Avenge Thy Brother

Chapter 15: Designated Survivor

            I learned through research that Cornelius Atwood and his wife Brenda had three children—a son and two daughters—together and that Cornelius also had a son outside of their marriage with a then-troubled teenaged girl named Cassandra. Cassandra was the sixteen-year-old daughter of the maid who worked for the Atwood family. Although Cornelius was aware of his son, Chance, he didn't tell the family until years later when Chance was nine. Although he was an Atwood, Chance didn't make a name for himself in the business world. Instead, he followed his passion and became a successful photographer. In none of the research I conducted did I find anything that would explain why Chance gave me those incriminating documents or how he was connected to all of it.

"I figured you'd realize it was me," he said to me and Byron as he let us into his home. "I know what you're probably thinking and I'm going to go ahead and tell you right now that I've never been a part of it."

"I don't know if I believe that," Byron said to him. "Your last name comes with serious baggage, man."

"We're Special Agents C. and B. Rowell," I told him.

"I know who you are, Cameron. I know a lot of things that I wish I didn't know. My dad and my brother..." He got shaken up and took a deep breath before offering, "You guys want anything to drink?"

"No, thanks," Byron told him.

"Well, I need one. Come with me." We followed him through the large foyer into an entertainment suite with a bar inside of it. He poured himself a glass of Hennessy and began, "My dad let it be known that Quincy was his heir to everything but he wanted both of us to be a part of Eradication. We were sixteen when he first told us about the plan. He'd been telling us about the abomination of homosexuality for as long as I could remember, but he didn't tell us about the plan until we were sixteen."

"What did he tell you?" I asked.

He drank from his glass before replying, "He told us that one day, there would be no more homosexuality. He would tell us stories about how white men forced their homosexual ways on black men during the days of slavery; buck breaking. He said it was how they kept rebellious slaves from wanting to even think about freedom. He told us that broken black men are easier to control and being afraid meant you were already broken."

"You say you're not a part of this," I began while approaching him, "but your brother is. How is that?"

"Quincy always wanted to be dad. He idolizes him. He worships him. He still worships him even though dad is dead. I used to admire our father. Even after he told us all about Eradication, I admired him because he was so powerful. It wasn't until I began college that I realized everything he'd taught us was bullshit."

"What happened in college?" Byron asked.

"I became attracted to my English professor, a man."

Shocked by what I'd just heard, I asked, "Chance, are you gay?"

"I'm attracted to men and women," he answered. "I never did anything with my professor but I wanted to. It was like that attraction opened my eyes. At first, I was ashamed because I'd been taught that homosexuality is wrong. I spent a lot of time hating myself and exhibiting toxic behavior to cast a cover over my true self. It wasn't until after I learned of how I was conceived that I woke up. You see, I was told a different version by my dad and my maternal grandma of how my parents created me. They told me my mama purposely got my dad drunk one night and took advantage of him. I didn't learn until my senior year of college that my mama was actually brutally raped by my dad."