“What!” echoed around the room.
Grandpa pointed a finger at Elias’s mother. “I told you it was going to bite you in the butt one day.”
“Shut up, Abe.”
All his hopes that Maribel had somehow exaggerated the situation died in that moment. His mother had rejected his child. That left a bitter taste in his mouth. All his life he had looked up to his mother. She was rock solid with family loyalty and love. How could she have done this?
“I guess that answers my next question. Maribel did come here to find me. What did you say to her?”
His mother clamped her lips tight in indignation.
“I’ll tell you what she said.” Grandpa was eager to take up the story. “She said to get out of her house and if Maribel spread that lie around Horseshoe she would call the sheriff.”
His mother got to her feet, her face a mask of fury. “The child is not yours, Elias. She’s playing you. I thought you, of all people, would see that. When she came here with that story, I told her my son would not betray his family. And he didn’t. I know him.”
Betrayal. Was that how she saw it?
His stomach hurt as if someone had tightened barbed wire around it. But he had to face the truth and he had to face his mother.
“I’m sorry if you see it as betrayal. It was two teenagers with raging hormones. It was a one-time thing and we knew it was wrong and we never saw each other again. We used protection but she still got pregnant and I never knew until tonight. I would have known if you had seen fit to tell me.”
“That child is not yours. How many times do I have to tell you?”
Elias pulled out his phone, tapped the screen and walked over and laid Chase’s picture in front of her. She refused to look at it. Falcon picked up the phone and stared at it.
“Oh...”
Quincy took it from him and passed it around the table. “Mom...”
“That is not Elias’s son, Quincy.”
“Mom...”
“Stay out of this, Phoenix.”
“Maybe you need to get a DNA test done,” Falcon suggested.
“I don’t need a DNA test. I know Chase is my son.”
“He is not your son, Elias,” his mother repeated in a steely voice he’d never heard before. And it brought out the anger in him.
“What is it? Is it because he’s my son? Falcon and Leah got pregnant and you and Dad then invited them into the house to live. When Leah left, you helped with the baby. There was no question of DNA. When Jude got Paige pregnant in high school and gave the child up for adoption, you hired an attorney to fight to get him back. There was no question of DNA then either. Phoenix heard he was a father and you wanted to raise the boy. So what is it? Why is my son treated differently?”
His mother carried her plate to the sink. “I’m tired of talking about this. We have work to do and it’s time we all got to it.”
Elias picked up his phone from the table. “That’s it, huh? If my son is not welcome here then I’m not, either. I’m out of here.”
“If you walk out that door, I will disinherit you.”
A powerful silence filled the room.
He turned back to look at the mother he’d loved all his life and he only saw an angry woman determined to stick to her principles of being right when she was wrong. She didn’t want to admit she’d made a mistake in turning away Elias’s child. He couldn’t change that, but he wasn’t going to stand for it, either.
All his life he’d put his blood, sweat and tears into this ranch because one day he would own part of it. Could he walk away from everything he loved? It wasn’t much of a choice. He had a son and he had to stand up for him as well as for himself. As always, though, he had something to say.
“Dad was alive back then. Don’t you think a Rebel/McCray child would have pulled him out of his malaise? It would have helped him to see that life goes on even after tragedy.”
“That boy is not a Rebel.”
His mother was taking a stance and he had to do the same.
“I’m outta here.”
“Elias!” Before Elias could get out the door, Grandpa grabbed his arm. “No. I won’t stand for this.” Grandpa glanced at their mother. “You will not disinherit one of John’s sons. I gave this land to my son just like my father gave it to me and his father gave it to him. Elias is a Rebel and this land is his heritage.”
“Stay out of this, Abe,” his mother said.
“I will not stay out of it. I’ll invoke the codicil in John’s will if I have to.”
“What codicil?” Falcon asked. “I don’t remember a codicil to Dad’s will.”
“Well, then you better read it again because there is one. It states that John Abraham Rebel shall retain ownership of his home and as many acres as he sees fit surrounding it until his death. Then it will become part of Rebel Ranch.”
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