Southern Secrets (Southern #7) - Natasha Madison Page 0,82
chose me over her.
I open the door to step into the barn, turning to turn the alarm off. I stop dead in my tracks when I see the alarm is already off. I turn around, looking into the dark barn, and the only light is coming in from the open door. "Hello?" I say, flipping the switch and seeing that none of the lights turn on. I take two steps into the barn, and I know someone is here. "Hello?" I call out again and walk a couple of steps in. The light from the top window gives a little light in the middle of the barn. Bales of hay are all around me. I stand in the middle of the room, looking in each corner, when I see a shadow on the right. I watch him walk toward me, the hair on the back of my neck sticks up when I see him finally in the light. "Who are you?" I ask the man who stands there wearing a linen suit. His black hair pushed back with the front strands falling onto his forehead.
"Well, well, well," he says once he’s close enough. "If it isn’t the son I never knew about," he says. I feel physically ill when he gets close enough, and I smell the aftershave he wears. "Got to say …" He shakes his head. "I did good with you."
"I am not your son," I say, my hands balled into fists at my sides.
He laughs, and everything from my blood to my bones goes cold. "With that attitude, you definitely are my son." I stand where I am, hoping I’m not here alone. Hoping someone is out there with me. "Your mother …" he starts. "I met her when I was on my way home." He looks up and puts his hands on his hips. "She was so hard to get into bed." I want to throat punch him, but instead, I let him talk. "But when I did, fuck, did she light up."
I swallow the bile that comes up my throat. "I would come home and go back for her. That is how good she was. When she told me she was pregnant, I laughed at her. Like I would take her word that I was the father. From what I saw, she gave it away to everyone." He shakes his head. "She wasn’t stupid, that is for sure. One night, the bitch followed me home. She rang my doorbell and pounded on the door, ranting and yelling that she was pregnant with my child. My mother took her in, and the next morning, my father dropped her off. She took five thousand dollars from them and told them she would get rid of you." He shakes his head.
"Guess she lied about that," I say. "I’m standing right in front of you."
"I should have made sure she went to the doctor. But by then, I was working my way into Savannah’s bed." He mentions Ethan’s mother.
"Your father paid off that situation also, didn’t he?" I look at him.
"My father was always so fucking charitable." The tone coming out of him is as if his father was so stupid.
"Not that charitable." I finally find the words. "Considering that in a month, I’ll be getting all of his money, and you’ll be stuck with nothing." The color leaves his face. I clap my hands and laugh. "Imagine that, the son of a bitch is getting everything." I take a step toward him. "And you are getting nothing," I hiss.
"That fucking money is mine!" he roars out. "It’s all mine. It was me who had to swallow all the shit he threw at me. I had to swallow my tongue every fucking time just to please him. Even when he fucked my wife," he says between clenched teeth. "But no more. I am not going to take anything anymore. And I’m not going to have you step between me and what I deserve."
"Is that why you burned down the barn?" I ask, and his eyes shine as if he is proud of it.
"You aren’t as stupid as I thought you were," he says, a smile filling his face. "Burning the barn was for two reasons. One was a warning for you to leave." He smirks. "Two was because I could."
"What were you going to achieve by burning down the barn?" I ask him. "It wasn’t even mine. I wasn’t even there."