So.....despite my every precaution, disclosure now seemed inevitable. Not too many times in my life had I been trapped circumstantially leg-before-wicket (that's gonna confuzzle North American non-cricket followers!), especially in my own home. Hell, this was looming as the biggest domestic threat since Eve ripped off that Granny Smith, handed it to Adam and said "Have a bite hun!" Natalie too - the indisputable queen of deductive logic!
"It's not what it seems sweetheart," I said, hastily replacing the top on the tube of cream.
"Really dad?" she queried. "I walk in and find my two younger sisters lying on Kylie's bed with their panties down, their legs apart and you touching them?"
"That's not true Natalie," Kylie interjected, "Dad was..."
"Oh, shut-up Kylie," she cut her sister off. "I can see what he was doing!"
"Stop it you two," I said. It was time to assert some authority!
"Now look here Natalie," I continued, "I can see what it must look like, but I was just rubbing cream on them. No big deal. I used to do it to you when you were sore - remember?"
"Yeah, when I was six or seven dad. You don't do that to girls when they're eighteen and nineteen. They DO have their own fingers you know."
Damn, she was good! She wasn't finished though.
"Why are you both suddenly so sore anyway?" she asked them. Straight-up curve ball!
Jenna certainly didn't help anyone's cause by blushing and giggling.
"You three must think I'm retarded or something," she muttered. "You've all been acting real suss recently. You seem to go out together quite a bit now and let's face it...those are long 'shopping trips!' Don't want to embarrass you Jenna but I know you and Kylie have been...you know... "mucking about" with each other a bit. You just didn't know I knew did you? I almost walked in on you both a couple of times."
"If only" I couldn't help thinking suddenly. Kylie was in deep shock. Jenna was deep red.
"And anyway dad," Natalie turned to me - she was so damned pretty when she was angry. I'm not stupid. I wondered ages ago if you had ever gone to those parties. I knew about them when I was in year eleven."
I looked at Kylie and Jenna then back at Natalie. There was no point denying it. Besides she had too many old-school contacts. It would have been a cinch for her to dig up everything, using her detective talents.
"You have all been there haven't you?" she said, the realisation hitting home.
"I can't believe it dad. You let your two teenage daughters - my sisters, get fucked by other men while you watched?" She was almost shaking. "And what? you did it with other girls too?" I wanted a chaplain!
Then as if following up on her own thoughts.... "OMG, have you done it with them too dad?" She began sobbing and was about to leave.
"Natalie...please, just listen to me a moment. That's all I ask."
She glared at me through fresh waves of tears.
"You are right sweetheart, so totally right. I have betrayed your trust and love I guess - though God help me, not deliberately. Maybe I am just weaker than you had supposed. Maybe weaker than I had supposed even! But let me tell you this, I never encouraged them, incited them or even suggested they went. It was curiosity I suppose got them there but I give you my word, they have never been forced to do anything against their will, nor have they been hurt in any way."
"Come off it dad," she raged at me, "That's a total cop-out. You're supposed to look-after your daughters, not sit there watching while other way-older guys fuck them. That's soo gross! Not to mention you with other young schoolgirls. I thought you were different dad, I really did!"...she wasn't through yet.
"And you say they've never been hurt? What about emotionally? What happens in a few years when they look back at this and hate you for what you did." Now that was heading off into unchartered waters.
"Natalie," I said, "Look at them - really look at them. Do they strike you as unhappy? introverted? miserable as all hell? mis-led even? Have you seen any incidence of either being in any way unhappy recently?
She thought about that for a moment. "No, I suppose not. But that doesn't make what you're doing right dad."
"No, it doesn't Natalie, I agree with that."
Jenna who had been keenly following the entire exchange, then spoke.
"Look Natalie, even if dad maybe shouldn't have let us go....we badgered him to take us. Not just once...continuously. You know how Kylie never lets up. Anyway, what dad said is true. We have never been made to do anything except have a good time. Believe it or not, we have met heaps of nice people...girls too. Brianna, Chantelle (that's not the 27 year old - see FORGET HARPER VALLEY PTA) and Louise go as well.
"Brianna?" she gasped, "And her dad?" Jenna nodded.
Natalie was quiet for a bit. The tears, mainly of anger and extreme disappointment I suspect, had stopped momentarily.
"Well while we're at it," she added turning to me, "Tell me the truth dad, have you been doing it with my sisters?"
"Yes, I have Natalie," I looked at her squarely "And rightly or wrongly, never have I loved either of them more than while we did it."
She just looked at me. "This is because mom walked out isn't it?"
"What? You think I just had to have sex with a girl? any girl? Even my daughters? No Natalie, you're wrong there. I did it with them because I wanted to...because I love them beyond everything and although you will never understand or believe this - I don't regret it."
"Nor do we dad," It was Kylie. She got off the bed came over and hugged me. Don't ask me why but I felt like crying just then. "I've loved everything you and I have done dad, so has Jenna. We both love you heaps." she glared at Natalie. "If you can't handle that Nat....too bad!"
This was the Kylie I knew and loved. Proud, feisty and fiercely loyal.
Natalie was crushed by her sister's emotional strength. It was surging out of her. Even I felt it. I just hugged her to me. She kissed me on the lips passionately as Natalie looked on in utter confused shock. Talk about a Mexican stand-off.
'Y..You're all basket cases," she flung at us, turning on her pretty little heels and flouncing out the door - presumably to her own room.