Noah-Fierce

by Ann, Natalie

  “Eric Raines. His name is Eric. Cora said he was the father and he took off. She’d been sleeping around and everyone knew it and he didn’t believe Sebastian was his.”

  “Then why is he coming forward now? Where has he been?”

  “My father said he moved back to the area six months ago. His mother called him when she saw Sebastian on TV and I guess Sebastian looks just like Eric’s father. He wants a paternity test and then he said he wants his kid.”

  “He can’t have him,” Noah said, feeling like his own child was being taken from him.

  “I knew you’d understand. I mean I hoped you would. I hoped you wouldn’t get upset over this drama happening and want to step back from us.”

  “I would never do that! Why would you even think that?”

  “Because no one else has ever wanted the drama of my family and though I love you and you said you loved me, maybe this would just be too much. I can take it if it is,” she said.

  But since she was wailing like she was, he had a feeling she couldn’t take it. It didn’t matter because he wasn’t leaving her.

  “This guy can’t just come and take him. Whose name is on Sebastian’s birth certificate?”

  “It was left blank.” She sniffled some more. “I’m hungry. Can we eat? I got it out and I think I’m better. I mean I know you’ll be here for me—deep down I knew it, but I’m still scared that maybe you won’t— and I just needed to get it off my chest to you.”

  She came here to him. She came to him first. Why he thought she was pulling away was crazier than Ryder settling down with a sweet girl from next door.

  “Stay here.” He got up and grabbed two plates and silverware and brought them to the table with the rest of the dinner. “Start eating and we’ll talk.”

  “Thank you. I need to tell Sebastian, but I don’t want to just yet.”

  “He’s old enough to know,” he said.

  “That’s what my father said too. Only I’m scared to tell him.”

  “I’ll do it with you,” he said. He’d have it no other way.

  “I’d hoped you would. I know he’s going to be upset, but I need to go see Cora first. I should find out as much as I can about that time in her life. If she thinks Eric is the father or it could be someone else.”

  “You should get a lawyer,” he said.

  “I am. I’ve got to find someone. My father is going to pay for it. I wanted to argue with him, but I don’t know if I can do it. I would find a way to, but he insisted, saying that even if Cora was raising Sebastian he’d be taking this on anyway.”

  “My family knows a lot of people. I can call my father and I’m sure he knows a great lawyer or two. Hell, I could call Cade, but this isn’t his specialty and you need someone who deals with family courts and custody.”

  “I don’t want to lose him.”

  He reached his hand over and laid it on hers. “You’re not going to. You don’t know this man at all. Maybe he’s not a horrible guy. Maybe he does want to be part of Sebastian’s life and will work out what is best for Sebastian.”

  “He told my father that no son of his was going to be bullied and he’d take care of it and raise him proper. That a teen needs a father.”

  Noah snorted. “That’s his reason?”

  “Now you know why I’m upset.”

  “We’ll figure it out. I promise. I love you, Paige. I’m not going to let anything happen to Sebastian.”

  “I love you too.”

  38

  Not Your Mess

  “How come you guys are quiet?” Sebastian asked. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I know I didn’t. And I’m passing all my classes and handed in all my assignments.”

  Paige turned her head to see Sebastian grinning in the backseat of Noah’s car. They were on the way to his parents’ house.

  Garrett Fierce had indeed come through with a big name lawyer and she’d already been to see Marcus Reeves once. What they hadn’t found out yet was what was going on with Eric since he hadn’t tried to contact her father again.

  He hadn’t even tried to find or contact her and she’d been expecting it. The silence was killing her, but Noah had been by her side the whole time.

  She wanted to lie and tell Sebastian it was nothing major, but they’d always been honest with each other. “There is something I want to talk to you about and we are going to do it at Noah’s parents’. Carolyn is cooking dinner too.”

  He looked skeptical. “What do you want to talk about that we’ve got to go there?”

  “Let’s just wait until we get there,” she said.

  “Let’s not,” he said back and she knew this might be one of those pissing matches. She wasn’t sure she was up for it.

  “Sebastian, listen to your aunt. It’s best we wait and can all be sitting in one room enjoying my mother’s cooking.”

  It was the first time Noah had jumped in when she was parenting and she thought for sure Sebastian was going to rebel even more. In school Sebastian listened to Noah, but she wasn’t so sure he would outside of that building.

  He did though and sat back. “It better be some damn good food.”

  Paige rolled her eyes and looked at Noah, mouthing, “Thank you.”

  When they pulled into his parents’ driveway she saw Drake’s car, along with Wyatt’s, and Jade’s. “The gang’s all here.”

  “Wyatt is here?” Sebastian said. “I want to say cool, but now I’m more nervous. Is it someone’s birthday? Why not say that?”

  “It’s not a birthday party,” she said and felt her eyes start to fill. She didn’t want her nephew to see her upset but she couldn’t help it. The last thing she expected was this kind of support.

  “Why is everyone here?” she asked when they were walking up the sidewalk.

  “Because my family knows I love you and they are here to help too. That’s what family does.”

