Every Way (Brush of Love 4)

“I will not apologize to Hailey until she apologizes for some of the things she has said to Michael and me.”

“Then it sounds like this dinner won’t be put on the books,” I said.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?” I asked.

“Why are you isolating us from our grandchild?” she asked.

“Because you insinuated that Hailey would be a bad mother and then threatened to step in and intervene if you didn’t like the way things were going. You threatened to take our child away from us, and if there’s one thing I’m determined to do, it is to not raise my child the way you raised John and me.”

“You make me sound like I am some ... some sort of monster, some witch who abused you and ruined your lives!”

“There were plenty of mistakes made that I intend on correcting as a parent myself,” I said. “That’s all I’m saying.”

“No, what you’re saying is that John’s death is my fault.”

The statement halted my anger in my tracks.

“What?” I asked.

“That’s what you’re saying. You’re saying that the mistakes I made with John led him down the road he took, the road that ultimately killed him.”

“Mom, John died protecting the mother of your grandchild. His own actions to try and save another person got him killed, not your parenting style,” I said.

“Look. Whatever you might think of how I raised you, it will not cause me to apologize. Just because John’s situation ended up the way it did, it does not change anything about what I believe to be a proper and fitting lifestyle for a child. If anything, it reinforces it.”

“How in the world did we jump from you feeling guilty about John’s death to you taking our child away again?” I asked.

“I do not feel guilty about John’s death. His decision to dive into drugs instead of dealing with things the way a man needed to deal with them is what drove him down the road he took. Not the fact that I took away his watercolors. Now, all I am asking is that we sit down as a family and have dinner. This child deserves a proper family to be born into. Our grandchild deserves better than this.”

“Exactly. Which is why we will not be a part of a family dinner or any other familial function until you apologize and learn your place with the mother of your grandchild,” I said.

“My place? Listen here, you ungrateful child. You will not keep me from my grandbaby. I have every right to that child.”

“You have no rights when it comes to that child, first off. And mother, do you realize that all of this has spiraled simply because you refuse to apologize? Two words, minimum! Two words, and a heartfelt look in your eyes. You can’t even admit when you’ve crossed a line. Dorothy, you threatened to take away our—”

“You will not call me by my first name. I am your mother!”

“Then start acting like one,” I said.

The silence on the phone was deafening. I knew there was someone standing outside of my office because I could see the shadow. I was wondering how much of the conversation was overheard as I planted my elbows on my desk.

I didn’t have enough coffee in my system for this conversation.

“I don’t want you calling me until you’re ready to apologize to Hailey,” I said.

“Bryan—”

“No arguments. No bickering. No defense. That’s the bottom line. I’m at work, and the last thing I need to be doing is arguing with my mother over why she won’t apologize when she’s clearly in the wrong,” I said.

“I suggest you think long and hard about the woman you’re about to spend the rest of your life with. The truth of the matter was that she was involved with people who were caught up in drugs. And that says something about her as a person. You need to take a good, hard look in the mirror and figure out if that’s someone you want to be spending the rest of your life with. Children can be co-parented peacefully, but making a marriage work is hard. And pasts always catch up to people. Always. Especially the pasts of those addicted to drugs. If this is the last time we’re going to talk, then at least I’ve said my piece.”

“Are you seriously just now denouncing Hailey as my wife?” I asked. “We’ve got less than two months until this child is born, and you’re resolving yourself to that statement?”

“She was in so deep with these people, Bryan, that your brother felt the need to give his life for her. When the truth of the matter is had she not gotten involved in the first place, John might still be alive.”

“If it wasn’t for her, John would’ve actually overdosed on the street. It was because of her that John cleaned up his act.”