Page 9

Chapter Nine

Summerville Sutton

A fter her fight with Nelson, Sutton decided it was time to look up her biological father. Ryan Hennessey.

Finding that letter her mother kept while she searched for Grace's end-of-life directive, which was nothing more than a post-it note telling Sutton she didn't want to live on a machine, was the worst thing to happen to Sutton in her life. To read a letter Grace wrote to a man named Ryan, telling him Sutton was his daughter. That he needs to clean up his act if he ever wants to know her.

The letter was never sent, and Sutton finds it more aggravating than not that her mother kept it. Her mother is bordering on being a hoarder, so it's not surprising, but it's annoying. She had to know Sutton would find it one day. And if she found it twenty years down the road after her mother passed, she wouldn't have been able to confirm the contents were true because Grace would be dead.

Her mother has always been manipulative and terrible, but she never thought she'd be this terrible. Horrible. When Sutton confronted her about it, her mother simply asked what Sutton wanted from her. She acted as though this big revelation meant nothing in the world. That it hadn't just imploded everything Sutton knew and thought for the last twenty-three years. Worse than that, Cannon had no idea, either. In one ill-fated discovery, Sutton learned who her real father was, and Cannon learned he was childless.

It's been a really hard transition because Sutton loves Cannon. He was the best father she could have ever asked for, but it didn't feel fair to keep up the charade of being his daughter. He'd spent twenty-three years being a great father, but the truth is, he never had to. And now he definitely doesn't need to. No, Sutton has a different father, and as she's learned, he's not exactly a stellar man.

Ryan Hennessey has lived in a halfway house for the last month after being released from prison. Again. It was his sixth charge, and looking at his history, he's been in prison most of Sutton's life. Even if she had known about Ryan, she wouldn't have had a father around based on his track record. The only reprieve she had from her mother was when she stayed with Cannon. She would have lost her mind if she hadn't been able to escape Grace.

Further research showed Ryan currently works at a fast-food taco place in the middle of town. She's driven past it multiple times over the past few weeks, but not until today has she had the courage to actually park and get out of her car. Now, it's just a matter of whether or not she'll make it to the door. Maybe that will be a tomorrow task.

Part of her wishes Nelson were with her, but she hasn't talked to him since the night he showed up bloody and bruised. The way he snapped at her, telling her she was only sleeping with him as a distraction and avoidance tactic, pissed her off. But what hurt worse was how upset he was about Daphne and Max. Sure, finding out your ex-girlfriend is sleeping with your older brother probably doesn't feel good, but he acted like she had been the love of his life, contrary to everything else he'd said about her. That he was still pining for her, and that's what really hurt.

Taking a deep breath, Sutton opens the door of the restaurant and steps inside.

Maybe he won't be working. If he's not working, that's my sign that I don't need to do this. That we are not meant to meet.

The moment her eyes land on the annoyed middle-aged man wearing a stupid hat at the front till, Sutton knows. That's Ryan Hennessey. She doesn't have to read his name on his name tag because the resemblance is striking.

“Can I help you?” he calls out, his tone flat and bored.

Forcing a smile as her breakfast threatens to make a reappearance, she says, “Hi, yes.” It annoys her how breathy her voice sounds. “I'll take a number two combo. No tomatoes, please.”

“Tomatoes are fucking gross,” Ryan mutters under his breath as he punches the buttons on the screen with more force than is actually necessary.

He hates tomatoes, too. She may get her hatred of the fruit she still considers a vegetable from him. If he knew who she was, would he see similarities in them, too?

“That's fifteen twenty-three.”

Pulling out her card, she swipes it on the machine and stares at it until the little APPROVED message appears.

“Here's your number. We'll bring it out when it's ready. Oh, here's the drink cup.”

He turns away from her after she takes the cup and table number, and she knows he has no idea. This works to her advantage because she can sit and watch him without him noticing. To take in everything and mentally compare them.

She's lost in thought after she sits down, and when the tray slams on the table, she jumps. “Here's your food,” Ryan says, his eyes barely looking at her.

“Thanks,” she says, but he's gone before she can even get the word fully out of her mouth. “I'm not even hungry.”

Staring at the food, she picks at it, trying to see if a few bites will get her appetite going. It doesn't seem to work, but it gives her something to do as she watches Ryan in the back, doing everything possible to do nothing at all.

They have the same mouth. She noticed that right away. He's missing a few teeth, but his younger mug shots she saw had his full set. They also have the same teeth. Or had. His last incarceration was for grand theft auto and intent to sell meth, and based on the scars on his face, it’s pretty easy to make the conclusion that he uses what he sells.

His eyes are different, though. She gets her hazel eyes from her mother. He has striking blue eyes, and she wishes she could have inherited those. It's one of the only redeemable qualities about him.

Sutton has no idea how long she's been sitting down when Ryan plops down at a table near her with his own food.