  “I don’t want to go in,” Sebastian said. “I want you to tell me what is going on here.”

  Noah took him by the shoulders. “Listen. You’re safe here. We’ve all got your back. My family—it’s your family too. And sometimes big things happen in our lives and it’s best to find out with family all around you.”

  “It’s about my mother, isn’t it? Is she getting out? Does she want me back? I don’t want to go back to her. You told me you’d try to adopt me, Paige. Did you lie?”

  “It’s not about your mother,” Paige said. At least that much was the truth. “She’s not getting out any time soon, if at all, and you know that. And I didn’t lie to you. It’s not an easy process and Cora has to agree. Let’s just put it aside for now.”

  “Then what is it?” he asked.

  “Let’s go in the house,” Noah said and walked in. Everyone was in the living room watching TV and said hi, but they took one look at Sebastian’s face. “He knows something is up so we are going to just cut to the chase.”

  “Smart kid,” Wyatt said.

  “So I’m just going to spell it out,” Paige said. “You can have a seat if you want, or you can stand and pace like you always do.”

  “I’ll stand,” he said.

  She felt her lips twitch. He was just like her. “A man named Eric Raines saw you on the news and went to see Grandpa. He says he’s your father and he wants to get to know you.”

  “Bullshit,” Sebastian said. “Where has he been all this time?”

  She wasn’t about to yell at him for his language. “He said he was out of town and didn’t know about you. Your mother told him he was your father, but he didn’t believe it.”

  “Because she was a whore or lied all the time?” he asked.

  “Sebastian,” Noah said. “I understand you’re upset, but you didn’t know your mother back then to make those kinds of statements.”

  “It’s okay, Noah,” she said. “He’s not saying anything he might not have heard or witnessed growing up. The words are harsh, but they are probably true. Cora was sleeping around, or so we were told at
one point. I’m going to have to go talk to her to get some facts.”

  “I’m not going with you,” Sebastian said.

  “You don’t have to. It’s your choice if you want to though.”

  “No,” he said, crossing his arms.

  “Then you won’t. But Eric wants to take a paternity test and we’ve gotten a lawyer to find out our rights. We haven’t heard a word from Eric since he approached Grandpa last week, but I’m not waiting around either. It’s best to be proactive.”

  “I don’t have to go with him if he’s my father, do I? He can’t be much of a man if he left my mother. Or if he was even with her.”

  “Sebastian,” Carolyn said. “It was a long time ago and people change. The thing about life is stuff takes time. There are no answers today only steps. This is the first step.”

  “We wanted you here,” Garrett said, “so that you knew you had the support of all of us. We are going to be here every step of the way for you. You and your aunt aren’t alone.”

  She watched as Sebastian’s eyes started to fill a little. “This is the family we should have had,” he told his aunt and then walked out of the room.

  “I’ll get him in a minute,” she said. “He needs time.”

  * * *

  Noah watched Sebastian leave the room and wanted to follow but held off. Paige knew what was best and he’d have to listen to her on this.

  “It’s hard,” he said. “I see kids every day in school that have family issues like this, only different. He’s handled most of them as maturely as he could. I’m sure this is a shock to him.”

  “Of course it is,” Jade said. She was the hothead of the family but she’d stayed quiet. “I wanted to jump up and start pacing with him but I know he needs us all to stay calm.”

  “He does,” Paige said. “But I haven’t always been calm myself. I’m so proud of him and how he’s handling things.”

  “You have every reason to be proud of him,” Drake said. “He’s a great kid.”

  “He is,” Wyatt said. “I’ve never had a little brother before. I kind of feel like he is that.”

  Jade punched his arm. “So you’ve tortured me for years because you wanted a little brother.”

  “I don’t know that I would have wanted one,” he said, “but it might have been fun.”

  His mother snorted. “Wyatt, you didn’t need anyone else to torment.”

  “When is enough time for me to go talk to him?” Noah asked.

  “You can go find him if you want. I hope he didn’t go where he shouldn’t have.”

  “He’s fine,” his father said. “I’m sure he found the cubby that Wyatt always hid in when he was in trouble.”

  Wyatt was the one always in trouble and would sit in a cubby in his father’s office and stare out the window.

  Noah got up and walked toward his father’s office and looked in there first and that was exactly where he’d found Sebastian sitting on the floor with his knees up to his chest looking out of the window.

  “This was Wyatt’s spot. Funny how you found it.”

  “Why did he come here?” Sebastian asked.

  “He was always in trouble and hated it. It didn’t stop him from acting out but he was pretty remorseful afterward.”

  “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “Nope, you haven’t. This mess isn’t your fault, but we have to see what happens. Maybe this guy is your father and maybe he’s a great guy who wants to get to know his kid.”

  “Or maybe he’s an asshole.”

  Noah snorted. “That’s a possibility too and that is why there are lawyers involved.”

  “I know Paige doesn’t want to go see my mother. She doesn’t think too highly of her because of the way she treated me.”

  “Paige will do anything and everything for you and you know it.”

  “I shouldn’t make her go alone.”

