Chapter 15
Nathan had called Cal and told him that her grandfather had passed away. But that didn’t ease Cal’s burden, it only made it worse. Nathan had also told him about speaking to the sheriff and Priscilla Jones at the bar.
Nothing he believed about the man he loved seemed to be true. The man who had rescued him as a child.
Nothing was right, and years ago, Cal had determined that he never wanted to be like his parents and live a life of crime. He wanted to be a good man who lived an exemplary life, who didn’t break laws, who didn’t drink too much or do drugs, and who wanted his life to be something his children could be proud of.
So how could he keep the Sweet B Ranch if his grandfather had stolen the property from a man who made some careless mistakes?
How could he look at the woman he loved and say I’m not giving you back your ranch because my grandfather cheated your grandfather out of it? It wasn’t possible. So he and Nathan had come up with a plan that he hoped would reveal his grandfather’s part. Maybe it wouldn’t work, but maybe it would.
He pulled up in front of the nursing home and climbed out of his truck. Nathan met him in the parking lot. He stared at the people gathered there waiting for them.
“How’s Lillian doing?” She’d just found her grandfather, and to lose him so quickly had to be so upsetting. Cal wanted to go to her and comfort her, but he didn’t think that was possible. Why would she want him there with her family? The man whose grandfather caused them so much pain.
“She’s okay. Her family is in town and they’re all staying at the hotel, making funeral arrangements. They would like to bury her grandfather on the ranch.”
“Of course,” he said thinking it was mainly their family members buried there in the family ceremony. “Whatever they need.”
“Are you ready to do this?”
Was he? No, but it had to be done. If the man reacted as he thought he would, it would erase any doubts he had about his grandfather.
They walked into the nursing home, going down the hall side by side, their cowboy boots echoing in the hallway. The nurse nodded to let him know that his grandfather was in his room.
When they walked through the door, he was sitting in his wheelchair watching a television show. Nathan closed the door behind them.
“Boys, good to see you,” his grandfather said. “What brings you both out to see me?”
He wasn’t going to like what Cal had to say.
“Grandfather, I told you about Lillian coming to see me about the Sweet B,” he said.
“Yes, and I told you to tell that bitch that I will drag up all the mud I have on her grandfather,” he said.
“Paul died this afternoon,” Cal said.
“Problem solved,” his grandfather replied so cold that the room seemed to drop in temperature.
“Not really,” Nathan replied. “The document that was signed by her grandfather, who supposedly gave the ranch to you, is not legal.”
His grandfather scowled. “The hell it isn’t.”
“Grandfather, I’ve had several lawyers look at it, and it’s not legal. Plus, I have two witnesses who said you gave Paul a drug in his drink, and he had no idea what he was signing. Lillian is going to take this to court.”
His grandfather began cursing. “Bullshit!”
“With the lawyers, I made the decision to return the Sweet B to the family who rightfully owns it,” he said.
His grandfather’s face turned red. “You son of a bitch, you’re as worthless as your father. You have no idea how hard I had to work to get that ranch. Hell, you’re as bad as your grandmother. That woman refused to move out to the ranch because she said I cheated Paul. I had to give half my life’s savings to that damn sheriff and waitress. And now you’ve gone and fucked all that up.”
“Did you push Grandmother down the stairs?”
A smile spread across his face, and Cal didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone as evil. That same vile blood pumped through his veins. Would he become this conniving and immoral the older he became?
“Push, shove, the old woman tumbled after I learned she was going to speak to Paul’s wife and tell her they were not having an affair. For my plan to work, I needed Paul’s wife to believe he was cheating on her.”
Cal sat there stunned at the venom he heard in his grandfather’s voice. The man was malicious. Even though the man had saved his life by taking him in, the thought of what he’d done to the woman he loved, her family, had destroyed his own chances of happiness with her.
Two federal agents walked in the door. They had wired up the boys in the parking lot and now had his grandfather’s confession.
“What the fuck?” his grandfather said.
“You’re under arrest,” the man said handcuffing him to his chair. “Anything you say or do can be used against you.”
“After everything I’ve done for you, you called the feds on me?”
This man was not the loving grandfather he chose to remember. This man was foul and hurt so many people. People Cal loved. How could Lillian ever love him when she learned the truth? How could her family forgive him and accept him?
“Fuck you,” he said gazing at his grandfather. “No wonder my father hated you so much and turned to drugs to forget the kind of man you are. But it all ends right here and right now. The Sweet B no longer belongs to us. It is being returned to the Bradley family. It’s back in the right owner’s hands.”
As they wheeled his grandfather out the door, he cursed Cal and called him every hateful name he could. But things were back in their proper place. Cal would make certain those who had been harmed would have what was theirs once again.
With a sigh, he and Nathan stared at one another.
“I’ll sign whatever I need to sign giving Lillian the ranch,” he said. “Just give me time to pack my stuff and I’ll be out.”
“Don’t you think you should talk to her?”
“Why? I love her, but whatever I say to her now, she’s going to think I just want to hang onto the land. Her family could never accept me because of what my family did to them. Before all of this, I thought we’d found the perfect woman to share between us, but now no matter how much I love her, she could never forgive me. If our places were reversed, I’d have difficulty forgiving her.”
Nathan nodded. “Come on, let’s get out of here. But I still think you should talk to Lillian.”
“And do what? Break down? Cry like a baby because I’m losing both the woman and the land I love? I’m having done to me just what Paul had done to him. And my grandfather is the reason again,” he said, his chest aching with pain. What was he going to do with his life?
How was he going to get over this?
Cal had to get out of this place. He couldn’t stand the way the nurses stared at them, the memory of how it hurt him to put his grandfather in here. And now the feds coming in to arrest him.
Jamming his cowboy hat on his head, he stormed out of the building. Jumping in his truck, he pulled out of the parking lot, vowing never to return to the nursing home.
One more night at the ranch he loved. At the place, he thought would be his forever home.