by Sandra Brown
“That’s enough!” Dillon barked.
“Like a jerk, I was hoping you’d get married. This morning, I was coming to tell you that it was all right with me, but now you won’t ’cause you know my mother’s a slut!”
Jade said, “Graham, listen to me, I—”
“No. You’re the worst person I know. You let a man who might’ve been my dad die. I could have donated a kidney to him, but you didn’t even tell me.”
“What would have been the point? He might not have been your father.”
“That’s what makes you a whore.” He pointed to Ivan and Neal. “They told me my dad could have been three men. They told me that you did it with all of them. Two of them are dead now, and I never even got to know them on account of you. This old lady could be my grandma, only you don’t even want me to know her, either.”
“No, I didn’t want you to know your father.”
“Why?” he shouted.
“Because he did something evil.”
“Evil?” he hiccuped. “I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true.”
“You’re a liar. You never would tell me about my dad because you were ashamed. I’ll never believe you again. Never.”
Yesterday, she had thought her enemies were defeated, but they had sprung back with a vengeance. They were clever enough to have attacked her where she was most vulnerable—Graham.
She could see the fear, confusion, and anguish in his young face. His whole world had collapsed around him, and his image of her had been shattered by malicious lies. If she didn’t get him back immediately, she could very well lose him forever.
Only the truth could get him back.
“What they told you is true, Graham. Any one of three men could be your father. Because the three of them raped me. I got you when I was raped by three men.”
He drew a ragged breath through his parted lips.
“I never wanted you to know because I didn’t want you to impose that stigma on yourself. I didn’t want you to blame yourself for something that was none of your fault. It was their sin, Graham. Theirs. Not mine, and certainly not yours.”
She took a step forward and appealed to him. “I wouldn’t tell you now except I’m afraid that if I don’t, I’ll lose your love and trust permanently. You’ve got to believe me, Graham. These three men took away my virginity and my youth. They robbed me of my first, beautiful love, a boy named Gary Parker, who killed himself over what they did. Your grandmother deserted us because of what happened.”
She stretched out her hand. “I can’t let them take you, too, Graham. They’ve twisted the facts to make me look bad, but I wasn’t the bad one. Neither are you. I love you. I know you love me. And because you love me, you’ve got to believe that what I’m telling you is the truth.”
He glanced at the Patchetts suspiciously, then locked gazes with Jade again. “You were raped?”
“That’s right. When I was eighteen. And the only good thing to come out of it was you.”
He hesitated for only an instant before hastily knocking aside the chair and lunging toward her. She clasped him to her tightly, holding him as though she would never let him go.
“He stopped me on the road. He told me you’d be here, Mom. He said I was supposed to come with him.”
“I know how persuasive he can be.”
“I’m sorry I said those things about you. I didn’t mean them.”
“I know you didn’t.” Over his shoulder, she regarded Neal with repugnance. “We love each other, and nothing is ever going to change that. Ever.”
Dillon placed an arm around the two of them. “Let’s get the hell out of here.” As one, they turned toward the arched opening.
“Not so fast,” Neal said. “We’re not finished here. We’ve got a lot to discuss with Jade that doesn’t involve you, Burke.”
Jade spoke up before Dillon had a chance. “I’ve got nothing to discuss with you, except a possible kidnapping charge.”
“You can’t kidnap your own child,” Neal said.
“What does he mean, Mom?”
“I’ll bet you’d like to meet your real daddy,” Ivan said to Graham. “Wouldn’t you like that? To get to know your daddy and your grandpa?”
“Stop it,” Jade shouted. “Haven’t you done enough damage for one day?”
Graham’s eyes drew a bead on Neal. “You were the other one, weren’t you? Did you rape my mother?”
“So she says,” he replied smoothly. “But you’d just as well learn now how females lie, son.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“It’s not the way she says it was, Graham. Was it, Jade?” he asked, giving her a wink.
