10. The Family Is Dysfunctional

Chapter 10

The Family Is Dysfunctional

S abre

"At least she's not taking half of this shit. It's ugly," Grizz said to me as we stood in a bedroom, looking at a small desk that was coming with us. It would go in the truck with the rest of the furniture until Grace made the ultimate move.

"Where would it go? Most of this screams money, and the clubhouse is shabby chic on a good day," I retorted. It took a minute for the thought to sink in, but we both laughed at the comparison. It was true, and I hoped Grace wouldn't have culture shock.

"This should be one of the last pieces up here. Let's take it out and see what else needs to go," I said when the laughter died down.

"You think she's going to make you buy new shit?" Grizz lifted the bottom of his shirt and wiped the sweat from his face and forehead.

"No, but you better be prepared. If Meredith ever ends up moving, that sounds like something she'd do out of spite."

"As long as she's happy and not making my life hell, I'll buy her whatever her little heart wants." Grizz smiled, placing his hands on either side of the desk.

"When you're broke, and she's riding off into the sunset, I am going to remind you of this." I placed my hands on my side of the desk, preparing to lift.

"Face it, Grace. No one wants to raise another man's baby," Matt screamed. He was so loud that we heard him clearly in the bedroom. Not knowing he was here, Grizz and I both walked to the window to look out. From this vantage point, we could only see Matt's car. I had had a feeling Matt would show up today .

"Fuck. Grace is outside," I said to Grizz as I turned and headed for the bedroom door. He was right on my heels as I took the stairs two at a time, slowing down before I rounded the corner. The front door was open, and I took a quick peek. I didn't want to rush out, putting Grace further in danger.

She was walking backwards towards the porch, out of harm's way. Breathing a quick sigh of relief, I nodded at Grizz to follow me. We went out the back door and around the side of the house to the front yard. Matt never saw us coming. He was too busy screaming at Wreck, who just stood there with his arms crossed and his feet planted.

I wrapped my arm around Matt's neck, making sure that I put enough pressure that he knew I wasn't fucking around.

"She's alright, but he put his hands on her, Prez. Shoved her hard in the chest," Wreck told me.

"That true?" I asked him a friendly tone. He didn't need to know that I was picturing his torture.

"She's my wife." Matt was trying to elbow me in the solar plexus, but I had him pinned tight enough that he couldn't move.

"I knew you were a dumb motherfucker," Wreck said to him.

"Come on, Wreck. If he was smart, he wouldn't have shown up here until we were gone," Grizz said from behind me. He had stayed a few feet back in case Matt took off running.

"You fucks are trespassing on my property. She's my wife, and she's carrying my baby, so I don't know who the fuck you think you are."

"See, that's where we disagree," I chimed in, tightening my hold on him. He was coughing from the pressure against his throat. "When you're served the papers tomorrow, do everyone a favor and just sign. They're mine."

Matt laughed in between coughs. "You won't have any use for her. If you think she's going to keep you warm at night, good luck. She's so cold that no one wants her."

I shifted so that I could stare at my brother over Wreck's shoulder. I didn't want Grace to see the level of violence I was going to extend to our unwelcomed guest. Pretty figured out what I wanted and led Grace into the house. Cyph stopped recording from his spot, but he didn't move away from the porch.

Matt had pushed Grace in her chest, so I thought it was only fair that I drive my fist into his. He started to cough and sputter even harder than before.

"Not so tough now, when you're not running your mouth." As he was catching his breath, I hit him again. "You pushed my woman and my baby, and unlike you, I protect what's mine."

He looked like he wanted to say something, but he was too busy trying to breathe. Wreck and Grizz just stood there with their arms folded while I walked to the driver's side of the car and opened the door.

Matt was laying over the top of the hood, so I took a few steps and grabbed him by his neck. Shoving him towards the driver's side, I made sure he ran right into the door.

I turned him around so that he was leaning against the driver's side frame. "This brings me no pleasure, you sick motherfucker." Grabbing him by the balls, I squeezed as hard as I could. Matt's mouth dropped open, but there was no sound escaping. Twisting, I made sure that he'd be pissing funny for a few weeks.

"I don't know what you said to her, but I have my suspicions. Don't worry. I'll fix the damage you've caused when I love on her."

Twisting his balls again, I made sure he understood me. "If I ever see you near her again, I'll cut your dick off and pin it on the wall so that the brothers can throw darts at it. Trust me, Scrub will make sure you stay alive long enough so that you can walk around as the dickless wonder."

I pushed him so that he fell backwards into the driver's seat, hunched over.

"Get the fuck out of here." I slammed the door closed on his knees.

