Phoebe
I pulled in a breath as Mr. Miller placed his hand on Grantley’s head. I looked up at him and saw his eyes brimming with tears. His worn but handsome face looked devastated as he looked at his wife. Deanna gave him a sad smile and swiped at the wetness on her cheeks.
“Grantley, son,” he said, looking down at Grantley’s head. “Look at me.”
Grantley shook his head, still leaning forward.
“Please son.”
“I’m sorry,” Grantley said on long breath. “I couldn’t do it without talking to you.” He turned to Deanna, but keeping his eyes averted from his dad. “I’m so sorry.”
Deanna blinked and looked at Trent, shrugging her thin shoulders.
“What are you sorry for?” Trent closed his eyes briefly. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Grantley finally looked up at him and as soon as their eyes met, Trent flung his arms around his son, pulling him up to standing.
Grantley sobbed, and seeing him so distressed caused tears to flow freely down my own cheeks. I looked over to Deanna, who was also crying with her arms wrapped tightly around her waist.
The air in the room was thick with emotion as father and son clung to each other, both declaring how sorry they were. Twenty years of hurt and pain, washing around us and punching both men in their guts.
Finally, Trent pulled away and placed a hand on Grantley’s cheek.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” he said, his deep voice cracking with emotion. “All this time and you came. I don’t deserve this, but I hoped. God, how I hoped.”
Grantley silently stared at his dad for a few seconds and then pulled away, pacing over to the fireplace. Trent dropped his arms to his side and looked to Deanna, who flopped down onto a chair. My gaze turned to Grantley, watching to see what he was going to do or say. He did nothing at first, simply standing and staring at Trent, but when his dad took a step forward, Grantley held up a hand.
“No. Don’t,” he snapped, wiping his eyes with his forearm. “I need to say what I’ve got to say.”
Trent stopped and nodded.
Grantley looked at Deanna. “I know you didn’t want this, and I know you and Sue-Ann cooked up this damn stupid plan, but he has a right to choose.”
“Sue-Ann?” Trent said, turning to his wife. “What’s he talking about?”
Deanne shrugged. “I don’t know honey.”
“No point lying now I’m here,” Grantley said. “I’m here now and I’m here because I thought you should know.”
“Know what, Grantley? What are you talking about?”
“Your kidney. The kidney that you need, I’m going to give you mine. Your wife contacted Sue-Ann and asked her to ask me. It was supposed to be secret, because she said your guilt wouldn’t let you accept it, but I couldn’t do it without letting you know.”
I looked up at Trent, waiting for him to blow like a volcano, but the explosion didn’t come. He looked confused, looking between Deanna and Grantley.
“I have no idea what it is your mother has told you, but I have never spoken to her,” Deanna said, moving to the edge of the chair.
Grantley took in a deep breath and shook his head. “Please stop lying, this is hard enough for me. I’m here because he needs to know.”
“Just tell me what it is you’re talking about son,” Trent pleaded, holding a hand out to Grantley.
“The kidney you need, I told you.”
Grantley’s voice got louder and I could see he was getting agitated. I wanted to go to him and hold him, but wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. I sensed that he just needed to get it all off his chest and tell his dad why he was there.
“Grantley, son, I don’t need a kidney. What would make you think that?”
I looked at Trent and had to admit, he looked fit and healthy, not at all like he was seriously ill.
“You don’t need to pretend. I know you felt guilty about taking mine, which was why they came up with their plan, and I want you to have it, but I just couldn’t do it without you knowing. You only have one and it’s diseased.”
“What?” Trent asked, shaking his head.
“Don’t pretend that you don’t need this,” Grantley cried.
“I’m not pretending, I swear.” Trent looked at Grantley as though he was crazy. “What on earth made you think I needed a kidney?”
Grantley looked around Trent to Deanna. “You spoke to Sue-Ann,” he protested. “She said Dad needed a kidney but felt too guilty to ask me. You were going to tell him some guy had died.”
