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A multitude of emotions rocketed through Grayson. “What are you doing here?”
“Are you seriously going to ask me that? I came to find you. What are you doing here on Tybee Island, Grayson?”
“I’m a grown man, dad. I make my own decisions. Matter of fact, I have for a very long time. Remember.” He couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. All of this self-reflection was causing things from the past to rise to the surface. Perhaps he could finally get everything off his chest and confront his father.
“Son, can I come in? There’s so much I need to tell you. Things I should have said ages ago.”
He waved him inside, knowing his father wouldn’t take no for an answer. He’d traveled all the way from Massachusetts to see Grayson. It would be a huge waste of time to try to put him off. “Come on in and make yourself comfortable.”
Once they were inside his father shook his finger at him. Suddenly Grayson felt like a little kid again.
“Adults don’t ignore phone calls. Adults don’t take birth certificates that don’t belong to them. You took some of my personal documents. Care to explain what’s going on?”
“I’m here to get some answers,” he said in a curt voice.
“What kind of answers?” His father narrowed his gaze.
“Ones you never gave me.”
Tanner let out a groan. “Grayson, where is all of this coming from? What answers?”
Grayson continued. “Answers about my roots. My lineage. Answers you
never wanted to give me. Don’t you think I have a right to know about genetic diseases or any messed up chromosomes? Just because you closed a door on it doesn’t mean I have to do the same.”
“Grayson, those answers aren’t here in Savannah. You don’t need to be here on Tybee Island. You’re the son of Tanner and Jeannette Holloway. Isn’t that enough?”
“Dad. I don’t think you have any idea of what I need. And you haven’t exactly been around to guide and shape me. Maybe if you’d been around more when I was younger I wouldn’t feel the need now to find myself.”
Tanner sank down onto a loveseat. “I’ll admit it. I messed up. I left so many things unspoken. As a father, I let you down. I was drowning in grief and I made so many horrible parenting decisions.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Grayson said, pain gripping his chest as the memories crashed over him in unrelenting waves. “But I’ve grown used to it over the years. After all, sending me to that alternative school for wayward kids was bottom of the barrel stuff.”
His father winced. “Grayson, your mother and I made a
terrible mistake. Put the blame on me. Your mother was not stable at the time. She wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“A mistake is burning breakfast, not sending your son off to a school that uses cruelty to keep kids in line.”
“I can’t change the past. But I can tell you from the bottom of my heart how devastated your mother and I felt when we realized what happened to you at that school. If I could go back and do it over again, I’d make different choices for you.”
Grayson made an unintelligible sound. “Admit it. You sent me there because you wanted to get rid of me.”
“That’s not true, Grayson. I was dealing with the death of my parents and when a tragedy like that strikes it just leaves you rudderless. If I could go back in time and change things I would. God knows I would.”
“It’s funny you mention God. He was my salvation back then. My only port in the storm.” His faith had been strengthened during this painful time. God had been the only thing to keep him sane.
Grayson knew how traumatic it had been for his father when his grandparents perished in a car accident. Their household had plummeted into grief. His parents’ marriage had begun to crumble. His father had retreated from the family, plunging himself headlong into all matters pertaining to adoption. He began to do endless research on adoption, then published a series of books on the subject. Tanner Holloway had become famous on the subject, doing lectures, seminars, book signings and documentaries.
In the process his father had become a ghost on the home front. His mother had suffered a nervous breakdown. Grayson had acted out by getting into trouble both in and out of school. After getting expelled from school for repeated disruptive behavior, his parents had shipped him off to the boarding school of his nightmares.
The ding of the doorbell served as a jolt to his system. Hope. He had almost forgotten she was coming over to his place with Ella.
“Are you expecting company?” his father asked.
“Yes,” he said through clenched teeth. “We need to drop this discussion now.”
“We need to finish talking. I have to tell you something very important. It can’t wait.”
