Making the Cut (Saving Dallas 2)

“She is twenty-four. Your father had an affair with another woman on a business trip here. Maddie’s mother, her name was Rebecca.”

I felt the saliva building in my mouth and my stomach turned as bile started to rise. Sweat beads formed above my lip and on my head. I wiped at my face and my skin felt clammy and cold.

“You okay, babe?” Luke asked, sliding to the floor to sit in front of me.

“Tell me. Tell me everything.”

“Are you sure? We can wait.”

“Dammit, just tell me!” I snapped raising my head to look at him. The concern on his face was now familiar to me. Great. Another reason for Luke to feel sorry for me. “I want to know,” I begged. My eyes bore into his deep blue ones. I needed this from him.

“Ok, baby. I’ll tell you everything.”

I nodded my head and waited. This was going to be life-altering. I knew the information he was going to share was going to change me. Red altered my life yesterday, Luke was going to do it today, and tomorrow I would probably find out that I was born a man. Nothing would surprise me after this.

“Your father came to Mississippi to invest in some property. While he was down, he frequented a club called Vera’s Lounge. Rebecca was a cocktail waitress there. Over the next several months, him and her became close. From what I was told, it was only a one-time thing and they both admitted after that, it was a mistake. Rebecca got pregnant and told your father. He knew it would ruin his relationship with your mom, so he offered to pay for an abortion. Rebecca refused and said she would raise the baby on her own. He tried to give her money, but she had too much pride. A trust was set up in Maddie’s name and your father invested a generous amount in it. She found out when she was sixteen who her father was. Rebecca never wanted her to know; she didn’t want her to get hurt, but when Maddie found a box of old letters and pictures of him, she went looking. She took a bus to Atlanta, but by the time she found him, he was dead.”

Tears flowed down my face as I listened to the nightmare Luke shared with me. How terrible it must have been for her to grow up without a father. I lost mine at a young age, but he was there through all of my childhood years. I was practically an adult when he died. I didn’t want to believe my father was capable of such a thing, but I always knew deep down, he was not a very good man. He was crooked, and ruthless, and money hungry. I could now add adulterer and sperm donor to that list.

“There’s more, Dallas.” My head snapped up to see Luke getting a little uncomfortable. Of course there was more. There was no ending to the madness in my life.

“Rebecca married when Maddie was five,” Luke paused and I looked at him expectantly.

“So?” I said, wondering what the big deal was.

“She married Frankie, Dallas.”

My heart stopped beating. The air in the room seemed to turn arctic and I shivered. The hair on the back of my neck stood up on end and goosebumps protruded out of my skin, all over my body.

“Where is Rebecca now?” I asked, although I had the feeling I already knew the answer.

“She died,” Luke confirmed.

“How old was Maddie when she died?” I asked, praying she had not grown up without a mother too.

“She was seven.” I closed my eyes at Luke’s words.

“Did he kill her?” I asked, staring at the blackness behind my eyelids, chasing the dots to try to keep from losing it.

“No, she had cancer. Frankie found the letters from your dad. All of them. The ones about the money, the abortion, everything. The land he sold out from under the club was just an excuse. He killed your mother, Dallas, and he done it for Maddie.” The tears that ran down my cheeks at the mention of my mother’s death blurred my vision. I couldn’t see Luke’s face, but the emotion in his voice let me know that this was hard for him too.

“Why would he do that? She was innocent in all of this,” I asked, my voice breaking with sobs.

“He didn’t see it like that, babe. He went to kill your father, but Frankie is crazy. He thought you all deserved to die. He thought your mother was to blame for Maddie not having a father. If she would not have been in the picture then he would have married Rebecca and Maddie would have grown up with the life you had.” Luke reached out and pulled me onto his lap. “I’m so sorry, baby,” he whispered, kissing my head repeatedly.