|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Part
48
"Leave...behind?" Johnny looked curiously at his father. "What happened?"
Johnny's father scratched the back of his head and turned to face Johnny. "Well, I'm sure this is going to be hard for you to hear, but you two," he looked at Roy, "deserve to hear the whole story." He pointed to the foot of the bed. "You'd better sit down for this one, Roy. I'm about to tell you a few things that may not be so...complimentary about your mother."
"Like what?" asked Roy. "I...want...have to know what happened."
The senior Gage smiled sadly. "Harriet never told me she was pregnant until it was too late."
Johnny furrowed his eyebrows, "Too late for what?"
"Too late for me to marry her. By that time, she had run off and married Mr. DeSoto." Mr. Gage sighed. "His family had money, and he could give her the fine things I never could. Let's face it. After I got out of the service, I wanted to see the country. So I wandered from place to place, taking jobs where I could, when I needed money. I'd taken a job doing some offshore work for an oil company, where Harriet was a secretary. We hit it off, and fell in love. Well, one thing led to another and I thought we were gonna get married. When she told me she was pregnant, I was overjoyed. The company sent my crew out to do some finishing work on one of the newer rigs. When I got home, I found a note telling me that she'd never loved me, not to try to find her, and that the baby wasn't mine. She'd been seeing the DeSoto boy while I was gone, and was convinced that he'd inherit a lot of money when his parents died."
"We weren't rich," interjected Roy.
"That's right," replied Mr. Gage. "I heard later on that your grandparents were so upset with your dad, they disinherited him for marrying, as they said, beneath him."
Johnny looked at Roy. "Wait a minute, if Harriet was messing around with two men at the same time, the possibility exists that Roy's father, really is Roy's father, right?"
Mr. Gage shrugged. "I guess so. I've always felt in my heart that Roy was my son. I tried to contact Harriet several times, but every letter was returned."
"There is a way to settle this once and for all," said Roy.
"Yeah," said Johnny as he leaned back against the pillows. "They can do blood tests to see if you're really Roy's father. I'm sure Brackett would agree to it, and he'd keep quiet about it."
"Would you be willing to do that?" asked Roy. "I really have to know who my real father is."
Mr. Gage nodded. "I will. We just can never tell Harriet."
"Agreed," replied Roy and John in unison.
*****
Carol toweled her hair dry. "Why do I get myself into these things." She looked at her reflection in the mirror. "Dwyer's a jerk. I should have never listened to him. Chet really is a sweet guy. I did have fun when I went out with him. He's got this strange kind of charm that...well...grows on you." She sighed. "I'm gonna have to tell Dwyer the deal's off. I'll just go ahead and face the music and be honest about my past."
Click the patch to go back to the Main Page