Deanna shook her head furiously. “I didn’t, I swear. Your dad is perfectly fine. Why would I do that?”
Grantley looked to me. “Didn’t she say that, Phoebes? Didn’t Sue-Ann say Dad needed my kidney?”
He looked anxiously at me, begging me with his eyes to prove he wasn’t going mad.
I nodded and turned to Trent. “She did, Mr. Miller. Grantley’s telling the truth. That’s what Sue-Ann said.”
Trent went deathly pale and I was certain he was going to scream at Deanna for telling his secret, but he didn’t. His nostrils flared in time with his heavy breathing as he stood in front of Grantley.
“I will fucking kill her,” he spat out. “She is one piece of shit.”
“She only did what she thought was best,” Grantley said. “I have no time for her, but this she did for good reasons.”
Trent’s eyes narrowed on his son as he moved forward and placed a hand on Grantley’s shoulder. Grantley glanced down at it and I noticed how his breath hitched at his dad’s touch.
“Grantley, I swear. I no more need a new kidney than you do. That piece of scum, who is your mother, lied to you. I have no fucking idea why, but she has. Deanna hasn’t spoken to her. Have you babe?”
He looked over his shoulder at Deanna, who shook her head. “No, I swear.”
Grantley looked at me, he was broken and desolate, and instantly I was out of my seat and going to his side to wrap my arms around his middle.
“Please don’t lie to him, Mr. Miller,” I whispered. “It took a lot for him to come here.”
“I’m not lying honey. I don’t need a kidney. I don’t know what Sue-Ann has cooked up, but she’s pulled a real doozy this time. And what the hell makes you think I only have one damn kidney.”
Grantley tensed, his muscles going rigid beneath my touch and I held on tightly. He was going to detonate, I could just feel the anger building.
“I…she told me. The scar on your side. She told me you’d had a kidney removed.”
“What the fuck bullshit has she been feeding you? I got that from a bike accident when I was nineteen.”
“But she said...” Grantley trailed off and looked at me anxiously and then back to his father.
“I’m sorry Grantley. I don’t know what to say.” Trent went to touch Grantley, but at the last second pulled his hand away, looking at me with deep sorrow in his eyes.
“But she said you needed it. She said you wouldn’t ask me because you felt guilty. She said you only had one kidney and you needed mine.”
His voice was full of confusion and questions – questions that none of us could answer.
“You’re not lying?” he asked Trent.
Trent shook his head and took a deep breath. “I swear.” Trent glanced at Deanna and then turned back to his son, and swallowed hard. “Even if I did need one, I wouldn’t ask you Grantley. I couldn’t.”
“Why?” Grantley snapped. “Why wouldn’t you. I would do it, I’m here. I was willing to.”
“I know, and I’m so grateful that you’re here. I have missed you so damn much. There’s been a huge space in my heart for twenty fu-.”
“So why the hell did you leave then?” Grantley bellowed, pulling away from me and getting into Trent’s space. “Why leave me with her? You were my damn world and you left me there.”
Deanna let out a ragged sob as Trent stumbled backwards a step. He brushed her helping hand away and righted himself, standing up tall to face his son again.
“I am so sorry,” he said. “Sorrier than you will ever know, but I couldn’t stay, Grantley, I just couldn’t.”
“You could have taken me with you. I’m your son. You should have taken me.”
Grantley had tears careening down his face, his chest heaving with the exertion of expending the emotions of abandonment and loneliness that he’d felt as a child. I moved to him and placed one hand on his back, and taking his hand with my other. I hated seeing him in so much pain and had to comfort him in any way I could.
“Grantley, please don’t,” I soothed.
“No Phoebe. He needs to know how shit my fucking life was without him.”
Trent groaned and slapped a hand against his mouth. “I couldn’t take you, Grantley. I just couldn’t.”
“Why not? Just tell me, why the fucking hell not.”
“Because I’m not your father, Grantley.” Trent yelled. “I’m not your fucking dad.”