“You know who this is, don’t you?” Mrs. Fenn
el asked me. “You took her picture from your father’s closet.” She shook her head. “Don’t look so surprised. Of course, I knew you had, and your father knew you had, too. You could keep no secrets from either of us.”
“Is she my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Then Daddy is…”
“Is really your daddy,” Mrs. Fennel said, nodding. “He’s all their daddies,” she added, with a sweeping gesture toward Brianna, Sophie, and the other two.
I shook my head. It was all overwhelming.
“Maybe you’re telling her too much too quickly,” my mother suggested.
“No,” Mrs. Fennel replied. “It’s what Sergio wants. He believes that if she’s told the truth now, she’ll stop resisting.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “You said she was my mother.”
“I am your mother, Lorelei, and your daddy is my daddy, too.”
“But that’s… incest,” I said, and they all laughed, Ava the loudest.
“Those kinds of rules, biological or otherwise, don’t apply to us,” Mrs. Fennel said. “Now you know. You have your father’s blood, just as they all do. It’s how we go on. This is your destiny, to have your father’s progeny.”
I shook my head.
“Don’t try to understand everything at once,” my mother said. “For now, you’re to put on this dress. Mrs. Fennel brought it along.”
“Why?”
I saw how all the others were smiling. Only Ava continued to sulk.
“It’s what we think of as a bridal dress. Daddy is going to be here soon. You’re moving to the head of the line.”
“It’s not fair,” Ava insisted, rising to her feet. “I’ve done everything right, and she hasn’t, and she’s moving ahead of me.”
“A mistake has been made, and your father believes this is the way to correct it. You should be thinking of him, not of yourself,” Mrs. Fennel said sharply.
Ava glared at me and then sat again.
“What are you saying, Mrs. Fennel, that they are all Daddy’s daughters and Daddy’s wives?”
“Well, we don’t have formal weddings here,” she said, and they all laughed again.
I looked at Ava. Why did she want this more than I did?
“You probably noticed that your mother doesn’t look a day older than she did in that picture,” Mrs. Fennel said, as if she could hear my thoughts. “And Brianna… not much of a change in her, either. As your father promised you many times,” Mrs. Fennel said, “you will have more and do more than any other young woman.”
“But you’re older,” I said.
Mrs. Fennel laughed. “I’m older,” she said to the others, and they laughed, too. “Yes, I’m older, Lorelei. I’ve passed my prime, but we’re talking in terms of centuries, not decades, and I have a long time to go yet, a very long time. Besides, do you know anyone who looks my age who has my energy and strength?”
I looked at my sisters. “Do they all need what Daddy needs every month?”
“No. Only the males feed, Lorelei, but the females provide for them and give birth to our new ones. That’s their destiny, and that’s your destiny now.”
“Put on your dress,” my mother said, thrusting it at me. “It’s getting late.”