CHAPTER 8

After the couple left, Matt wrapped his arm around CJ and they told the guests goodbye as they started to leave. In half an hour, no one was left but Matt, CJ, Vince, Mama, Hoyt, and Roy. Matt had taken off his jacket, tie, and cummerbund, and his shirt was halfway unbuttoned. CJ kicked off her shoes and plopped down in Matt's lap as he sat in one of the chairs on the patio. She looked at her husband. "Why do I feel like my children just got married?" They all laughed.

"Boy, can't you see it, Michael? Someday some boy is going to get up the nerve to come ask to marry Catey. I'd sure hate to be in his shoes." Vince looked over at his best friend.

"I'll have to take lessons on how to handle that from Michael I guess; he'll be dealing with it before I will." Matt raised his beer bottle in a toast to his friend.

"Oh God, why did you have to say that? Now I'll be worried about that." Hoyt started laughing.

Matt looked at CJ. "I think now is as good a time as any, what do you think?" She nodded.

"Boys, we want to talk to you about something. I've been intending to do it before now, but things always got in the way. Better late than never I guess." He took a long swig of beer. "Okay, you both know how much I love your kids." Both men nodded. "I think of them as my own and always have – and always will." His friends nodded again. "Here's a proposition for the both of you. And I want you to talk to Isabella and Anne about it when you get back home. You both know that I worked with Derwin Dunlap on some games."

"I thought it was one game?" Hoyt piped up.

"Actually, only one has been released so far – the second will be released in November and the third next spring. Anyway, I had an idea." He took another swig and set the bottle down. "I would like to set up five trusts with the profits from the first game – in each kid's name. Now I don't know exactly how much that will be. But, I can tell you that each trust will start out with at least $4,000,000 in it."

Vince and Hoyt looked at each other and both of them were speechless for a minute. "Dude, seriously, that's $20,000,000." The restaurant owner couldn't believe his ears. He looked over at his mother who seemed just as shocked. "You can't do that, man. I mean, it's a nice gesture and everything, but …gees, that's a lot of money."

"Yeah, Houston, I mean, we know you love the kids, but that's just too much." Hoyt was completely flabbergasted.

"I can do it. Look fellas, I'm not hurting for money. Surely you two know that?" Matt began peeling the label on the bottle.

"But after you split the company and all… I mean, you're not broke, but damn!" Vince couldn't believe his ears.

"Vince, let me clue you in on a little something." He looked at his wife and both of them grinned. "When I split the company up and put Murray in charge of Houston Industries to run to fund charities, I did take a financial hit. BUT…" He leaned back in the chair. "What you have to consider is this: I was extremely well off before the split. Granted, afterwards I wasn't raking in the same amount of money that I had been – obviously. Guys, I could have walked away right then and never worked another day in my life and not had a thing in the world to worry about. I also got a very healthy inheritance when Daddy passed away."

Matt took another sip of beer. "I continued on with the detective agency and you probably don't realize it, but I cleared over six million dollars just from it last year." He paused to let that sink in. Both of his friends were frozen, as was Mama. "Now, I've also got the BugBytes deal with Derwin and the sales have skyrocketed. Then there's the games; I've made over twenty million with them so far this year – and we're just starting the third quarter." Vince and Michael looked at each other in amazement.

"Hoyt, do you remember when we met, and you were talking about how I had split up the company and you thought I was crazy?" Hoyt nodded; he couldn't even speak he was so shocked.

"Vince, do you remember when we met and you found out that before I was thirty years old, I was a millionaire?" Matt looked at his friend who was in the same condition as Hoyt.

"Well guys, I don't usually talk about money like this, but since you're making me plead my case, here goes: I'm thirty four years old – and I'm a billionaire." He looked at the two men. "Do you really think that $20,000,000 is going to bother me?" Neither man could say anything for a minute. "Now while you're chewing on that, let me hit you with the details. There are some conditions on the deal. Number one, they have to graduate from high school. Number two, they have to go on to some other kind of school, be it college or cooking school or music school, whatever. The money can be used for tuition, books, rent, whatever they need – but not booze or parties. And they have to graduate from there as well. Then, after they graduate, they can use it for whatever they want. By that time they'll be adults and can do whatever they damn well please."

Neither man said a word. Mama still looked like she was in shock. It remained quiet as a tomb for a minute. Vince looked at Michael. "Damn."

"Yeah, what he said." Michael pointed his thumb at Vince, then shook his head. "I'm not going to tell Anne this until we're face to face – or she's going to think I'm drunk." Matt and CJ burst into laughter.

