"Your grandmother passed." She repeated the words not sure how he would take it.
"Granny Townsend? Dead? Was she sick? What happened?" His heartbeat stayed momentarily in his chest. Good memories of his mother's mother flashed before his eyes as he remembered times spent and cherished with her. He hadn't even known that she was sick.
"No, grandmother Ginny…" She told him explaining that his father's mother had succumbed to death. Involuntarily Jayden's face twisted into a tight frown. What grandmother was she to him? He couldn't even pick her out of a lineup of grandmothers if need be. His father's mother had been just like her son towards him- indifferent. Why should he care if some nameless and faceless old woman had died off simply because they shared the same bloodline? It was more than obvious that his existence hadn't matter to them. His entire life they had treated him as if he didn't exist; so now why should he care that the old woman had croaked? It had nothing to do with him.
"Granny who? Ppffssh… What does that have to do with me?" He asked already dismissing it and heading to his bedroom. His mother's hand touched his shoulder and halted his steps.
"No matter what, she's still your grandmother and you owe her that much respect." Marla told her son. He jerked his shoulder out from under her hand spinning around to face her.
"Are you kidding me? Since when did she become my grandmother?" He challenged. His eyes were fierce and filled with pain. Looking at him her heart bled for her son. She knew a little bit of what he was feeling; after all she had tried to run over the man herself. She had wanted to kill him at that time. She hated him. She knew his pain of rejection and abandonment. She remembered how hard and long it took her to get over it. How could she not expect her son not to have those feelings and more towards his father?
Marla felt her heart sinking. She couldn't help but feeling a little guilty for her son's pain. She had chosen Jacob as the father of her child. Looking back, hindsight if only she knew then what she knew now she would love to have been able to go back in time and choose a better man as father material for her beloved son. However since that was impossible, she only could work with the hand that she had been dealt.
"Two wrongs don't make a right. In the end we all have to answer to God for our own sins." She said and Jayden could feel the anger and resentment building up inside of him at her words. Why must everything always boil down to answering to God for our transgressions? Don't God have some 'xplaining to do? How could God be okay with the fact that a man had abandoned his child and refused to acknowledge him? Why couldn't he hold his own grudges and be his own judge of his own situation? It was evident to Jayden that God was too busy to sweat the small stuff.