Thwarted - 44. Chapter Forty-Four

“When you asked to talk, this wasn’t quite what I had in mind.” Mark glanced to where his nephew lay sleeping in the portable playpen they’d set up.

“To be honest, I didn’t expect it to get to this point either, but then again, I never expected my wife to tell me to get the fuck out.” Brent slumped into his chair and dropped his head into his hands. “Even more, I didn’t expect her to tell me to take Matthew, she didn’t want him.” Brent looked up at him. “Not that I’d have left him with her, not with the way she’s acting.”

“Do you think all of this has to do with Mom’s death?” Mark couldn’t think of anything else that made sense. Jackie wasn’t behaving like the sister he knew. She’d never been so vicious and vindictive. “That she’s in shock and maybe holding on to the only parent she has left?”

“At first, that’s why I wanted a chance to talk to her before I came and talked to you. She set me straight pretty quick.”

“I just don’t get it. She hated my dad and what he did to me. She always told me how much she supported me.” Mark shook his head. “Hell, she cut off all contact with him after he threatened to completely disown me after I refused to re-up.”

“Yeah, well, apparently what she told us and what she was actually doing were too separate things.” Brent glanced around the room, focusing on Matthew for a minute before finally looking at Mark again. “Mark, she never quit talking to him. In fact, whenever I’d go out of town on business for the last few months, she’d go visit or have him come visit her.”

“How didn’t I know? I’d usually go over at least once whenever you were gone, just to make sure she didn’t need anything.” Or had he? He knew he’d kept in contact with her whenever Brent was gone, but now he thought about it, he’d only just shown up there a few times. He’d never thought anything of it when she wasn’t home. He’d call her and they’d set something up for the next day.

“The same way I didn’t, she didn’t want us to know.” Brent swallowed and his shoulders sagged. “That’s not the worst of it, at least for me. Apparently, when she was visiting your dad, he was introducing her to men he thought were better marriage material.”

Mark shook his head. While he could see the fucker doing something so underhanded, no way would his Mom have gone along with it. She would have pitched a fit, he was sure of it. “No, Mom would have said something.”

“She probably would have, if she could. Until the stroke almost five months ago.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Mark stood and paced across the room before whirling around to face Brent again. “What stroke? Mom never had a stroke.”

The sudden crying reminded him of Matthew in the room. He walked over to the playpen and picked his nephew up, rubbing his hand soothingly over Matthew’s back. He made shushing sounds but nothing worked. He knew babies could sense when people were upset and tried to relax, but the news Brent had just dropped on him wasn’t something he could just forget.

Brent held his hands out and Mark walked over and handed Brent his son.

“I didn’t know about it either. Jackie apparently kept a lot from us.” Brent bounced Matthew on his knee. “It was after the stroke Jackie started visiting your dad. Before that, your mom wouldn’t allow her in the house, though Jackie won’t tell me why.”

“I don’t understand any of this.” Mark walked back to the bed and sank down onto the mattress. “She always acted like she supported me.” How could she not tell him their mom had a stroke? Guilt sat heavy on Mark’s shoulder. He should have gone and seen her, regardless of his relationship with his father. If he had just went against the bastard he’d have known what kind of condition his mom was in. To know Jackie knew and didn’t tell him, he wasn’t sure what to do with that information.

“I don’t know, Mark. She refused to talk about you.” Brent frowned. “Well, mostly. She did say something about how you never listened to her anymore, ever since you met Trey. I’m not sure what she’s thinking, but other than that she wouldn’t talk about you to me. All she wanted to talk about was how she’s going to move in with her dad for now and she doesn’t want anything to do with me or Matthew. Apparently, the guy who is marriage material doesn’t want to raise someone else’s brat.”

“And she’s agreeing to that?” Mark was dumbfounded. There wasn’t another word for it. He couldn’t imagine what was going through Jackie’s mind that she was agreeing to give up her son. Had he known his sister at all?

“I guess so. I was told she’ll contact me to get the rest of her stuff.” Brent stood and carried Matthew back to the playpen and set him down inside. He covered him with a blanket and then turned to face Mark. “I don’t know what to think. This isn’t something I ever expected. I don’t know if she’s just been really good at hiding it or if this is all something your dad has put into her head. All I can do at this point is go home and wait to see what happens.”

“I’m not even sure if I should go to the memorial service for Mom tomorrow.” He’d already suspected it would probably be a bad idea to go, but with everything Brent was telling him, he didn’t think there was much doubt.

“About that….”

“I don’t think I even want to know.”

“If either of us shows up, they’ll call the cops. If you show up”—Brent dropped his gaze—“your dad will press assault charges.”