Page 23 of Reuniting with the Rancher

“I’m getting in the fucking car. You either take the win or kill a fucker.”

“Ma’am, get in the front please,” the man, still on the ground, still with a boot over his heart, said.

“You better confess your sins, homie, because either I sit back here or he and I are both going to jail tonight.”

Greyson hit his remote, and she climbed into the backseat. Whoo hoo extended cabs. When he finally got in the truck, she stopped him before he started.

“Don’t say a fucking word.”

11

QUITE THE TEAM

GREYSON

“Oh,my god you two are having sex.”

Their third session that week with the therapist did not go as well as previous sessions. In the time they’d learned the truth, or at least part of it, their three times a week therapy sessions centered on navigating their feelings and breaking the news to Ivy. It was good. Productive. He was hopeful about their future.

Then last night at the bar happened and now, this morning’s session was a fucking disaster with his mother.

Ivy was coming home early because of a measles outbreak at her school, which meant he had to fly his mother out this morning, have her sign Lily’s NDA and start the confrontation now. Ivy was set to arrive later that evening. The slow, intentional build up was now a massive diarrhea slide.

And his mother had somehow sniffed out the one thing they hadn’t disclosed to the therapist.

“Is this true, Grey? Lily?” Dr. Riley asked the two of them, his eyebrows raised.

“Not anymore,” Lily replied.

“Oh my god, no wonder he had to raise Ivy alone. She’s inconsistent!”

“Mom. Enough.” Grey glared at her. He loved his mother, but he was still processing what she did and what it meant for all of them. “Lily and I started a relationship shortly after she arrived at Crystal Fountain.”

“Doesn’t waste any time, does she?”

“You’ve got one more time to say something disrespectful about the mother of my child after what you put her through. This is about Ivy first, Lily and my relationship second, and finding a way forward for you, Ivy and I, Mom. But I swear on everything, you have got to stop this!”

“I’m sorry, a way forward?” Lily sputtered. “With what? An arrest? Medication? In person treatment? I don’t want this woman anywhere near Ivy for the rest of her childhood. If she decides as an adult to engage, I’ll have to respect her decision, but my child is not safe around her!”

“Iraisedyour child while you were off gallivanting, gyrating, and being coked up as ‘LaLa Fair.’ Now that you’ve been humbled,” Mrs. Monroe glanced at Lily’s cane, “NOW you want to be a mother.”

“YOU TOLD ME MY CHILD WAS DEAD! You gave me ashes that I have worn for a decade! Buried my mother, my sister with because what? I wanted to have an at home birth? Grey fell in love with me? This is, clinically, nuts and I can’t do it,” she said, her voice growing hoarse. “YOU manipulated me into signing papers, relieving me of my rights, telling me they were discharge papers. YOU told me Greyson blamed me for our child dying and didn’t want to see me again. YOU continue to lie and manipulate to this day. I do not want you in Ivy’s life. This is a hard boundary. I want my rights back, shared custody, and I want to know who the hell is buried with my mother?!”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. It’s Greyson’s father Douglas. He’d be thrilled to be buried with a Black woman Greyson takes after him.”

Well, that took a hard left into what the fuck.

“Mrs. Monroe,” Dr. Riley interrupted, “if you have any hope of continuing a relationship with your son and maybe your granddaughter, there are some difficult things you must confront. Dr. Belmont wants answers to reasonable questions.”

“DoctorBelmont was practically a teen, starting a family on childish whims like her sister. Ivy suffered for those decisions. She was a poor, sick little thing and Greyson he was beside himself. He had a bright future ahead of him and my little boy was now saddled with a sick baby and a fiancé who couldn’t properly care for her. Their breakup was bound to happen. I was being a good mom, saving my son the heartache and legal issues in the future. I always wanted a little girl, and I was happy to step in and help Greyson raise her. We are quite a team.”

His mother tucked her graying hair behind her ear, satisfied that she’d given a perfectly normal answer.

“Yep. That’ll do it,” Lily said, leaving without looking back.

LILY

She paced back and forth in the living room, her heart racing as she cracked her knuckles. The air was on full blast, but she was sweating like she was Grey’s daddy at Essence Fest.

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