Unwanted

41

Ian was signing paychecks when Eli walked into his office without knocking.

"Did you get Anna from Stephanie's?" Ian asked and Eli shook his head no.

"Mom did. That way we can just go over at the house for family dinner. Dad's back from his trip." Eli explained before taking a seat across from his brother.

"I invited someone to dinner," Eli said and Ian removed his eyes from his paperwork and looked at his brother with surprise on his face.

"A woman?" He asked and Eli nodded.

"Not just any woman Ian, Your fucking girlfriend, Amy." Eli explained and Ian's eyes widened. "Yeah, I just figured since you were here all day, you've probably been too busy to call her and invite her yourself. So, I called her."

"Shit," Ian muttered and Elijah nodded.

"Shit is right, because when I called, she started crying because you had broken up with her?" Eli blinked.

"Why was she crying?" Ian frowned.

"Why didn't you mentioned that you had broken up with her?!" Eli questioned.

"Did she not expect me to choose my daughter over her? She was negligent and Annabelle had to go to the hospital because of it. Did she think I was going to be able to trust her after that?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Eli interrupted.

"She's the reason Annabelle choked last week and almost died."

"Oh for fucks sake Ian," Eli let out a sigh. "You blamed that entire thing on Amy?"

"Who else is there to blame? I got the full story from Avery and Amy. She wasn't careful with Anna."

"Because she's not Annabelle's mother!" Eli explained. "You have to stop treating her like she is. You put motherly responsibilities on her and she's not fit to be a mother. Especially a mother of a child that's not hers."

"Why are you defending her? Anyways that is just another reason for me to break up with her." Ian shrugged and Eli raised both eyebrows in surprise at him.

"Do you hear yourself? I'm defending her right now because the person she loved just dropped her like it was no big deal."

"What?" Ian asked and Eli shook his head in disbelief.

Ironically, Elijah thought that Ian was acting like a child.

"You're telling me that if you were coming here with Anna for lunch and you got an important phone call, you wouldn't let Anna walk in by herself to answer the phone?" Elijah asked and Ian nodded.

"Of course I would, everyone here knows Annabelle, they wouldn't let her wander around here lost."

"Oh okay, but Amy doing so is careless?" Eli asked and Ian took in a breath.

Oh.

"And if you were eating and you got a call, you wouldn't leave Annabelle for five minutes to answer the call if it were important?"

"Eli, you don't understand. I need to blame this on someone. If I don't, it'll eat me alive."

"Then you let it eat you alive, Ian." Eli scoffed. "But you don't make someone you supposedly love feel like they almost took your daughter away from you and then dump them without an explanation."