Grey jerked her head back. “W-what?”
“Ever since I got the inheritance money from my grandparents, she has been coming after me trying to get it because she blew through all of hers. This is what she does. Why did you give it to her, and why the fuck would you keep something like this from me? We’re getting married and you’re hiding the fact that you’ve given my mom five thousand dollars of what you’ve earned?”
“She’s been coming to you for money?”
“Yes, Grey, for years. Now tell me—”
“Why didn’t you tell me, Jagger?” she yelled. “That is something I should’ve known—something I should’ve been warned about!”
“You’re really going to start yelling at me when you’ve been hiding the fact that you gave my mom money, and all I did was not tell you that my mom did this kind of shit?”
“Yes! Yes, I am! If you would’ve just told me, none of this would’ve happened! I wouldn’t have gone through this for months—I wouldn’t have had this guilt eating at me!”
“That right there should’ve told you that I needed to know what she was doing!” I yelled back. “I was protecting you; you were keeping something from me that you knew you shouldn’t have kept! Why the fuck did you keep it from me?”
“I had to! You don’t understand, Jagger, she said I couldn’t tell you—I had no choice!”
“You always have a fucking choice, Grey!”
Her eyes looked around wildly as if she could find something to help her explain. “The first time she said she’d been laid off from her job, and that some guy named Mike had taken her car and all her money and left. She said you’d begged her not to date him and that you and Mike had exchanged threats every time you saw each other. Your mom was afraid you’d go after him and get arrested, or give her all your money to help her.”
“What? I don’t know who Mike is, and my mom has never worked a day in her life. She got her money from her parents, and then from all her husbands. But regardless of what she told you, if you thought my mom was in trouble, you should have mentioned it to me!”
Grey flinched back again from the force of my voice, and sat roughly on her ass, her body shaking. I was trying to calm down, but the more she said, the more pissed off I was getting. Only now my anger wasn’t only directed at her. Mom was manipulative, and Grey had never known anything bad about her because I’d kept her from this bullshit, just like I’d kept Charlie from it.
“You don’t get it,” Grey sobbed, her anger quickly fading as some other unreadable emotion covered her face. “It was killing me that I’d kept it from you, but I thought I was helping her and Keith when they needed it—and helping you by not letting you do something stupid when you found out.”
“She doesn’t need anything for Keith, Grey. I buy him everything he needs, I have since I realized the money I was giving her for him wasn’t even going to him.”
“Wait,” she said suddenly, her head jerking back and her eyes pinning me with a stare that was a mix of confusion and doubt. “Why would you give her money and buy things for Keith?”
“Someone had to! He had nothing and Mom wasn’t making an effort to give him what he needed, and I didn’t want Charlie to waste her money on him. Why, if you thought you were helping them and protecting me, wouldn’t you tell me the second time? Or, Christ, the third time at least? How would you feel if I kept something like this from you?”
Grey studied me for a few moments, and I watched as her shoulders sagged in defeat. “There was no sob story the second time she came, she just asked for more money.”
“And you just continued to give it to her?” My voice bounced back at us in the room, and I fisted my hands as I tried to keep it together. Kneeling down beside Grey, I cupped her face in my hands and made her look at me. “Baby, I’m sorry. Right now I’m mad at her, I swear. I hate that you didn’t tell me, but my mom is evil, and I’m the only person to ever have seen that side of her. I hate that she went after you. I hate that she’s been near you. I’m so fucking mad I’m just trying to talk myself out of going to her—”
“You’re not the only one,” she whispered, cutting me off.
“What?”
“I know your mom is evil. I saw it that second and third time. I wasn’t going to give her more money, but like I said, she left me with no choice. She—she had something on you, and was threatening to do something that I knew would kill you if I didn’t pay her, or if I told you.”
Confusion quickly replaced my anger when I realized what she was saying. “What on earth could she possibly have on me?”
Grey lifted a shoulder and shook her head. “When I started walking away from her, she said something along the lines of making sure your kid was going to starve.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I shook my head to clear it—knowing I’d heard her wrong. “What did you just say? What kid?”
Grey just looked up at me with the most pained expression, her eyebrows rising as if to answer me.
“Grey, I don’t understand.”
“Your kid—your son, Jagger.”
Ice flooded my veins and pinned me to the floor. I wasn’t even sure if I was breathing anymore as her words echoed over and over in my mind. It took over a minute before I could say anything. “Excuse me?”
“LeAnn’s son. Your son.” Grey shook her head slowly back and forth before choking out, “Keith is yours, Jag.”