Chapter 27

When Grandfather had brought Mama and Matthew and his brother and sisters home, he’d told them they would no longer be Smalls. It wasn’t a problem for Mama—she just married someone else—but the courts had to be involved for him and Luke, Sarah and Bethany.

And the man who was his father hadn’t cared enough to challenge it. Matthew had overheard Grandfather telling his uncles after he’d come back from the courthouse, because he was too good a man to let his grandchildren know what a bastard their father was.

That was when Matthew turned his back on Benjamin Small for good and for all. He didn’t need him. He had Grandfather.

Luke had tried to tell him their father was dead, but Matthew knew that was bullshit. Their grandfather was a righteous man. He might not approve of their father, and maybe he’d give him a black eye or break his nose, but he’d never kill him.