Once Upon A Rodeo

Chapter Twenty Five - [The Second Resolution.]

I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces.

Gripping the door handle, I blinked as my vision blurred. No. No. It felt as if my world was falling apart in front of me as I stared at the child in front of me. He looked up at me with a set of big brown eyes, not saying anything.

"You're - you're sure?"

It couldn't be true. He would have told me. He would have said something. I had known him all of these months. We'd been together. We'd been intimate and he couldn't tell me that he had a child?

"Yes, I'm sure."

Samantha frowned, tilting her head to the side.

"He knows, Charlotte. He's ignored my son every step of the way, and I'm getting sick of it."

It seemed so unreal. I didn't want to believe it, but it was directly in front of me. It was staring me in the face. It was too much.

"I can't...I have to go."

I shut the door in her face.

My legs felt like jelly. I felt sick to my stomach. I leaned my back against the door and sunk to the floor. My eyes welled with tears, trying to wrap my head around the information I'd just learned.

My heart was broken.

I loved him. I really loved him and he had hidden something like this from me. Not only had he hidden it, he had ignored his child. I was completely crushed. My first thought was to call Rose, but I needed time to process this. I needed to let it sink in. I was too stunned to talk to anybody about it.

After crying for a long time, I pulled myself to my feet and dragged myself into the kitchen to make some tea.

How could he do this to me? How could he do this to an innocent child?

I crawled into bed, turning off my phone an shutting out the world.

I was going to have figure it out soon.

What would I say? Would he deny it? Would he lie to my face? Would he get angry at me? I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. Apart from Brantley getting hurt and the fiasco with my mother, everything had been going so well. I should have known it would blow up in my face sooner or later.

The tea that I was drinking was doing nothing to calm me down, or stop the tears. As the early afternoon stretched into the evening, I knew I needed something stronger than tea.

I sunk into the rocking chair on my porch, gripping  a bottle of wine in my hand as I watched the sun drift behind the horizon.

I took a big gulp.

Just as I turned the porch light on, I heard tires crunch on gravel. My heart began to beat quicker until I realized it was just Rose, and my shoulders sank in relief. I wasn't surprised she was here. I had sent a few cryptic text messages before I shut my phone off, not really having the energy to explain what was wrong.

She turned off her vehicle, got out and walked up to the porch with out saying anything. She sat on the bench beside me. I took another swig of wine.

"What's the matter?" She asked.

I swallowed past the lump in my throat, tears falling from my eyes again.

"It's Brantley."

She looked confused.

"What happened? Did he hurt you?"

I took another drink.

"Yes."