Southern Sunrise (Southern 4)
“You’re going to be the best father,” he says, grabbing my head and kissing me right where the cross is. “The best of the best.”
“Can we see them?” Emily’s mother, Dora, looks at me as she holds my mother by the shoulders, both in tears.
“Yeah, just the parents for now.” I look at everyone. “Then I’ll see if I can bring him out.”
I’m walking with my father as my mother and Dora walk down the hallway. “Where are Kallie and Beau?” I ask, looking at them standing there hugging. “You guys,” I tell them. “Come on.”
“Oh, no,” Kallie says, never overstepping as always. “It’s good.”
“Beau,” I tell him, and he just nods at me and brings Kallie with him. She holds my hand, and I look down at her, the tears running down her face.
“I’m so proud of you,” she says, hugging me now, and when we walk into the room, my eyes automatically do a sweep to make sure I see both of them there.
My mother hands the baby to Dora, and then Emily looks at me almost as if she wants to sleep. “You ready, Daddy?” she says to me, and I just smile at her.
“What’s the baby’s name?” Dora asks. I look at Emily, and she nods her head.
“Well,” I say, walking over to Dora as she hands me my son. “It gives me the greatest honor to introduce you to Gabriel McIntyre,” I say, and it’s my father who now has to be held up. He puts his hands in front of his mouth and sobs. I walk to him and then Kallie, who is equally sobbing. “Guys, meet your grandson Gabriel.”
ONE WEEK LATER
I put the truck in park right by the curb and get out, grabbing the white papers in my hands. I walk through the grass and stop when I get to where I want to be. I look down, seeing pink flowers, and I laugh.
“We’ve never met,” I say. “And you don’t know me, but you sent me a gift on my twenty-first birthday.” I swallow, holding the white papers up and then taking a lighter out and lighting them on fire. “For the longest time, I thought about the reason you sent them. I kept going over and over it in my head, and there was nothing that I could think of that would make this a good thing. Then I met my biological father, and I knew then that you did it out of spite. You did it because you are just a horrible fucking person. I don’t know what you wanted to achieve with them, and I don’t give a fuck. What you didn’t do is you couldn’t break the bond or the love that I have with my family. You rocked the foundation there for a bit, but what you weren’t expecting is for us to build it back up stronger and better.” I look at the sky as the papers turn to black ash. “I have a son, and I’m going to raise him the same way my father raised me. Love, respect, and dignity, something you don’t know anything about. I hope you are rotting in fucking hell, old man,” I say, placing the papers down in front of the tombstone that reads.
Mr. Clint Huntington
Loving husband & father
The End at least for now! But you know what they say in the south, when one secret is revealed another one is buried.