Curtain Call (The Jewel Project #7)

42. Demons at the Door

Kyle didn't need a confirmation beyond the name that had finally made it out into the air, poisoning everything around it.

Davyn.

Of course it wasn't Bob, it was Davyn.

Of course Freider punched Maxi in the face over it. But how could it be such a well-kept secret? How could Freider swallow so many lies without choking on them?

But, then again, maybe he hadn't. Maybe this explained everything. Why he was abandoned in Texas as a child, why Freider always criticized him, tried to make him miserable, keep him and Kay apart. After all the wacko had at one point admitted that he had a problem with Kay just because she was blonde.

Maybe he saw Davyn and Millie instead of Kyle and Kay, and that was something he wanted to stomp out of existence with everything he had.

I really wish you were my son.

The words caught a new meaning as they became real, possible. Davyn no longer had to wish it because it became true. He got what he wanted. But Kyle? Who cared what Kyle wanted? He was nothing but a bystander in all this, without any power to decide the genes that went into his DNA. And still, something inside him was broken. Not because his own father had tried to kill him, but because his mother allowed it to happen.

"What?" Sam asked, his voice like a distant echo. "Your real name is Davyn? Like Kyle's middle..." His voice trailed off, washed away by waves of confusion.

Kyle knew all eyes were on him, but he couldn't move, couldn't look away from the two people who had given him life and then turned it into a joke. Into a powerplay that none of them could win.

"How did you get it past Freider?" It was all he could ask at the moment.

Kay wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed tightly. It hurt that he couldn't break out of his stupor and focus on her, comfort her, let he know everything would be alright. But it was all about him at the moment and for once, he let it. Because he had to process this all now and then push through and get things done.

"Come to think about it," he added, looking from his mother to the man who was apparently his father, "how did this get past you?"

"I thought your middle name was Jacob," Snitch Gravel replied, his tone filled with shock. "I heard Freider boasting about it in the hospital."

"That's what he wanted," Maxi whispered and then turned to Kyle. "But I wanted to name you Davyn. And your grandma Grace agreed with me. She took care of the formalities at that time since Freider was too busy approving experimental treatments on you. So when she came back from registering you, she'd given you the name."

"So it's true?" Jessie asked. "Is he..." She turned to Kyle, then looked back at the parents. "He's really Kyle's dad?"

Maxi nodded, her hands over her mouth to keep in the sobs.

"This makes even less sense," Kay said. "Why hurry to marry a man while expecting another man's child?"

"Hadn't you heard of condoms, you wacko?" Tom asked. "They're a thing."

"Yeah, they didn't stop us, though," Angie mumbled.

"I couldn't fail like that," Maxi said, her voice choked. "I couldn't disappoint my mother like that. Be a single, abandoned teenage mother. I just couldn't."

The words seemed to pierce Kyle's very soul. "Maman knew?"

Maxi shook her head. "No one knew. I've been carrying this secret alone for thirty years."