes and yelled right back at her. "No!"

"Enough!" I yelled at both of them as I rocketed from the kitchen chair.

Both my mom and sister looked at me with shock. The push and pull between mother and daughter had always been there, but it had been becoming more intense since Emmaline had hit her teenagers years. I usually kept quiet or left the room when they got started, so I think we were all startled by my sudden injection. But at that moment, I didn't care, and the last thing we needed was to be arguing with each other.

My chest heaved with emotion as I tried to find words to say something else, but all I could get out was, "He's gone. He's given himself up."

My sister's face screwed up in confusion, but my mom understood. Her face drained of all color, and she swayed on her feet. I raced forward to catch her and help her slide onto one of the bar stools.

"Has it come to that?" She sobbed.

"He said it was the only way."

My mom nodded. "He's not wrong. It's just…" but she couldn't finish.

But it was enough to break loose the thoughts running through my mind. The thoughts I was desperately trying to ignore. "Mom, please tell me he's going to be alright. That they aren't going to hurt him."

Her eyes said everything I had been trying my best to push away. They told me the truth of what awaited my dad when he turned himself over, and it was like the earth had just shivered beneath my feet. I could no longer stand; my knees were shaking, so I quickly found another bar stool to sit on.

"What are you talking about?" Emmaline demanded, her voice cracking with frustration and fear.

Neither Mom nor I answered. The weight of her stare pressed against me, but I couldn't bring myself to look at Emmaline. My hands trembled as I gripped the edge of the bar stool, the cool granite beneath my palms the only thing that felt real anymore.

"Dad told me if that ship hadn't shown up today, you both were never going to say anything. You were going to continue to let me believe the lie." I whispered into the dark silence that had settled over the kitchen. "But I have to wonder if maybe things could have been different if you had just come clean and told me the truth sooner. Maybe we could have prevented this." As I said those last words, my voice broke completely.

Mom's head snapped up, her green eyes flashing with something that looked like anger, but Michael could see the pain underneath. "What? You think we didn't try everything we could? The plan was not to be found. Why do you think we left Ethia? Every moment we stayed on this planet and they didn't find us was a blessing. Part of the appeal of being here was that we could blend in, so even if they came here, we could spin the narrative the way we wanted to, and they wouldn't know the difference. This was always going to be the plan if they found us."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I stared at her incredulously. "And I get no say in it at all?"

"Michael, we are only trying to protect you."

"By living a lie? For twenty years? At some point, you had to realize they might never come. And at some point, you had to realize that I was old enough and capable of hearing the truth regardless of what might or might not happen."

My mom gave me a sad smile. "You were happy. How could I destroy that by telling you something that didn't matter anymore?"

"Didn't matter?" I gestured to the tv still on in the living room. "Have you seen the television, Mom? I think it does matter."

Mom shook her head. "You know what I mean, Michael. After so long, it was easier not to say anything, to keep your memories from you."

My anger from earlier flared back, upset that she wasn't getting it, not at all. I respected my parents, or at least I used to. Somehow, I thought they would return the favor. I realized in this moment that was what was bothering me more about them keeping the truth from me. I might be an adult, but they were still treating me like a child.

"Of course it was easier, but that doesn't mean it was the right thing to do. Maybe if I had known in advance, I could have helped you come up with a better plan than just handing Dad over to them."

Mom shook her head. "No, this is the way it's supposed to be."

I blinked at her in disbelief that she could just shrug off any contribution from me and also leave Dad to his fate with such indifference. It was a cold and callous side I wasn't used to seeing in my mother.

"So what? We just forget about Dad? Write him off like he doesn't even matter? And what happens when we can't explain where he's gone? People are going to ask questions. A lot of them."

"I told you we planned for this. I already have a suitable story we can use to explain your father's disappearance."

I recoiled from the counter, my eyes fixed on my mother's face. This casual mention of a "suitable story" struck me as more alien than any spacecraft. My jaw clenched so tight I could feel my pulse in my temples, and I had to press my palms flat against the cool granite to keep from slamming them down.

"Do you even love him? Did you ever love him?" I threw back at her.

She looked appalled at my words. "Don't be ridiculous, of course I love him. More than words can say. He helped me save you after all, and he gave me Emmaline. But you don't understand, Michael. There's so much more to it. Things I'm sure he didn't have time to explain, or want to, because he was afraid you might intervene."

No surprise there. Of course, there was more and that my dad had been holding out on me. It only stirred the stew I was simmering in.

"Of course there's more," I scoffed.

"Michael, please. This isn't easy for any of us." She took a moment to steady herself before continuing. "Shortly after you were born, your dad took a blood oath to be your Protector. It's a very serious thing and creates a lifelong bond, superseding any other bonds, even that of marriage. It is literally your dad's duty to protect you and die for you if need be. This isn't about what any of us want. It's about his duty to you."

I stared at her as if she were a stranger I had never met before. It was difficult for me to comprehend her words and what they meant. "Seriously? And I will say this again, because you didn't seem to hear me the first time. Shouldn't I get a say in this? This doesn't seem fair or right, Mom."

