The Loving Silence

Chapter 19

Rue, barely conscious before they had begun their tale, blinked and didn't know what to say.

His grandmother wasn't his grandmother. Was it bad to think he found himself feeling a sense of relief? True, she was still his late mother's aunt, but that was not as immediate a relation as a grandmother. But his grandfather... his grandfather was truly his grandfather. That makes his actions all the more cruel. The idea of him ever being the young man they just described was unthinkable. To see him as anything by the cold, quiet and infinitely cruel man whose hands had left countless marks on Rue's once small frame... it was impossible.

"Did he know?"

The men turned their attention to him. Cole was smirking. "Did he know what?" Cole taunted.

"Did my grandfather know about this? When my mother was living on the street, first alone, a child herself, and then with me, did he know that she was his legitimate daughter? When he beat me senseless, did he know I was his legitimate grandson?" Rue cried out. He wanted to hit something, or preferably someone. He couldn't wait till he was no longer tied up...

"He didn't know about your mother until she was gone from this world. His wife made sure of that. After they were wed, Kayla intended to carry his children, but soon proved to be infertile. She did not take that well. Her plan was ruined. It hurt her even more, angered her even, that her sister had gotten pregnant without even trying." Cole explained.

"She was beyond jealous and felt it was her sister's fault. That somehow, that too was a curse placed upon her by her sister. As if her sister was the sole puppet master of her dismay. She could not accept that it was simply how nature had made her." Nass shook his head.

"When Johnna asked her to care for her child, Kayla took the child without ever speaking to or meeting with Johnna. She even had the child chaperoned and delivered to the station where she then picked her up. To her husband she said that a cousin of hers had passed and left the child behind. He thought nothing of it. His heart had grown cold long before that, and having children for any other purpose than possibly to have an heir was of little interest to him. He didn't meddle in his wife's business and this too, he felt was her business. Should she like to care for a child, that was on her and her responsibility. He saw no reason why he should have to care for or even interact with the child. It was no more than a human pet in his mind. Plus it was a girl. What use could he have of her? No, he decided to leave all of that to his wife and let her play the mothering role best she liked."

Rue wasn't surprised by his grandfather's cold behaviour, but he still felt a great pain in his chest as he imagined his beloved mother growing up in such an environment. He knew all too well how harmful it was.

"And when she no longer lived with them? When she had to fend for herself on the street because that woman threw her out at age 13? Did he show little interest then too? Wouldn't that, if nothing else, have been deemed improper and have been a source of embarrassment to him and his 'good name'?"

"True, had he known that's what she had done. Kayla was many things, but never a fool. She had planned to get rid of Kayla for almost a year when she threw her out. To set the scene, she had staged arguments with her, complained to her husband about her and had even had him deliver the punishment when he got home from work. That was the job of the man of the house, after all. That's why it was not surprising to him, when she told him one day that she had decided to send the girl away to a boarding school. The female equivalent of sending a misbehaving boy to military school.

"It wouldn't make much of a difference to him, and he trusted his wife's decision. He had barely looked up from the paper when she'd told him. One could claim he trusted his wife too much, but the truth was that he simply didn't care. About his wife's ongoings or the girl she cared for. He cared about very little in this world."