“You’re despicable.” Jade took Graham by the hand and turned to leave, but Myrajane stunned them all by coming to her feet and speaking for the first time.
Pointing a long, meatless finger at Graham, she said, “He’s a Cowan! I see my daddy in him. That’s Lamar’s son, and I want him.”
“Well, you can’t have him.” Jade divided her glance between Ivan and Neal. “Why did you bring her into this? Only to make things worse?”
Ivan said, “If he’s Lamar’s boy, Myrajane has every right to him, just like we do if he’s Neal’s.”
As she moved across the room toward them, Myrajane’s eyes glowed with fanatical fervor. “He’s my flesh and blood. He’s a Cowan. He’s one of us.” Looking at Jade, she hissed, “How dare you keep this child from me all these years? How dare you let me think all my kin were gone.”
“She freaking nuts.” Dillon nudged Jade’s elbow. “Let’s go.”
“It won’t do you any good to leave with the boy,” Ivan said. “It won’t do you any good to hide him, either. We plan on taking this thing to court if we have to.”
“For what purpose?”
“Custody.”
Jade looked at them incredulously. “No court in the country would even hear your case.”
“But think of the stink it would raise,” Ivan said with his nasty cackle. “You don’t want that kind of scandal, do you? I don’t think that Yankee Jew company you work for would like having the newspapers filled with stories about you and the three high-school classmates you gangbanged.” Myrajane gasped at the crudity, but no one paid her any attention.
“Or was it four classmates, Daddy?” Neal asked tauntingly. “Don’t forget Gary.”
“You shut up about my mother!” Before Jade or Dillon could stop him, Graham charged toward Neal, fists poised for a fight. Dillon yanked him back.
“I get first crack at him,” Dillon muttered.
Jade stepped in front of them. “Both of you, go outside.”
Graham was struggling to get free of Dillon so he could reach Neal. Dillon looked ready to kill him himself. “And leave you alone with them? Like hell, Jade.”
She laid her hand on his arm. “Please. Wait outside. I’ve got to do this alone.”
“Mom, don’t send me out,” Graham protested.
“Graham, I must. Please.”
Dillon deliberated while searching her face. “Please,” she whispered urgently. At last he relented and pushed Graham toward the archway. Graham didn’t like it, but Dillon didn’t take any guff. Before they went out, Dillon turned and aimed a threatening finger at Neal. “If you lay a hand on her, I’ll kill you. Nothing would give me greater pleasure.”
When Jade heard the front door close behind them, she turned back to the room. This was the most important confrontation of her life. She prayed to God she had the courage to play it well.
Don’t ever be afraid, Jade.
“This will never go to court,” she said to Neal in a steady, confident voice. “You’ve got no claim on my son.”
“He could be my son, too.”
“You’ll never know.”
“DNA fingerprinting.”
“Which I’ll never submit Graham to. Any claim you make on him will be tantamount to a confession of rape.”
“My son ne
ver raped anybody!” Myrajane shrieked.
Jade turned to her. “He did, Mrs. Griffith. When you came to Mitch Hearon’s funeral, Lamar apologized to me for it.” Looking back at Neal, she said, “So take your case to court if you want to. That’s what I’ll testify—that my pregnancy was the result of a gang rape instigated by you.”
“Nobody in hell would believe that.”
“Maybe not, but as your father said, it would certainly cause a stink.”
“For you.”
“And you. Do you remember a woman named Lola Garrison?”
“Who the hell is she?” Neal asked querulously.
“She remembers you quite well, Neal. She was scheduled to be a bridesmaid at your wedding, which never took place because of your accident. Just before you left the rehearsal dinner for your bachelor party, you had carnal knowledge of her in the restaurant powder room. Remember her now?”
“Vaguely. So what?”
“Ms. Garrison is a freelance journalist. Several weeks ago she spent a day interviewing me for an article in the Sunday supplement.”
“I saw it,” he said with affected boredom. “Again, so what?”