"Holy cow, Matt; you just dropped a bomb on us." Vince looked across at his friend.

"Now, there's one more thing that I want to say." Matt looked at CJ who nodded. "I've been very lucky in my life, fellas, you know that. And I think of both of you as brothers, I think you know that, too. Right?"

"Yeah." Both men spoke at the same time.

"Alright, I want you to promise me something. No matter what it is, if you guys get in a bind, you come to me and we'll take care of it, okay? No matter how big or small."

"No man, I'm not gonna…" Vince started in.

"Bud, hear me out – both of you." Matt had seen Michael was about to start. "I owe both of you more than you'll ever know. Your friendship is…" Matt was getting a little bit emotional. "It's the best thing that ever happened to me. No, wait, second best, CJ gets dibs on first. Or maybe y'all are third; Catey's gotta be in there somewhere." They all laughed. "Anyway, you see what I mean, right?" His friends nodded. "You're my family, whether you like it or not. And that goes for you too, Mama." He looked over at Vince's mother.

"I never knew my mother. She died an hour after I was born." He started to choke up a little bit. "But I've had two mothers: first Madre Rosa who used to wipe my snotty nose and bust my backside when I needed it, and you." He nodded at Rosa Novelli. "And I do hope you realize that the Rose in Catey's name came from both you and Madre Rosa – I never told you that." Rosa looked shocked and started to cry. "Now don't do that – I don't want to lose my macho image here, Mama." They all laughed.

"Now Uncle Roy, I haven't said anything to you yet. But you know that the same goes for you and Will both. Understand?" Matt looked over at his uncle. "And I want to tell all of you something, that because you are my family, I think you deserve to know. Uncle Roy, you already know it, but I don't think that you know that I know it. God that was complicated." He laughed then looked at CJ who nodded encouragement and kissed him on the cheek.

"Bill Houston was not my biological father." Matt didn't say anything else for a minute, but looked over at Roy whose jaw dropped.

"How did you find out?" His voice was very quiet.

"Well, right before I split up the company, I was going through a rough patch. I was working almost non-stop, between Houston Industries and the detective agency. And this poor lady here," he hugged CJ, "Was putting up with me and my rotten moods." She grinned and ran her fingers through his hair. "I was being a real jerk. I got into a big fight with Murray, Chris, and even CJ – all on the same day." Matt looked down at his wife's wedding ring and back up into her eyes. "Thank God she got right back in my face and told me how big of a jerk I was being." They all laughed again. "And I'm also thankful that she didn't walk out and leave me to my own devices. I would be dead right now and that's not an exaggeration." Matt was completely serious. It got so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop.

"Anyway, you heard about how somebody was following me and how the Cody family was behind an impersonation attempt trying to get some land from me that I was going to give to the state for a park." They all nodded. "And you know that we busted them on it. But you don't know who it was that helped me."

Matt took a big breath. "I was here at the house and had been out on a date with…let's just call her somebody who was a big fraud and who I eventually found out was working for the Codys. When I got back home there was a guy in the den, drinking Bill's bourbon – and he was about half-way sloshed. I came in, grabbed him by the collar and punched him. I demanded to know who he was." Matt looked at Roy who was shocked.

Hoyt's mouth dropped open. "Is that the…" He stopped.

Houston nodded. "We got into a fight. I hit him and he hit the floor, and then he tried to leave and I stopped him – wanting to know who he was. He wouldn't tell me and I pushed him and he hit the floor. And then he stood up and hit me with a wicked right." Matt smiled, though he was obviously upset. "Knocked me on my butt, too. And then he told me that he was my father." He paused for a minute and took a big breath. "He left then, and I thought about it for a while: I had always wondered a few things. Daddy was on the short side and I was tall. He had blue eyes and I had brown. Things that I had wondered about before, but just thought it was a quirk. So, me being a private investigator, I went digging through Bill's papers – and I found the adoption papers." He looked over at Roy and couldn't tell if he was mad or just upset. "Uncle Roy, please don't be mad. Hear me out, okay?" Roy nodded. Rosa reached over to Matt's uncle and held his hand.

"CJ did some digging on him for me and found out that his real name was Virgil Wade Mattlock. He had used the assumed name of Virgil Wade for a while. That day is when I came in to check his record at the station and you and I locked horns." Matt and Hoyt smiled at each other and Matt pointed at Hoyt. "Vince, this man right here put me through hell for a while." They both laughed.

