Chapter 10 - Surprise...WTF~

10.

“Paul, this is Greysen.”

Sutton introduced them after a shared friendly hug between her and Paul. Paul extended his hand out and shook Greysen’s waiting hand. Paul hadn’t changed much from high school. He was tall and thin with short dirty blonde hair cut short and tight to his head. His eyes were a mix of green and gray depending on what he was wearing. With the dark gray jacket of his suit over the stark white button up, the gray was more predominant today. His smile was sincere and warming. The only real difference in his face was now he was sporting a full beard and mustache. He was never able to grow facial hair in school. It came out kind of patchy, like Joe Dirt’s. It did earn him the nickname once – it didn’t last long after he shaved it though.

“Please, sit. I assume it is ok to talk about this in front of Mr., sorry I didn’t get your last name…”

Sutton quickly interrupted. “Yes, it’s fine. I have nothing to hide from Greysen. He knows me better than anyone.”

She reached her hand out as they sat on the two little wooden chairs placed before Paul’s huge, dark brown desk that was almost as wide as his narrow office. Greysen wrapped her hand tightly between both of his, raising it and kissing the back of it lightly before resting their hands on his lap.

Paul watched the motion with guarded eyes at first until he saw the way they looked at each other and then he smiled. “Good. It’s great to see you so happy again, Sutton.”

“Thanks, Paul,” she said while staring at the incredible man by her side.

He took a deep, regretful breath. “I just hate to ruin it.”

Her heart thudded with a large chilling thump as her eyes focused on Paul’s somber face. “What do you mean? What have you found?”

“Well, we reviewed the security tapes from that day in the hospital. Turns out there was a death of an infant, but it wasn’t your son.”

Her grip tightened on Greysen’s hands whose were in process of the same response to hers. Her palms began to sweat and she looked at Greysen’s anxious eyes that were intently focused on Paul’s face.

“Who was it?” she asked as she turned to face Paul again.

“Well, that’s still being investigated. What we found on the tape though was your mom and dad speaking with the doctor and nurse that had signed off on the death certificate.”

“Yeah…I’d had my mom identify his body and…”

“No, Sutton…not just speaking to them.” He sat back in his big black leather chair and dropped his head. He crossed one arm over his chest and with the other he pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, rubbing over and over like he had a headache.

“Paul, tell me.”

He took a deep breath and looked back up, meeting her eyes first and then Greysen’s whose eyes were just as eager. He looked at Greysen questioningly, almost with a bit of recognition. Greysen noticed the confounded look on Paul’s face as he studied him, so he turned to Sutton and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. She rested her head on his shoulder and he pressed his lips to her hair, inhaling her sweet scent.

Paul shuddered lightly, thought obvious in his face. He looked once more to Greysen and then to Sutton as he began to speak.

“Your dad handed the doctor a large envelope, which the doctor opened and we could see a massive amount of cash inside. The nurse rolled up with one of the infant bassinettes, with your baby inside, and your mother shooed it away with her hand. The nurse passed off the baby to another nurse walking the hallway. Comparing the time on the tape with the time on the certificate of death for your son, it’s within minutes of each other.”

Sutton tried to breathe deeply as her chest suddenly felt tight and empty at the same time while her heart raced. She felt the burning sting of tears of anger flooding her eyes.

“They…,” she swallowed audibly, “Paul, please…” She spoke between clenched teeth with rage seething in her words.

“We believe your parents brought in the outside doctor and nurse and paid them off to fake your son’s death, to switch his body with that of the baby who’d died.”

The tears spilled over her eyes. “Where is he? What happened to him?”

“We’re still working on that. We’re investigating all babies born that week you were in the hospital. We’ll find him, Sutton. I promised you didn’t I? We’ll find him if it’s the last thing I do.”

Greysen helped Sutton to stand, seeing she was a bit shaky. She hugged Paul, a bit tighter this time. “Thank you, Paul. You have no idea what this means to us…me.” She tried to cover it up but Paul noticed.

He shook Greysen’s hand again. “And how long have you known Sutton?”

“We’ve been together for the past ten months.” Greysen answered without hesitation. It wasn’t a lie but he couldn’t say, “I’ve known her my whole life”, without giving something away. He could see that Paul was already watching him skeptically.

“You treat her right, Greysen. She deserves only the best.”

“I love her more than my own life, Detective. I will only treat her as the Goddess that she is to me.” He wrapped his arms tightly around Sutton as she placed her arms around his waist, resting her head on his chest.

“That’s what I want to hear.” Paul nodded at Greysen and then looked again to Sutton. “I’ll be in touch….Oh, and just to let you know, we’re in process of putting together the case against your parents. There will be charges filed against them soon, soon as we get all our ducks in a row.”

