"RAIN OF FIRE" by Sarah Ryniker

STORY LAST UPDATED ON 21/04/2002

Rain of Fire Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

CHAPTER EIGHT

It was Valentine's Day. The worst I had ever experienced. It was on a Saturday and I would see Jacob. But that wasn't what was bothering me. I had other things to worry about other than spending time with somebody who was my friend. Sure, I had feelings for him, but he didn't need to know that. I could hardly admit to these feelings myself. But I knew that they were there.
    No, my problem was the pregnancy test I had went with Jenny to buy. I had missed my period in January, and in February. Mitch had got me pregnant. I had known when I had thought of my missed periods, but I had wanted to be sure. So I sat in the garden, holding it in my hand and staring at it. What was I going to do?
    Jacob walked into the backyard and spotted me sitting there, looking absolutely miserable. He was good at knowing my moods. I didn't know how he had got so sensitive to my moods already, but he had. "What's wrong, Phoenix?" he asked before he had even got to the table to sit down.
    I shook my head, unable to say the words. The tears were blinding me. I simply handed him the pregnancy test. I had yet to tell him my past, my history. He knew things about me, but he truly didn't know me.
    "Pregnant? But how? Phoenix, who is the father?" He was very concerned, and not at all judgmental. I was grateful for that.
    Instead of answering him, I began to cry. My sobs shook my entire body. He tried to comfort me, but I put my hands up to stop him. I finally managed to calm myself down. I needed to tell him what was going on. "I need to tell you something, Jacob," I announced with dread. "And you can't speak until I am finished."
    I began back at the beginning, living with Mama and my father. I told him everything. I told him about my siblings, Mama and Celeste's affair with Damian. The words, the story just came tumbling out of me as if I had been bottling it up for years and years and I was finally getting to tell somebody. "So, now here I am, pregnant with a baby that I would have wanted just about three or four months ago," I concluded with my misery still very intact.
    At first, he just sat there quietly. I knew he was taking it all in. "Is that why he tried to rape you?"
    I shook my head. "He is as crazy as his mother. He is lusty. It was something I hadn't seen before. Maybe because I hadn't wanted to," I admitted. "All I am worried about now is the baby. What are people going to think of my child?" I moaned. I knew what people would think of the baby in me. I would be considered no more than a whore. What had I done? This really was my fault!
    Jacob thought for a second. "Don't think me completely insane, Phoenix, please," he started. I looked at him through my teary eyes; not expecting what was about to pass through his lips. "Marry me. I know you haven't known me for very long, but you're the best friend I have. I want to help you and your child. It'll be a marriage in name only. I just want to help you. And in about a year or so, if you don't want to stay married to me, we can just simply divorce. It's as simple as that."
    "Oh, Jacob, I couldn't do that to your life. I'd be ruining it." But I wanted to scream yes! I wanted to be saved, but even more so, I wanted to be married to him. I had, along the lines, fallen in love with the most amazing and caring man I had ever met. I wouldn't tell him that, though.
    "It wouldn't ruin my life, Phoenix, trust me. It wouldn't." He grabbed my hand. "Please, say yes. I really want to do this. I'll even get down on my knee if I have to!" he declared, getting on the ground on one knee.
    I laughed. "No, you don't have to. Okay, I don't know why you want to do this so much, but yes. I will. Thank you so much for helping me like this," I said, still smiling down at him.
    "Believe me, Phoenix, my intentions are only pure and true. I don't want to do this for any other reason other than caring about you," he assured me. And I believed him. I had no reason not to believe him. Then again, I'd had no reason to not believe Mitch, either. But this felt so much more innocent and pure than Mitch did. Besides, he was marrying me in name only. Nothing else. This was to save my families reputation, what was left of it, and save my child from a lifetime of hell.
    Fortunately, Jacob Weston's family were very rich people. My grandfather wouldn't say no, since he was from a respectable family. When Jacob asked for my hand in marriage, it went well. Before I knew it I was standing in a wedding dress, Mama telling me how beautiful I looked. I stared at her. In only two months' time a wedding had been thrust together. I was already starting to show with the baby, but in the wedding dress you really couldn't tell all that much.
    Everyone I knew and people I didn't had come to see me wed. The thing was, they had no idea that in truth, this wedding wasn't real at all. Yes, we were getting married. But merely in name because he was helping my child and myself out. As Grandfather Gerald walked me down the aisle, my nerves were high strung. What was I doing? I was going to ruin this young man's life because of selfishness. He didn't have to do this. And yet he was doing it. I just hoped and prayed that this was truly what he wanted.
    I don't remember saying the vows, I don't remember being pronounced husband and wife and I don't remember the quick peck on the lips when he was told he could kiss his bride. I just sat in a daze through the reception. I no longer existed to this world. I smiled, said thank you for coming to my wedding and managed to get through it. My conscience was telling me that I was being selfish to Jacob. But the other side of me was assuring that this was what he wanted. He did look extremely happy.
    Everything was going well, until Mitch and Ella walked in. When I saw them, my eyes widened. What on earth were they doing in the ballroom? They weren't supposed to be in here! Mitch suavely set his mother, who actually looked normal, on Grandfather Gerald's arm. Grandfather Gerald looked at me helplessly, as if he didn't know what to do.
    I couldn't breathe when Mitch graciously walked across the dance floor and in front of Jacob and myself. Jacob looked ready to kill him, and yet, out of propriety, when Mitch asked if he could dance with me, he was forced to hand me over to the worst of all monsters. My heart pounded as Mitch hand slid to my waist and his hand slid in mine for a slow dance. His hand touching me so intimately on my waist made me want to cry. I felt sick to my stomach. I kept praying to God that the dance end soon.
