Forbidden Son by Loretta C. Rogers Page B

peeled off several bills and stuffed them inside the
envelope. “Five hundred dollars, Miss Garrett...enough to buy you and your
parents passage far, far away from South Carolina, and a check for ten thousand
as payment for your promise to never, for the rest of your lifetime, contact my
son.”
    A
nasty grin twisted his face. “I’m a man of my word, young woman. I have eyes
and ears everywhere. Don’t think to cross me.”
    He
pressed a button, and the uniformed driver opened the limousine’s door. Honey
Belle had barely stepped out when the door slammed and the sleek black car
roared away, leaving her standing with a white envelope in her hand and a
crushing pain in her heart.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter
Eleven
     
    Wrapping
her arms around her waist, Honey Belle watched the black car bounce down the
dirt road, trying to avoid the potholes.
    As
she trudged back to the house, her entire body trembled as much from fright as
from anger. So Tripp’s father had hired a detective to find her. She should
have known all good things really do come to an end.
    Stuffing
the cash and the white envelope containing the check inside the pocket of her
peddle-pushers, she lifted a hand against the white heat of August. Her mother
stood on the porch stoop. “Who was in that fancy car, and why were you sittin’
in it?”
    Fighting
the bleakness threatening to consume her, Honey Belle said, “Let’s go inside,
Mama.”
    She
walked to the kitchen, filled two glasses with ice cubes, then added sweet tea
and handed one to her mother. Her insides churned with worry. Pushing her own
glass aside, she crossed her arms on the table, lowered her head, and buried
her face, setting free the soul-wracking tears she’d forced back during her
confrontation with Tripp’s father.
    Her
mother’s tender touches were rare. Honey Belle cherished the gentle pats to her
shoulder. “It cain’t be all that bad, can it?”
    “Oh,
but it is, Mama... It really is worse than you can ever imagine.” Honey Belle
told her about the photographs and how Judge Hartwell had threatened to send
them to Tripp. Between sobs, she said, “The Judge said if we don’t leave South
Carolina our life will be worse off than it all ready is. He wants us gone
tomorrow.”
    Her
mother kept a deceptively straight face while she listened to Honey Belle
relate all Judge Hartwell had said. Before she opened her mouth, Honey Belle
pleaded, “Please, Mama, don’t say ‘I told you so.’”
    Delilah
Garrett raked boney hands through her sweat-drenched hair. “Tomorrow.
How...where are we supposed to get the money?”
    “He
gave me five hundred dollars.” She pulled the cash from her pocket and laid it
on the table. A little voice inside her head cautioned to not mention the
check.
    “Whew,
Honey Belle, I ain’t never in the whole of my life seen that much money at one
time.”
    “What
should we do, Mama? Where will we go?”
    She
harrumphed. “Ain’t nothing holdin’ us here. Your daddy cain’t work no more, and
my health ain’t good.” She tapped fingers against her temple as if thinking of
a plan. “We’ll go to my sister’s.”
    “Do
you think the truck will make it all the way to Georgia?”
    “That
old truck don’t have too many more miles left in it. Bubba offered me fifty
dollars for it. While I stay here and pack, you drive to the bus station and
buy the tickets. In the morning, we’ll pick Bubba up on the way to the depot.
He’ll have himself a truck and I’ll have money to buy your daddy a new canister
of oxygen. ’Sides, riding in an air-conditioned bus with reclining seats will
be a lot easier on him than the three of us crowded into the front seat of a
hot truck.”
    “Shouldn’t
we call Aunt Tess? Since the two of you haven’t spoken for a few years, she
might take exception to us showing up on her doorstep unannounced.”
    “Don’t
matter,” her mother offered. “Tess won’t turn away family.”
    “I
can’t believe this is