“It’s not the way she says it was, Graham. Was it, Jade?” he asked, giving her a wink.
“You’re despicable.” Jade took Graham by the hand and turned to leave, but Myrajane stunned them all by coming to her feet and speaking for the first time.
Pointing a long, meatless finger at Graham, she said, “He’s a Cowan! I see my daddy in him. That’s Lamar’s son, and I want him.”
“Well, you can’t have him.” Jade divided her glance between Ivan and Neal. “Why did you bring her into this? Only to make things worse?”
Ivan said, “If he’s Lamar’s boy, Myrajane has every right to him, just like we do if he’s Neal’s.”
As she moved across the room toward them, Myrajane’s eyes glowed with fanatical fervor. “He’s my flesh and blood. He’s a Cowan. He’s one of us.” Looking at Jade, she hissed, “How dare you keep this child from me all these years? How dare you let me think all my kin were gone.”
“She freaking nuts.” Dillon nudged Jade’s elbow. “Let’s go.”
“It won’t do you any good to leave with the boy,” Ivan said. “It won’t do you any good to hide him, either. We plan on taking this thing to court if we have to.”
“For what purpose?”
“Custody.”
Jade looked at them incredulously. “No court in the country would even hear your case.”
“But think of the stink it would raise,” Ivan said with his nasty cackle. “You don’t want that kind of scandal, do you? I don’t think that Yankee Jew company you work for would like having the newspapers filled with stories about you and the three high-school classmates you gangbanged.” Myrajane gasped at the crudity, but no one paid her any attention.
“Or was it four classmates, Daddy?” Neal asked tauntingly. “Don’t forget Gary.”
“You shut up about my mother!” Before Jade or Dillon could stop him, Graham charged toward Neal, fists poised for a fight. Dillon yanked him back.
“I get first crack at him,” Dillon muttered.
Jade stepped in front of them. “Both of you, go outside.”
Graham was struggling to get free of Dillon so he could reach Neal. Dillon looked ready to kill him himself. “And leave you alone with them? Like hell, Jade.”
She laid her hand on his arm. “Please. Wait outside. I’ve got to do this alone.”
“Mom, don’t send me out,” Graham protested.
“Graham, I must. Please.”
Dillon deliberated while searching her face. “Please,” she whispered urgently. At last he relented and pushed Graham toward the archway. Graham didn’t like it, but Dillon didn’t take any guff. Before they went out, Dillon turned and aimed a threatening finger at Neal. “If you lay a hand on her, I’ll kill you. Nothing would give me greater pleasure.”
When Jade heard the front door close behind them, she turned back to the room. This was the most important confrontation of her life. She prayed to God she had the courage to play it well.
Don’t ever be afraid, Jade.
“This will never go to court,” she said to Neal in a steady, confident voice. “You’ve got no claim on my son.”
“He could be my son, too.”
“You’ll never know.”
“DNA fingerprinting.”
“Which I’ll never submit Graham to. Any claim you make on him will be tantamount to a confession of rape.”
“My son ne
ver raped anybody!” Myrajane shrieked.