"Matt, I'm sorry. I had no idea that he was your father." Hoyt felt absolutely awful about how he had treated Houston.

"You didn't know and at that point I was still trying to get my head wrapped around it." Matt shook his head. "After that I went to talk to him again and found out the whole story. He had found out that Cody was behind the whole impersonation deal and was planning on killing me after he got what he wanted. Then we talked about why he had given me to Bill. He told me my mother had died when she gave birth to me – that's what he had been told. Now CJ and I found out not too long ago that that wasn't true – she had been in a car accident a month before I was due and went into labor. That much was right. But the injuries from the wreck were what killed her. She died about an hour after I was born, right there in the car." Matt got slightly choked up and CJ gave him a hug and he pulled himself together and went on. "He said that he took me to his best friend, Bill, and swam away in a river of bourbon. He came back about a year later, and I was walking and talking, calling Bill "Daddy". I was Bill's world and he was mine. So he figured I would be better off not even knowing about him."

After another deep breath he continued. "We were on our way to confront Cody and got waylaid by his men; they locked us up in a room and we didn't come to until the next day."

CJ got up and came back, bringing her husband another beer which he gratefully took a big swallow from. "Thanks Babe."

"Well as it turns out, my double looked like me, but he didn't act like me. CJ figured out the minute that he met her at the airport that it wasn't me." He looked at her and grinned. "That afternoon, there was supposed to be a big press conference where the imposter was supposed to announce that Cody and I would be going into business together. We escaped from Cody's place and headed to the girl's house and that's when I found out she was working for the Codys. So we headed back here to the house, but before we got here, some deputies that were on Cody's payroll tried to take us out." Matt got a smile on his face and a faraway look in his eye. "I was driving and he was riding shotgun – literally." He gave a small laugh. "We took out two patrol cars and a helicopter."

"About the time they got started on the press conference, he and I showed up and kind of broke up the party. We confronted Cody and he tucked his tail and ran. But the imposter wasn't going to go so easy. He pulled a gun and fired at me – point blank." Matt took another swallow of beer. "My father stepped in front of me and took a bullet that was meant for me." Everyone was shocked.

"Now I didn't think he was hurt that bad at first. The guy that shot him took off running toward the river." Matt pointed in that direction with the bottle of beer. "My father told me to go get him and I did. Beat the crap out of him too, before the police came and hauled his butt out of the river and I came back up here to the house - the front porch to be exact." He took another drink. "Did you ever wonder why when y'all have been down here, that I never go through the front door?" Matt looked around at his friends and his uncle. "That's because my biological father, Virgil Wade Mattlock died right there on the front steps." No one said a word.

"When I came back up from the river, CJ told me that if he was a friend of mine I better go talk to him – because he was dying. And I did." His eyes filled with tears. "We talked about what a good team we had made, taking out the Codys. And he made me promise," Matt was looking at Roy, "to never let Bill know that I knew the truth. He said it would break his heart." He took another drink of the beer. "And then he died right there in my arms on the front steps." CJ had tears coming down her cheeks as did Mama and the other men weren't far behind.

Vince was completely shocked but managed to find his voice. "And then Bill died about six months later. Damn."

Matt nodded but smiled. "But he never found out that I knew the truth. I made sure of it."

"So you already knew about that when you bailed me out of my financial problems a few months later." Roy looked at his nephew.

"Haven't you always considered me your nephew?" Matt looked into Roy's eyes.

"Yes, you know I have." The older man was visibly upset.

"And you've always been my uncle. It's no different than Vince's boys or Kathy, is it? Or how Vince and Michael are Catey's uncles."

Roy shook his head no, then got up and walked over and hugged both Matt and CJ.

"Now, like I told you earlier, the same deal that I made with these two yahoos goes for you and Will. And if Will should happen to figure out how to have a kid, there will be another trust fund." He grinned at Roy who couldn't help but laugh. "I know that what's been said here today has been, as Vince so eloquently put it, a bomb. But it's been eating at me for a while and now just seemed like a good time to let it go." He hugged CJ closer.

"Houston, I don't know what to say." Vince looked over at his mother. "I guess the best thing would be to say thank you – but you know we have to get this approved by Isabella." He and Matt both laughed.

"And the same goes with Anne. But thanks." Hoyt was absolutely astounded.

"I guess we better go in here and give Rosita a break. She's been taking care of Catey all day long and I'm sure she's ready to go home." Matt stood up and he and CJ walked into the house hand in hand. Everyone else was still sitting at the table, stunned.