Wreck, Grizz, and I stood in the driveway as we watched Matt leave. Cyph came down from the porch to stand next to Grizz.

"Cyph. "

"Yes, Prez?"

"I want a full background check on Matt. Leave Grace out of it unless it's a marital asset. He's high on something, and it ain't life."

"I caught that, too," Wreck said.

"I want to know how much of his bullshit is going to fall on Grace." With a huge smile, I leaned forward and told him, "You'll also have to clean up these cameras."

"Bitch."

***

Grace

There wasn't much left to do, and we finished soon after Matt left. I wanted nothing more from this house, and I could tell the brothers were ready to close this chapter. We were all in silent agreement.

I'd called my aunt right before we'd finished packing my things to give her a heads up we were coming. She'd told me she'd gone to the grocery store earlier that morning in preparation.

"I was just going to order takeout or maybe pizza," I'd said to her.

"You can't serve them pizza after they spent the whole day lifting and packing. They're grown men, and they need a home-cooked meal. I'll put a roast on. It's no big deal."

By the time the brothers had unloaded my personal things into the pool house, they were back to their normal selves. Pretty, especially, was having a good time ribbing the rest of them. He even asked my aunt if she'd go swimming with him in his boxers. Wreck rolled his eyes.

"I need a pool boy, if you would like the job permanently," my Aunt Elizabeth had joked back. Wreck had stopped in his tracks when he heard that.

"I am too pretty for manual labor," Pretty had retorted .

"No one said you actually had to do anything." I had never heard my aunt tease like that. She'd always been so prim and proper that it shocked me to hear her.

I'd thanked her profusely, and now I was glad that she hadn't listened to me. The entire house smelled like a roast, making my mouth water. My father and Meredith had shown up about an hour ago, and now we were sitting around the dining room table, finishing eating and chatting about nothing.

When there was a lull in the conversation, my father came out swinging with the heavy hitters. "Are you going to tell the rest of us what's happened, Grace?" He cupped his hands together and placed them on the table as he stared at me.

"I left Matt," I answered him. I had hoped that my simple answer would prevent him from interrogating me like one of his legal clients. He didn't have to like my decisions, but I was still his daughter.

"Any reason?" My father wasn't backing down. His face was a calm mask, but his eyes zoomed in on me.

"Yes." I really didn't want to have this conversation now, and I only prayed that the secrets I had kept from Meredith wouldn't come flying to the surface.

"Care to enlighten me?"

"Gerry," my aunt stepped in. "Now isn't the time."

"When's the time, Liz? My youngest daughter calls off her wedding two hours before the ceremony and shows up a month later, dating again. My oldest daughter is now leaving her husband of eight years, pregnant. That baby needs a family."

I should have known this was the mountain my father would die on. When my mother had passed, my father had put his grief first and his parenting second. He thought I was making the same mistake, putting my needs in front of my child's.

"You're acting like you didn't raise them to be independent." My aunt didn't back down. No one else dared to say a word, but our heads pinged back and forth, watching the match across the table.

My aunt wasn't done. "I am ecstatic that Grace has left, and you should be, too. How many times has she shown up in the last few years alone? He's busy. He's working. That's all a bunch of horseshit, and you know it. "

I'd never heard my aunt swear, and I hadn't been sure she even knew those types of words until now. Too bad I wasn't wearing a pair of pearls to clutch. Now seemed like the best time.

"How many times since they were married, have you seen Grace dressed to the nines? Dress, full makeup, and heels? Too many times. She would come here for a family dinner like that. She's pregnant, and I know she's been standing in four-inch heels. He didn't care as long as the presentation was perfect on the outside, Gerry. He didn't give a shit, and we stood by and didn't say a goddamn word. Honey, do you even like all those charity committees and fundraisers?" she asked me.

I shook my head no.

"See?" She went back at my father. "She should run her own for-profit organization. You sent her to school so that she'd never rely on anyone. Yet we allowed him to stifle her. Never again. Never again."

"Since you seem to have opinions, what's wrong with Brandon?" My father wasn't giving up. He was sitting at the dining room table with five bikers, and he was asking about past men. They were uncomfortable, shifting in their chairs and trying to communicate silently with their eyes. I think they were honestly looking for a way to make sure that my sister and I were alright. We just kept looking at each other with our eyes wide open. We'd never seen my father and my aunt argue like this.

"You're kidding, right?" My aunt crinkled her forehead in disbelief.

"No. What was wrong with Brandon?" my father asked.

"He was a mini-Matt, and if you think he wouldn't have done the same thing to Meredith, you're delusional."

