Millionaire Crush (Freeman Brothers 3)

“What are you doing here, Grant?” I asked.

He looked at me strangely, like he didn’t understand what I was asking him, then said something. The crowd was so loud, I couldn’t make out everything he said. I caught “mother” and “lawyer,” which instantly put me on guard. Now was not the time for him to start screaming out our business to everybody in the bar. These people didn’t know who Grant was or that I had a little boy I was fighting to raise. And though it was none of their business, I still didn’t want it broadcast this way.

I stomped toward the other side of the bar, gesturing for him to follow me. There was a quieter corner where the music wasn’t as loud, and I had a better chance of hearing him. There was no way in hell I would take him to my quiet office where I would be alone with him without witnesses.

“Don’t be mad at my mother for what she did,” Grant said as soon as he got in front of me.

I stared at him incredulously. “Seriously? Are you genuinely coming here to my place of business to instruct me on how to feel about a woman coming to my home and screaming at me about what an awful person she thinks I am and how unfit I am to raise my son?”

“She was upset,” Grant said like that excused everything she possibly could have done.

“She was upset? You’re concerned about your mother being upset? How about me being upset that I had just gone to sleep and got woken up by someone pounding on the door so hard it sounded like my house was coming down around me?”

Grant scoffed. “Don’t be so dramatic. My mother is a refined woman. She’s never behaved that way in her life. I doubt she would be able to pound that hard on a door if she tried.”

“Then you are gravely mistaken about how well you know your mother. You can speak to any number of my neighbors who she also woke up and terrified. Go ahead and talk to the police who took the reports from all of them and me. They’ll let you know what she was completely out of control and disrupting the entire neighborhood,” I said.

I glanced over and noticed Nick and Quentin had followed me and Grant over to the end of the bar. Both still had their phones propped up. It looked like Nick was taking pictures while Quentin was both recording the confrontation and was primed and ready to jump in something happened.

“Calling the police was a complete overreaction. You have to admit that,” Grant said.

“Actually, no I don’t. You know what’s a fantastic thing about you and me no longer being in a relationship? You don’t have any say in what I do or don’t do. That includes what I think, what I say, and how I handle myself.”

For a second, it looked like Grant was going to explode. Then he drew in a long, deep breath through his nose and let it out slowly. Taking a second to let his shoulders relax, he stepped closer to the bar and leaned closer to me. “Lindsey, listen to me. My mother was very upset yesterday. That doesn’t mean what she did was polite or the appropriate way to react. But try to see it from her perspective.”

“Try to see what from her perspective, Grant? That you are trying to take my child completely out of my life and I’m not going to let it happen?” I asked.

“She has been with Remy since he was born. He is the most important thing in her life. She wants to make sure he has the best life he possibly can, and we are the ones who can provide that for him,” Grant said. He was using the same soft, manipulative tone he used the first time he convinced me to give him custody of my son. “When she found out that was being threatened, she was hurt and worried. It made her react very strongly. As a woman, you must be able to understand where she was coming from.”

“Remy is not her child. He has never been her child and never will be. She does not have the right to be a part of his upbringing as any more than a grandmother he visits. Money isn’t everything, Grant. You are so used to your family throwing money at everything and getting their way for it that you can’t possibly understand there is more to life.”

“This isn’t about money,” Grant said.

“Of course it is. It always is with your family. That’s why every time your mother sees me, she has something to say about my job, my finances, my appearance. It’s all that matters. And I don’t want Remy growing up thinking you can boil people down to their net worth. This is about her thinking she has some right over my child because she believes she’s better since she has money. That will never fly, Grant. Especially after the stunt she pulled this morning. That’s why I’m sharing the entire incident with my lawyer.”