Janita was confused. Hawk was lost. “Waitwhat? Donnally believe he’s your father?”
“He’s not though, I don’t care what that DNA test said. Your father had an affair with my mother, okay? Is that clear enough for you? He impregnated her and she had me. But instead of claiming me like he claimed y’all, he had those test people switch the DNA results and claim he wasn’t my father. But I know he is. And my mother committed suicide because she knew it too.”
Reecie looked at William. He shook his head. It was as if that old horse had been beaten long ago, and he was still harping on that conspiracy theory that was as much a lie as Shelly’s friendship with Hawk was.
“But how did Donnally get in the picture,” Janita asked, “if you’re so certain he’s not your father?”
“He is his father,” William snapped. “And the DNA proved it!”
“That’s bullshit!” Shelly fired back. “That DNA test was rigged too. Your ass my father and you know it,” he said to William like an accusatory child. “My mother died because she knew it too. She died because of you!”
“But your mother died years ago, Shelly,” Hawk said. “Why are you avenging her death now?”
“When I was laid up in that hospital after those fools shot me,” Shelly said, “I realized that not one Webster called to ask if I was okay.”
Hawk frowned. “I was there! I came to see you at the hospital.”
“You came one time and that was it. You was too busy to be bothered. But your old man didn’t come. Nobody came. Nobody called. Nobody cared!” He was trembling with rage. “I was protecting your father all these years. At get-togethers I never once said a word about my mother. I never once told you the truth. But when I was down and out in that hospital bed, and I realized that not one Webster gave a damn about me, I got mad as hell. And then I decided to get even.”
“But Hawthorne loves you,” Reecie said. “Why would you try to harm Hawthorne?”
“Because W loves Hawk. Just like he loves your crazy ass. He won’t admit it out loud, but he’ll do anything for Hawk. And that just ate me up. He denied my mother, but he’ll do anything for you,” he said to Reecie. “He denied me, but he’ll do anything for Hawk.” Then he yelled: “That’s why! And that’s why you and your husband will have to pay the price for what he did to my mother. And to me. Both of you will rot in,” he started saying, but suddenly stopped midsentence when everybody heard what sounded like a powerful shotgun blast.
Hawk pushed Janita down to the floor violently and fell on top of her, covering her, protecting her, while Lassiter pulled out his weapon and looked where he heard that blast. And that was when he saw the shooter. Then he looked at Shelly.
Shelly was still standing there with his eyes still wide open, as if he was frozen in time. And then he fell straight back with a thump so hard the dust of his body kicked up.
William immediately jumped up and grabbed a screaming Reecie into his arms, while Lassiter ran behind the sofa to remove all weapons from Shelly’s hand. But both guns had fallen to the floor when he fell backwards.
But everybody else was looking in the direction of the sound of that gunshot blast. And like Lassiter before them, they saw Matty standing at the living room’s entrance. With a shotgun in his hands. Even more relief filled that room as Von and the driver and the booth guard got up too. But Hawk was still in bad shape.
With his heart still hammering, he got off of Janita and helped her on her feet. Then he pulled her into his arms. All the while staring at his father, who was staring at what used to be Shelly Dobson. But Hawk was trembling with rage too. Because this scene, which could have been even more horrific than it was, was what his father’s inability to control his urges had wrought in their family. Shelly had been the living, breathing embodiment of what all those so-calledindiscretionsproduced. And it was, to Hawk, a crying shame.
As he held Janita as tightly as he possibly could, he was all the more determined to treat her like the queen she was, and like the queen his mother tried to be to his father. He was determined to treat her in every conceivable way his father never, ever understood. Because he knew since childhood that his father had it all wrong. That you can’t love somebody and hurt them too. You just can’t, in Hawk’s mind.
That was why, as he continued to hold onto the one human being on the face of this earth that he considered to be his lifeline, Hawk squeezed his eyes shut as if that small gesture alone could shut out the reality, and the pain, of what being a Webster truly meant.
EPILOGUE
It was the annual Webster BBQ at the family estate on Martha’s Vineyard, and all of the official Websters were there, as well as the unofficial ones. And everybody was having a ball.
Including the former bride-to-be Amber Webster, whose fiancé called off the wedding once her father postponed it and she was too afraid to go against her father. She ended up dumping him and meeting another guy. But this one, unlike the last one, was an ambitious young man who any fool could see only wanted her as his come-up in the world. But that was her life.
Janita and Von were there too, as Hawk’s guests, enjoying their new life. And they were amazed at how easily they fit in.
They still lived with Hawk in L.A. and was loving it, and they were still officially his “security team.” Although he wouldn’t allow them to do any security work. Because unofficially, they were his family.
And that was why, after all of the unofficial Websters were long gone and it was only the official Websters still hanging around the table, it surprised absolutely no one when Hawk stood up at the long table, hit his fork against his glass, and got everybody’s attention.
“It’s been a rough few months,” he said and everybody laughed. “Our chief of police is in jail awaiting trial where he thinks he’s going to get lesser charges because he ratted out the guys that ambushed Janita and DeVontay. But the DA hasalready assured me that his ass is going to get the book thrown at him.” Everybody cheered.
“And our mother,” Hawk went on, “pulled off an overnight kidnapping caper that would make James Bond proud.” The family booed and laughed all at the same time.
But Reecie, who sat at the head of the other end of the table from where her husband sat, was smiling too. “You laugh,” she said, “but it achieved what I had hoped.”
“Which was?” Matty asked his mother.
“No bastard of my husband’s was going to be the first to marry in the Webster family.”