"You're delusional if you think they were the same."

I had to stop this, no matter the cost. I couldn't let my father and my aunt rip each other apart over men who were not worth either of their time.

"Mer," I said to her from across the table. Sabre must have known what was coming because I felt his hand on my leg, trying to steer the conversation .

He turned to face my father. "Does it really matter what you think of Matt? Your daughter wants a divorce, and the first thing you should have done was ask her how you could have helped. I didn't see you at the house today."

My father's face turned red, and his fist clenched on the table. I placed my hand on Sabre's leg, patting it. I appreciated the alpha male in him trying to defend me, but I didn't want any trouble. My father could say whatever he wanted, and as long as I didn't have to tell Meredith about Brandon, I'd be okay with it.

"I don't know who the fuck you think you are," my father started. "Matt's a good family man."

Any hope I had that this would end peacefully dissipated into thin air. My father was determined to not let this go until he had torn our family apart.

"Mer," I said to her. "I am so sorry."

She looked at me. Her eyes were even wider, and it reminded me of when she'd been a little kid and hadn't understood the world around her. She'd get the same look on her face, and I'd let her climb into my bed so that I could explain whatever it was she didn't know. Meredith didn't have a clue what was coming, but it wasn't hard to realize it was bad.

"Do you remember when you asked me on the way home why I didn't push you into marriage?" I asked her, but it was a rhetorical question.

"Yes." Her voice came out in a whisper, her hands shaking on the table.

"Please forgive me." My voice was breaking. Sabre let go of my leg and slid his arm around my chair. "I didn't tell you I saw Matt and Brandon spit-roasting Clara. They were having sex in one of the Sunday School classrooms, before the ceremony. Aunt Elizabeth said you were upset when I got to the bridal suite right after, and I didn't think it was important to tell you when you were already calling it off. I am so sorry. I was trying to spare you the pain."

Meredith stared straight ahead. I didn't know if she was in shock or if there was just nothing to say, and then suddenly, tears ran down her cheeks as she sobbed. Grizz tried to hold her, to comfort her, but she sat in her chair, staring straight ahead like a statue.

I wanted to reach out to her and try to make it better, but I was the person who had destroyed it all. Meredith had thought that she'd ended the relationship with Brandon on her terms, and I'd let her believe in the lies by omission. She wasn't free of the emotional turmoil, and now she'd have to grieve it all over again. It would bleed into whatever future she had with Grizz, and I doubted they were strong enough to survive after tonight.

"You've ruined everything. I hate you," she whispered at me. Getting up from the table, she went through the living room to the front door and left. Grizz followed her, but I didn't think he'd be able to get through to her. He had a fight on his hands if he was going to get her to see reason.

"Grace," my dad said.

I would not continue this conversation. I'd already hurt Meredith, and my father would not make me feel guilty for leaving my husband.

"No. I left Matt because he's been cheating on me since the beginning. As I was leaving, he told me he helped conceived this baby on a drunken bender, because that's the only way he could get it up. Is that enough of a reason, Dad?"

I stood up from my seat and collected the dishes from the table. My aunt did the same. No one stopped us.

In the kitchen, my aunt tried to apologize, but I wouldn't accept it. I loved her even more for trying to defend us. It wasn't her fault that this had all fallen to hell quickly.

We dropped the dishes in the sink, and I turned towards my aunt, wrapping my arms around her as best I could. She hugged me back just as tightly.

"I miss my mom," I told her.

"I miss her too, honey. She'd be so proud of you."

"I've made a mess of things," I said.

"No, she would be. You realized that something was wrong, and you're making necessary changes for a better tomorrow." We didn't let go of each other.

My aunt pulled back a bit, so that we were looking at each other.

With a sly smile, she asked me, "Have you told Sabre you're having a boy? "

"He hasn't asked." I shrugged.

"That should tell you everything you need to know about that man."

My smile formed at the corner of my lips. "Are you going to tell my dad that it's finally time?"

Her smile dimmed. "Honey, he's not emotionally available to me."

A heavy silence filled the room as we loaded the dishwasher.

"Do you think Meredith is going to be alright?" I asked her, putting a dish into the rack.

"I don't know, honey. That was quite an unexpected blow. I hope Grizz will get through to her."

"Do you think I should call her?" I didn't know what to do. Calling her didn't seem right, but I didn't want her to suffer in silence.

"No. Let it go for tonight. I'll reach out to her tomorrow once the men are gone. Maybe she'll talk to me." She let out a heavy sigh. "It's times like these. I really miss your mother. She could make anyone talk to her. It was a gift."