“Stop using that as leverage,” I warned. The anger made my voice rough and gravelly, but I didn’t try to change it. “I’m not even going to begin to entertain that suggestion. You better come up with something else.”
Grant scoffed. “If you’re going to be unreasonable, fine. What do you suggest?”
He said it like a dare, as if he didn’t think I would actually be able to come up with an arrangement. Or that I wouldn’t have the guts to say it. Grant had an extremely elevated view of himself and an even more exalting view of his parents. To him, they could do no wrong. Every word out of their mouth was absolute gospel, and every opinion should be hung on and honored. Nobody else and no other thought mattered compared to them.
I knew it from the beginning. It was why I never should have dated him. Even in the earliest days when I thought things could be good between us, I felt the resistance. After the very first time I met them, I knew his hyper-waspy family would never accept me. They would never look at me as anything but an ill-advised fling their son got himself wrapped up in and would get over. There was never a question as to whether they would try to get to know me or put any value in me or our relationship. They would never see me as good enough.
But I never thought they would all but force me to give up my son.
“I’m not going to have someone watching me spend time with my son. He is my child, and I have never done anything to hurt him.”
“That’s up for interpretation,” Grant said.
The words might as well have come out of his father’s mouth.
“No, it’s not. Supervised visits are off the table. And so is meeting at your house. I’m not going to be treated like a guest or a visitor in his life. I will pick Remy up and we will spend time together, without supervision, wherever I see fit. And I want him twice a week.”
“You’re being unreasonable. You can’t expect my parents and me to just disrupt his life like that so suddenly.”
“Your parents don’t have anything to do with this. Remy is our child. He doesn’t belong to them, and they have no right to give their input into the way he is raised. Especially not when it comes to when and how I spend time with him. They are not his parents. I am.”
We continued to argue. The longer the conversation went, the more my stomach twisted and churned. I had to get out of bed and pace through the bedroom to get rid of the anxious energy building up inside me. But I wasn’t going to back down. Nothing was going to make me accept him cutting me out of my child’s life and making it impossible for us to have a relationship.
It took another hour, but finally the call ended, and I dropped the phone to the bed. We had come up with an acceptable new visiting arrangement, but I didn’t feel better. I didn’t put it past Grant to have tricks up his sleeve and other ways he was going to try to make my life as miserable as possible while using my son as a weapon.
I considered my options. But I didn’t really have many. Nick was the only person who came to mind, and I sent him a text. His response was a relief. I needed someone by my side, and he was really all I had.3VinceWork at the Freeman Racing compound was getting a bit odd. All the changes going on in my brothers’ lives were getting in the way of our usual routine and making it harder to focus on what needed to be done. We were supposed to be on the compound making sure the racing bikes were in their best condition, putting the riders through practices to enhance their skills, and building marketing campaigns. But somehow things like baby shower favors and wedding colors kept drifting into perfectly normal activities.
Quentin’s wedding was so easy on all of us. After the announcement of Merry’s pregnancy, we all knew it was only a matter of time before they were going to get married. Quentin was head over heels for her. I’d never seen him so happy or so sure of anything. He would have done anything she wanted when it came to the wedding. As elaborate and dramatic as she wanted it, he would have figured out how to make it happen. And he had the resources to do it for her.
But Merry didn’t want that. She wanted to be married to Quentin and create a family for the baby they were expecting. That’s all that mattered to her. Not the pomp and circumstance. Not the attention that came with being a glowing bride. All that was important to her was being able to finally call Quentin her husband.