Brady Remington Landed Me in Jail(54)

My fingers pressed into my hands. Blood seeped from them.

My grandmother continued, "He took one look at her and thought he had the granddaddy of all challenges. Truthfully, I don't know who won that battle. Leann had stopped talking to me by then. She wanted to grow up in the church. I wasn't having none of it. I wanted her to live. I wanted her to have babies. I wanted her to laugh, to cry, to get her heart broken. I wanted her not to have any regrets when she reached my age, but it didn't matter. She was so stubborn and the two of us didn't see eye to eye."

"Is he my father or not?"

Viola surrendered, "I don't know. Maybe. Hell, no. I don't know. I just know that he wanted your mother so badly and things got bad. Frank was pressuring Leann to have an affair with him. He said he loved her, he wanted to be with her, he'd leave his wife, etc., etc., etc. They all say the same things. It don't matter because in the end, if she gave in or not, Leann decided to go to Florida for some reason. She said something about maybe finding salvation down there. I don't know what that meant. I just know that Frank Stephens was heartbroken, if he could be heartbroken."

"What then?" I knew it didn't end there.

Viola seemed to crumble before my eyes. She'd been standing near the door and now she looked like the world conquered her. As she folded to the floor, she choked on a sob. "I have no idea."

"You must!" It couldn't end like that.

"I don't!" she cried in return and held her hands in front of her. She looked at them like she didn't know what to do with them. "I wish I knew. I wish I understood it all, but I don't. All I know is that she brought you up here about a year and half later. She asked us to raise you because it wasn't safe for you. Your momma and I don't have the kind of relationship where we tell each other things. We don't say nothing to each other. You don't think it eats at me? It does! I have a daughter who I don't know nothing about, but I got one thing from her. I got you! I got you, Rayna!"

I sat there and watched my grandmother. She'd been the fiercest woman I'd known all my life. She could've stared a bull down most days, but not today. As she sat on my floor, I knew my grandmother was crying for more than not knowing my father. My mother was in the room with us. Her presence was so strong, so powerful, that I looked towards my window and wondered if I'd see her.

"I don't know who your father is. I'm sorry, Rayna. I know it's so awful. Only your mother knows that and we haven't heard from her in six years."

I didn't know what to say. I'd been so terrified and then nothing. I got no answers. "What do I say to Brady?"

Viola shook her head.

I couldn't not tell him. I couldn't let him go on with his life not knowing why we couldn't be in each other's lives, much less knowing that I loved him.

"How do you know that Frank Stephens is his father?"

Viola looked me straight in the eye and spoke in a clear voice, "Because he brought him to me. He showed up here one night and said the mom didn't want him. He was his, but he wanted us to give Brady to Leann. He wanted her to raise his son. He didn't know where she was. He didn't know anything at that time except that she'd left. He kept asking us where she was, but we never told." Viola nodded with tears on her cheeks. She repeated, "Brady came from an affair that he'd had when he was chasing Leann. At that time, Frank was still with his wife. He hadn't divorced her yet, but it didn't matter. Everyone knew Frank Stephens was a skirt-chasing bastard, but on paper he was squeaky clean. It was always rumours. A kid would've been proof that he was the bastard everyone said. I went…" She took a deep breath and composed herself. "I went crazy when he offered Brady to us. I lost it. I'd been patient with him, but when he said that about a child—I didn't care if he'd been the devil, I would've taken a pitchfork to him."

I watched as she remembered that night. Her hands curled slowly into fists. Her voice raised, stronger and angrier.

She seethed, "I snatched that baby out of his arms and I ordered him to get the hell away from us. I told him to stay away from Leann and stay out of this child's life. He had no right to act like God. He had no right to pass along a child like the child had no soul. No right!" She waited until she had calmed a bit. "He didn't give one damn about Brady. Not one care for him. I told him that Leann never wanted to see him, and if he ever tried to claim Brady as his son, I would go to the police."

I could almost see that night enfold. A younger looking and trimmer Frank Stephens stood at the door with a baby in his arms. My grandmother was on the other side, hearing what he had to say with horror.

Viola finished, "Frank Stephens didn't like anything I said. Something snapped in him too. After that night, he went crazy. I think he might've realized it really was over with Leann. I don't know. I didn't care, but he went through a host of women after that. Eventually his wife found out and they got divorced. By that time, she'd already had Kidrick, but it didn't matter. The damage was done."

"What about all those things about Mom? If she only slept with him, why does everyone say she's a whore?"

"He wanted to hurt us…me really. He knew how your momma really was, so he said the opposite. He knew it'd hurt us if people thought Leann was a loose woman. It did at first, but then I got mad. I got all my friends to freeze Frank Stephens out of anything and everything. Those women knew your mother. She'd gone to church with them. She'd baked beside them. They knew what really happened and I'll tell you that damage can be planned at a monthly Ladies Aid meeting."