“On break?” she asks, feeling immediately stupid for opening her mouth.

His eyes land on her. “Yeah. Everyone gets them. Even us lowly food service workers.”

Shit. “I didn't mean to offend you. I'm sorry,” Sutton tries to backpedal.

“It's cool,” Ryan says and takes a large bite of his burrito. With three of his four front teeth missing, she can't help but wonder how he eats so effortlessly. It seems as though it should be a struggle.

He ignores her for most of his meal, and just as he finishes, she finally gets the burst of confidence to ask, “Do you know Grace Larson?”

His head snaps up and stares at her. “Yeah, I know that bitch. She can rot in hell for all I care.”

Eyes wide, Sutton knows without a doubt how stupid this was. “I see.”

“She sent me to prison when I was twenty-four because she got mad I was pissed she fucked some skeezy biker dude. Stupid whore.”

Cannon. He's talking about Cannon. And considering the situation where her mother was not only sleeping with two men but lied about which one got her pregnant, it's not exactly a false statement. Not exactly nice, but not false.

“Are you here to make amends or something for her? Is she in a program somewhere?”

“Uh, no, she's not.” What kind of program would have someone else making amends for someone?

“Is she dead?”

The excitement shining in his eyes as he gives her his toothless grin terrifies her. Every hair on the back of her neck stands up. “No, she's very much alive.”

“Then why-”

“I have to go. Thanks for the chat. I hope you have a good day,” she says and runs out without dumping her food tray.

She knows he'll be angry about it, considering his assumption when she said the only stupid thing she could think of to break the ice, but for the first time in her life, she's afraid her mother was right about something.

S utton meets Lex and Hannah for ice cream after leaving the taco place. She nearly bursts into tears when she sees them, and Lex wraps an arm around her in such a comforting way that it makes it harder to keep the tears at bay. Especially because her mother never hugged her this way.

“What happened?” Lex asks. “Your text was a little vague.”

“I almost want to slap you for being so alarming, but it kind of looks like it was warranted,” Hannah says, her spoon dropping into her glass of mint chocolate chip ice cream. “What happened?”

Sniffling, Sutton takes a few deep breaths to get herself under control. “I met Ryan.”

“How'd it go?”

“Mom was right. God, those three words have never come out of my mouth before, and they taste like acid.”

Rubbing her back, Lex gives her a sad look. “Not anything like you imagined, huh?”

“Worse than I imagined. I didn't exactly have fairytale ending expectations. He's a criminal, and I looked up his record. So, not high expectations at all. In fact, I don't think the bar could have been lower before meeting him. But he was worse than I thought. And he hates my mom. Not that I can blame him, but damn.”

“Did you tell him who you were?”

“No!” she shouts. “I'll never tell him who I am. Not after who I met. I don't want to know him any more than that, either. At least I'm not attached to that taco place. I refuse to go back there until he inevitably gets fired or locked back up in prison.”

Taking the third bowl of ice cream Sutton assumes was purchased for her, she takes a slow bite, letting the strawberry sweetness calm her a bit.

“What's really going on?” Lex asks. “You wouldn't be this upset just from meeting a man you already assumed was a lowlife.”

“That's who I come from,” Sutton says. “That's what's wrong. I mean, I always thought Cannon was my dad. My last name is Cannon, but Ryan Hennessey's my father. That's who I share DNA with?”

“It's not all about DNA,” Hannah says. “And Cannon still loves you like he always has. None of this changes anything.”

“You don't know that.”

Lex laughs. “The hell we don't. Besides, just because you come from someone like that doesn't mean you're going to be like him. Nurture versus nature and all that.”

“Oh, like if Ted Bundy had a kid, they wouldn't be a serial killer?”

“Pretty sure his daughter hasn't killed anyone. I think that would have been national news.”

Letting out a sigh, Sutton leans back in the chair. “Is it selfish of me to want Cannon to be my dad still?”

“No!” Hannah exclaims. “He is still your dad, kid.”

“But it feels selfish.”

“That's because you're a good person. A terrible person would feel giddy and take advantage of both of them.”

She lifts an eyebrow. “What the hell would I be able to get from Ryan?”

Lex shrugs and takes a bite of her salted caramel ice cream. “He'd probably steal something for you. Something big. Hey, do you think he could get us an exotic car? I've always wanted to drive one.”

“Shut up,” Sutton says and pushes her slightly. “He's more of a Toyota Corolla stealing guy. Or home stereo systems.”

“Doesn't he know we're going old school again? No one needs stereo systems. We're going back to vinyl.”

Sutton feels a little better about meeting Ryan now, but it still bothers her to know this is the man who conceived her. She shares DNA with a criminal. Yeah, she thought she was related to a motorcycle club member, but this is different. So different. In her mind, at least. Maybe it's not all that different, after all.