“She mentioned in passing that the only people she knew in Palmetto were named Patchett. She told me the circumstances under which you had met and called you a ‘slimy, sorry son of a bitch’ that she would love to get the goods on.
“It seems that after your intended broke the engagement, you spitefully flaunted having had her maid of honor, virtually right under her nose. Your confession ruined a friendship.”
“Friendship my ass,” he scoffed. “Lola, or whatever the hell her name is, went down on me. What kind of friend was she?”
“I wasn’t referring to the friendship between the two girls, but between their fathers. The men were business partners. The rift proved to be a costly one for Ms. Garrison’s father. He never recovered—either financially or emotionally. She holds you personally responsible for his decline. I’m sure she would love to hear my story about the night at the channel.”
There was a moment of taut silence, finally broken by Ivan. “I’m tired of jacking around with you,” he said. “If you want to have a mudslinging contest in the newspapers, fine. We’ll have one. While this gal is writing about blow jobs in public bathrooms, we’ll accuse you of fraud.”
“Fraud?”
Neal picked up for his father. “You drove up the price of the Parker property with no intention of buying it.”
“Prove it, Neal,” she challenged. “Otis Parker will testify that I put down a ten-thousand-dollar deposit on the sale of the property. So how are you going to prove that I didn’t intend to buy it?”
“I just gave him a million bucks,” Ivan shouted. “Otis will testify that his balls are sweet peas if I ask him to.”
“Except that the deposit was placed in an escrow account. There will be records. If you have in mind to tamper with them as you did with the medical evidence following the rape, don’t bother. The account was in my New York bank.”
Father and son exchanged anxious glances. They looked like two men holding on to a life raft that had a slow leak. What little they had to cling to was slowly slipping out of their grasp. Jade could smell their fear. It was sweet.
“Financially, you’re ruined,” she told them. “In a few months your plant will close down for lack of operating capital. You won’t be able to intimidate people with the threat of firing them, because TexTile will provide jobs with better working conditions and far better pay. I’ll campaign for an honest man to take over Hutch’s sheriff’s office. Your days as dictator of Palmetto are over, Ivan.”
She looked at Neal. “You don’t have the power to hurt people anymore. Your charm was exhausted a long time ago. I never thought you had any.”
He moved like a striking snake and caught her arm in a bone-crushing grip. “I can still claim the kid. That would give you plenty of misery.”
She worked her arm free, flinging him off. “I say again, the only way you can claim Graham is to plead guilty to a rape charge.”
Neal snickered. “Whatever the statute of limitations is, it must have expired by now.”
“In which case, I would file a civil suit against you. And I would, if you pushed me to it, no matter what scandal it might raise. You see, Neal, I didn’t believe it was possible to send you to prison for what you did, simply because I didn’t want to expose Graham to the truth. Now that you’ve forced me to reveal it to him, that’s no longer a deterrent. Go near him once more,” she threatened coldly, “and you go to jail for rape.”
“It would be your word against mine,” he sneered. “You could never prove it.”
Jade opened her handbag and withdrew a videotape. She held it up to them. “This has been in my safe ever since I came back to Palmetto. There’s a copy of it in a safe deposit box here in Palmetto and another in a bank in New York, which only my attorney has access to. It’s painful to watch. I hope I’ll never have to use it, but don’t think for a minute that I won’t if you force me to.”
Neal applauded drolly. “Good act, Jade. I’m shaking in my shoes with anticipation. What’s on the tape?”
“Lamar.”
Myrajane gave a soft, injured cry.
“He recorded it a few days before he died. At Lamar’s request, his companion sent it to me after his death. It’s self-explanatory, but, to paraphrase, he’s full of remorse for what he, along with Hutch and you, did to me. He confesses to his crime—your crime, Neal.
“As a dying man, he begs my forgiveness and fears for his immortal soul. He claims that night haunted him for the remainder of his life. It’s extremely effective. No one who sees it could doubt that he’s telling the truth.”