  “I’ll be there for her if she needs me,” he said.

  “She’ll need you. But it should be me. It’s our family, not your mess. You didn’t sign on for this and you might get sick of me or this and leave Paige. I don’t want that either.”

  Just like his aunt. Boy these two were independent. “You’re my family, kid. Get used to it. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Sebastian came out from the cubby and hugged him. “Please don’t.”

  39

  Kind Of Support

  On Monday Paige had taken Sebastian out of school and she and Noah both took the day off of work and they were on their way to visit with Cora.

  She hadn’t wanted anyone to be with her. Even her father offered to come and she’d told him no. But Sebastian said he wasn’t letting her go alone and Noah backed it.

  It had been sweet of Noah to do what he had with his family on Saturday. She’d had no idea they would all stand behind her and a boy they’d just met, but she should have known better. All those doubts she had because of other men in her life still made her skittish, but she had to get over it. Noah wasn’t those men.

  Noah even asked if she wanted her father at his parents’ house when they told Sebastian, but in the end her father had said, “You can have this day with his family and I’ll take Sebastian on Sunday for a little one on one.”

  It seemed everyone was in her corner when for so long she thought she was staring at the wall with a dunce hat on her head.

  They still hadn’t heard a word from Eric, but she suspected that was him getting his ducks in a row the same as her.

  By the time Noah pulled into the facility, Paige was a case of nerves. She hadn’t been back here in years. Sebastian came a few times early on and it didn’t go well so they stopped. She knew her father visited a couple of times a year or took some calls, but nothing more. He probably got reports or updates on his daughter, but Paige never asked. As much as she felt like maybe she was letting her father and sister down, she’d decided she needed to distance herself in order to be an efficient parent to Sebastian.

  “Neither of you needs to go in,” she told them when they got out of the car. “I can do this alone.”

  “I came all this way, I’m not letting you do it by yourself,” Noah said.

  “Me neither,” Sebastian said putting his chin up. It was a forced bravado, but she was so proud of him.

  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” she said, putting a smile on her face. “The truth is, I’m not sure I want you to see this side of my family.”

  Noah threaded their fingers together and pulled her close. “I’m here regardless of what your family is like. You can’t control them any more than I can control mine.”

  “But your family isn’t anything even on the same spectrum,” she argued.

  “You only see the good. You haven’t seen their sneaky side yet,” he said, smiling.

  “Please. There isn’t one sneaky bone in anyone there.” And if there was it wasn’t like anything she’d experienced in her family.

  They walked in and were led to a room where she could talk with Cora with a guard present. Cora wasn’t handcuffed but she wasn’t going to be allowed near anyone either. She was medicated and doing better, but she was still a convicted criminal.

  “We only allow two visitors at a time,” the director said. It was someone new that she hadn’t met before, but her father had made the call last week to find out when she could come to speak with Cora.

  “I’d like to go in first, if that’s okay?”

  Noah and Sebastian nodded their heads. She could tell Sebastian might not want to go in at all, but he wasn’t letting her come here alone.

  “There is a room next door that will allow both of you to observe. We’ve found that sometimes people think they want to visit but find when they are in there they wished they weren’t. This will let you know the type of behavior or day Cora is having.”

  “That sounds good. Sebastian,” Paige said, “do you want to go in there with Noah?”

  “Yeah,” he said.

  They were led d
own a hall; the boys went into one room and she went into another alone. There was a table with two chairs, one on each side and another chair by the door. This wasn’t a cozy room by any means. It was more like an interrogation room.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” the director said. “We have nicer rooms for other patients but this wing is for those that have been convicted of crimes. Cora’s room isn’t like a prison cell but until we were positive she wasn’t a risk to herself or anyone else, she might as well have been in a cell.”

  “So she’s better?” Paige asked.

  “She is. You might see the girl you know in her when talking today. She knows what she did now. She knows it was wrong, but she has no memory of it actually happening.”

  “Do you believe that?” she asked.

  “I do. She may never remember, or she might remember bits and pieces of that night. It serves no purpose other than upsetting her. As long as she stays on her meds she’s been a model patient.”

  “Patient?” she asked.

  “It’s better than an inmate, but that is ultimately what she is here.”

  The director left, the door opened a minute later, and her sister was escorted in. She was wearing something close to the scrubs Paige wore daily, only they were off white with a pair of slippers on her feet.

  “Paige,” Cora said, moving forward, but the guard stopped her.

  “Have a seat at one end,” Cora was told.

  Paige was happy since she had mixed feelings about this visit. It wasn’t a social call. It wasn’t a time for hugs and kisses and asking for forgiveness. She just wanted answers.

  “How have you been, Cora?” she asked.

  “Good. It’s nice here. I miss my freedom but understand I’m here for a long time. It’s better for me anyway. Probably better for everyone.”

  Paige nodded her head. This wasn’t the time to go into it with her sister. Whatever anyone thought was best didn’t matter. Cora had her sentence and it was what it was.

  “I’ve got a few questions for you. Do you know who Sebastian’s father is? Is it Eric Raines?”