She shrugged as if it didn't matter at all. "It is what it is."

I ran my hand through my hair, trying to calm myself. I took a few deep breaths and let them out as my mind tried to put all the pieces together. Something was off here. Something was not quite right. There had to be more to this story. A key piece I was missing.

"Why wait twenty years to come after us? I mean, why come after us at all? Dad made it sound like traveling here hadn't been easy. It seems like a lot of effort for three insignificant people."

A grim look came over my mother's face. "He didn't tell you who your birth father is, did he?"

The question baffled me. In all the chaos, it wasn't something I had put much thought too. It seemed like a small thing compared to everything else.

"Does it matter?" I asked.

Mom snorted, "Oh, it matters. But I suspect that's why he didn't tell you that part. He wanted to make sure you didn't follow him or talk him out of what he was doing."

I shook my head, feeling more than a little frustrated at all this piecemeal revelation. It was like they were dancing around, trying to avoid telling me something important, and I couldn't figure out why.

"I don't understand."

"He knew that if you had leverage with the Ethians on that ship, you'd use it to change things."

A coldness came over me as I stared at her. "Change things how?"

Mom waved a hand. "It doesn't matter. It's too late. It's better this way, Michael. Neither your dad nor I wanted you caught up in that mess. That's why we left. We wanted to save you from all of that."

I felt a coldness settle inside me, unlike anything I had ever felt before. It was like I could feel her reluctance to reveal anything else, and I could feel my determination grow to get to the truth––all of it. I wasn't going to back down, not now, not ever.

"That what?"

My mom said nothing for a long moment. She just sat there staring into my eyes as if she were reading me and judging how much she should say and what exactly she should say. But I was a brick house, and I was not going to crumble.

Finally, my mother spoke. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "Michael, your father is the Emperor of Ethia."

I blinked at her, not sure I'd heard her right.

"Seriously?" I heard my sister exclaim.

Mom and I both turned to her, forgetting she was even in the room. Emmaline still stood in the space between the kitchen and the living room with her hands on her hips.

"I told you to go to your room," my mother scolded. "This doesn't concern you."

My sister snorted. "Oh, so it's not my business that my brother is the son of a leader of a bunch of aliens that sent a hulking ship that's currently plastered all over the news, or that my dad is right now handing himself over so they don't take Michael instead. I did figure that out right, didn't I? Because it's not like anyone in this house thinks I should be bothered to be told a thing."

It was like a knife had just been plunged into my heart. I wasn't sure what bothered me more, her tone when she said my dad, or that she put so plainly in words what had been bothering me since Dad told me what he was going to do.

My face must have shown my turmoil, because Emmaline's face paled. Her hands fell from her hips as she rushed over to throw her arms around my middle.

"I didn't mean it like that, Michael. I don't care who your birth dad is, and I don't want them to take you either. I just wish that stupid ship never showed up."

I hugged her back. "I know, and me too."

We held each other for a long moment. When we finally parted, I looked to my mom. Tears were streaming down her face, but she made no sound, a forlorn expression on her face.

"I'm so sorry about all this––and it's exactly why I didn't want to tell any of you the truth."

I shook my head. "No, you don't get to do that. You don't get to sweep this all away because it's a little hard right now. The fact is, we might be handling this a lot better if we'd been prepared. So I need you to tell me the rest of it––all of it, and Emmaline gets to stay. Whether or not you like it, this does concern her, because this affects all of us––our whole family. So, no more lies, no more secrets."

I got a squeeze from my sister as she threw one of her arms back around my middle. I looked down and saw her grinning up at me in appreciation. I nodded to the third barstool behind me. She pulled her arm back and rushed to the offering. She dragged it around and a little off to the side so she was between us and wouldn't miss a thing. Emmaline then climbed eagerly to sit.

I couldn't help but smile. I knew she was excited to finally be included in what would be considered an adult conversation, not that she ever let that get in the way of her eavesdropping anyway––which I knew was one of her favorite things to do. But this time it was different. She'd been invited to the table as a legitimate participant.

I nodded to my mom. "Go ahead. You were telling us about my real father."

My mother gave me a sad smile. "Michael, no matter what becomes of this, you need to know that Arie has been your real father in every way that counted. He loves you. We both do."

The coldness that had settled in my heart lifted just a little at those words, but there was still a lot of hostility towards them. I wasn't ready to forgive them––yet.

"We all do," Emmaline corrected our mother.

I couldn't help but give my sister another smile. "Thanks," I told her.

She nodded to me, and then she turned back to our mother with an expectant expression. I did the same.

Our mother took the hint and continued. "As I was saying earlier, because of who your birth father is, that makes you a Prince of the Empire, and it means you are important enough to travel across galaxies to find. There could be any number of reasons for this, but I suspect it may be that your father is still angry that you were taken away. He had big plans for you. I can't imagine he took your disappearance well."

"What do you mean, big plans for me?"

My mother gave me a pointed look. "What do you think that means?"

I blinked at her like a deer in the headlights, not sure I wanted to understand her, but deep down I did. All the pieces clicked together, and for the first time, I could see the big picture, and it terrified me.