She set the videotape on the coffee table and turned to Myrajane. “What they’ve done to you today is characteristically reprehensible. They used you. You need never have known about this.
“But even though you do, you won’t lay claim to Graham because you didn’t even love the son you had, Mrs. Griffith. You made Lamar weak and timid and easily manipulated, just as he was on the night Neal suggested that they take turns raping me. That’s why I don’t feel bad for buying your family’s estate for my company. It will be fully restored and occupied, but not by a Cowan.”
Myrajane’s wizened face was puckered up like a drawstring purse. “Breeding tells,” she said waspishly.
“I pray not, Mrs. Griffith. Not in my son’s case anyway,” Jade said softly.
Turning her back to the woman, she regarded Ivan, who sat wheezing in his wheelchair, his dignity and power as ravaged as his body. She dismissed him as unworthy of comment, which was the greatest insult she could hand him.
Looking at Neal, she said, “Claim my son and you’ll go to prison, Neal. Mess with me again, and I’ll file a civil suit against you for what you did to me, and to Gary. Your crime will finally come to light and you’ll be punished for it. I advise you to cut your losses now.
“When I came back to Palmetto, I planned on sending you to prison, and I could have. With this tape, I could have. But in the last few months I’ve realized that there are other things more important than punishing you… and far more rewarding. I have a new life, a new love, and my son. They are at the center of my world now, not vengeance. From here on, I want to look ahead, not back.
“For fifteen years, my life has been focused on you.” She said the last word with a contemptuous smirk. “You’re not worth another second’s thought. You’re finished, and that’s enough. It’s over.”
“The hell it is. I’m not afraid of your threats. You don’t scare me, bitch.”
“Oh yes I do, Neal,” she calmly replied. “I’m your worst nightmare—someone who has absolutely no fear of you.”
She took one last look at them, then turned and walked from the room. She moved down the hallway of the house, where the first signs of decay and decline were subtle, but undeniably there. The Patchetts had seen their day.
A
nd Jade had had hers.
As she emerged from the house, she smiled at Dillon and Graham, who were impatiently waiting for her beside the pickup. Graham ran to her, obviously concerned. Knowing the truth hadn’t affected his love for her. Now that the facts of his conception had been brought to light, she was relieved of the burdensome secret.
“Mom, what happened?”
“I told them that if they bothered you again, they would be sorry.”
“That’s all?” he asked, somewhat disappointed.
“Essentially.”
He looked at her with consternation. “You should’ve told me about it.”
“Perhaps I should have, Graham.”
“Didn’t you think I’d understand?”
“It wasn’t that. I was trying to protect you. I didn’t want you to think any less of yourself because of what your father did—whoever he was.”
“Dillon says I’m my own person. I don’t need to know which one of them fathered me.”
“You’re Graham Sperry,” she said emotionally, touching his cheek. “That’s all the certainty I need.”
“Me, too.”
“And just so you’ll know, I went to see Hutch before he died. Rather than asking you to be an organ donor, he refused even to consider it. You shouldn’t feel any guilt over that.”
He glanced toward the house. “Those Patchetts… I wish you had let Dillon and me beat them up.”
Smiling, she hugged him and looked at Dillon over his shoulder. “I appreciate the offer.”
Dillon leaned forward and softly kissed her mouth. “You’re one hell of a woman.”
“As of last night… thanks to you.”
His wide mustache curved into a smile. “Let’s go home.”
They rode with the windows rolled down, along the highway that was flat and narrow, bordered by live oaks bearded with moss and tall pines that pointed toward heaven.
“You know what my father used to say to me, Graham?”
“Grandpa Sperry?”
“Uh-huh. He used to say, ‘Don’t ever be afraid, Jade.’ I thought he was talking about dying. Today, it occurred to me that he meant something else. He was telling me not to be afraid to live. Dying is easy when you compare it to living. Mama couldn’t stand her life, so she ran away from it. Daddy didn’t have the courage to live at all. I do.”