    "You may be hiding from the rest of the world, Phoenix, but I know that baby is mine and I mean to see my child," he whispered viciously in my ear.
    I shook my head and looked him in the eye. "Nobody will ever know that this child is yours. You have no proof of it, Mitchell. You only have your word against mine, and everybody knows that I am giving birth to a Weston child. Not a Branch. You're as crazy as your mother and no better than your father," I hissed.
    So much for propriety. He shoved me roughly away from him. "You no good, slutty bitch!" he growled. The music stopped and everyone turned to us, stunned. "How dare you say that about me? I am by far better than you. You, who was born out of incest because your mother was a no good whore who would have anybody, including her own cousin."
    Everyone gasped. They were all too stunned to move, even Jacob couldn't move to my rescue. He was frozen in place.
    I felt dizzy. Why was this happening? Was it truly necessary for him to do this to me? I felt like crying. Yet I stood up as straight as I could, and fought back. "You think you have a right to judge me, Mitchell Branch?" I laughed. "You and your mother thieving from my grandfather makes you better than me? You're family is full of crazy liars. Ella is one of the craziest bitches I've ever know. And you are one insane son of a bitch that needs to go to hell and burn." I turned to go then, everyone watching me.
    I was stunned when Mitch reached out and grabbed me. He slapped me hard against the face and twisted my arm roughly behind my back. Out of nowhere, it seemed, Jacob, Grandfather Gerald and Damian, who had come with Mama and the kids, were on Mitch, all three of them getting a piece of him. What a strange moment to realise how much people love you, I thought to myself as I watched the three attack Mitch.
    "It's mine!" we all heard Mitch suddenly scream out. "That slut's kid is mine! Ask her. She says I'm a liar and she is lying about whoring around and getting pregnant with her own cousin's child! Just like her own mother.
    My grandfather stood back, stunned. I didn't understand why. He knew that my child was Mitch's child. So why did he look as if he had just been slapped? He looked over at me, then at Ella and Jenny, then back to Mitch. Then he rushed out of the room like a mad man. Ella watched the entire thing, laughing.
    I went to chase after him, but Mama intercepted me. "There is something you need to know before running after him, Phoenix," she whispered in my ear. She ushered me into the study and we sat down.
    "What's going on, Mama?" I asked her. I was so confused, and hurt.
    She took a deep breath and held my hand. "Sweetie, Gerald Parish is not your grandfather," she revealed.
    "What do you mean? Don't tell me I have another mother!" I cried.
    She laughed at that. "No, you don't have another mother." She looked down at the table. "I should have told you when Damian told me how close you and Mitch were. It worried me. You see Gerald has a twin brother, or had a twin brother, Gordon. Gordon was good at acting as if he were the sweet and caring one and your grandmother, Jessica Carson, was known for slutting around. Gerald married her, feeling sorry for her after his twin brother, according to her, seduced her and got her pregnant. Gerald took his brother's daughter, Rachael, in as his own. Yet he couldn't handle the fact that she wasn't his. It's why he was so cruel to her. He loved Jessica but she continued to cheat on him with his brother, and when she did become pregnant with Gerald's child she miscarried. It killed him.
    "During one of Jessica and Gordon's liaisons, Kylie Parish, Gordon's wife, walked in on them. Her family was known to be unstable mentally, anyway. She really went crazy and killed both of them. After years and years passed, Gerald felt horrible for his brother's wife when she went bankrupt and took her and her daughter, Ella, in.
    "Don't you see what I am saying, Phoenix? Ella is Rachael's sister! You and Mitch are really cousins. It has happened all over again, only this time, it really wasn't rape," she concluded.
    A shiver ran up my spine. Oh my God! Ella was my aunt; Mitch was my cousin. I felt sick to my stomach, yet I had so many questions. "Did Rachael or Ella know about it?" I asked.
    "Rachael never knew. She just assumed that her father hated her. Ella knew, though. That was why she was so jealous of Rachael." She seemed so sad as she told me.
    "Why didn't she ever tell me?" I was stunned. Ella could have told me all of this time. And she hadn't.
    "Ella was money hungry. She didn't tell you because she wanted you and Mitch to wed so she could get her hands on his money. I know that now. I see exactly what happened. And I am so sorry that I didn't see it sooner and warn you. I should have told you what I knew when I first brought you here," she apologised as if this was all her fault. And it wasn't!
    When Mama and I walked out of the study, everyone had left. Damian and Jacob had thrown Mitch and Ella out of the house and then gone to find Grandfather Gerald. When they brought him back he looked as if he had been run over by a train. He looked miserable.
    We helped him into bed and I sat by him after he had fallen asleep. As I looked at him sleeping I felt horrible for him. After all of these years he was absolutely miserable. He had tried to fix his brother's mistakes, and in the end it had only left him alone and a mess. I never thought that I'd pity him. He had seemed like such a rock to me. How wrong I was about that!
    I wanted to help him be happy. But I knew that he would never be happy. He had made too many mistakes trying to help people out. It had killed the kindness in him. But it hadn't completely, I told myself. If it had killed all of his kindness, he would never have started being a good grandfather to me.
    I knew then that this man wouldn't be happy until death took him from this world and he could be at peace. Please, God, I prayed, when you take him, take all of the weight off of his shoulders. Please don't let this man suffer anymore than he has already, I begged the Lord above. I just hoped that God would actually listen to me this time.

Rain of Fire Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

Back to Home