“Great,” Sutton responded confidently. “I couldn’t think of a better place for them.”

Greysen opened the door to the Navigator to help Sutton in then walked around and sat in the driver’s seat, turning his body to face her.

Sutton had tears pouring down her cheeks in a steady, heavy flow but with no sound.
Greysen reached over, taking her hand in his and kissing it tenderly.
“My love, we will get him back.”

She looked at him and smiled – a half-hearted gesture. “I believe that, but I cannot believe what my parents have done to me; what they’ve put me through. They stole our son from us, Greysen. They sold him like a piece of meat, like he wasn’t a living breathing piece of me and you. They stole him and told me he was dead. They let me believe he was dead this whole time. They sat back and watched me, for years, depressed, suicidal, and never said a WORD!” Her tears broke and the anger spilled through her words with a fierce shriek.

Greysen sat quietly, holding her hand, rubbing her arm as she vented.

“They ruined my life, Greysen! First you…they knew how much I was in love with you, how much I missed you, longed for you to still be alive and they pushed you away. They lied to you so you would leave me, knowing you’d only want me to be happy. They’ve known you were alive since before Ethen was born and they never told me! Then our son, our beautiful, sweet baby,” the tears started to flow again, “Oh, if you could’ve seen him. He was just the most magnificent little being; bright blue gray eyes, big puffy rosy cheeks.” She looked at Greysen and smiled. “He had your hair – jet black, thick and wavy, even as a newborn.”

Greysen smiled as he fought back the tears filling his eyes. “I can imagine how beautiful he was.”

“He was…he still is; I know he is. But they lied to me. They’ve let me believe that the two people who mean the most to me in this world were dead. What if I would’ve killed myself? What if I wouldn’t have been able to trudge through?”

“Please don’t talk like that, love. I can’t stand the thought. You did make it through. And they will get theirs. I promise you – if it’s the last thing I do. They will get what’s coming to them. I should’ve stayed and fought for you…but I believed them. I thought you were happy and having another man’s baby.”

Sutton leaned over and into the protective strong embrace of Greysen’s arms.

“After you found out the baby was yours, why didn’t you come back to me then?”

“I watched your house for weeks, my love. I never saw you. I knew the baby was mine at that point, but I still thought you had gotten married and moved away.”

“I was in that house. I stayed in that house for over a year after…after I thought...when…. I stayed in my room and didn’t even speak to my parents. They were going to have me committed at one point. I heard them talking about it, but they knew if I was committed then my inheritance from my grandfather would’ve become inaccessible to them, huh….Anyway,” she looked up to meet his eyes, “I was in there, praying to be with you again.”

Greysen leaned down and kissed her lips. “To think, we were only yards away from each other, praying for the same thing.”

Sutton pressed her lips to Greysen’s neck and snuggled into his embrace. He pressed his cheek to hers and they sat in the parking lot for a long minute, holding one another. He held her as she cried in light breathless sobs and the tears flowed silently down his cheeks.

They finally made it back to Michabelle’s and were sitting on the big, comfy, king-sized bed in the room. It’d been a long, crazy, exciting, happy, informative, surprising and horrifying day. Greysen and Sutton hadn’t stopped talking since they’d pulled away from the police station. Sutton was determined to confront her parents about what they’d done to their son.

“I can’t just sit back and do nothing,” Sutton said in a loud huff.

“But confronting them now will only drive them away. We’ve got to let the police do their job. If your parents find out that they’re onto them, they’ll run. Your parents have the resources to stay hidden, Sutton. Do you want them to get away with what they’ve done?”

“No, of course not! But I just feel like I should be doing something. I’m so fucking pissed off I can’t stand it!” She stood and began to pace in front of the bed – from the window, with its drawn heavy, brown drapes, to the small wooden table between the bed and the door to the bathroom – over and over. “I have all this energy just bursting to get out….I’m so angry with them…and so…so…”

Greysen stood in her path as she made her fifth lap back from the window and grabbed her hands, pulling them tightly to his chest. Sutton paused and looked up to his beautiful, sparkling, amethyst eyes. He lightly brushed a strand of her long, wavy, chestnut locks behind her ear, grazing his fingertips lightly across her skin with the motion.

“You’re so, what, my love?”

Her breath caught in her throat as she looked into the face of the most gorgeous being she’d ever seen in her life. Her hormones made a quick and unexpected rush through her body as things down low tightened and twitched looking at him; feeling his touch on her face, her neck. She began aggressively pulling his white t-shirt out from his jeans and unbuckling his belt.

Greysen placed his hands over hers, not stopping, but slowing the aggressiveness of it. “What are you doing?”

“I want you, Greysen. I need you right now. I need to feel your naked skin all over mine. I want to lick your body…”

Greysen smiled. “So you’re so…what?”

“Horny.”