Bound To Fall

It Was Meant To Be Between Our Children

Sterling

"What the hell do you mean this is your fault?" I gritted my teeth as I tried to hold back my anger.

"It happened years ago, when Constance was still alive." My grandfather sighed as he began to explain himself. "Wilson and I met around the time I started Tipton Enterprises and he started his practice."

"We don't need all the details of your back story." My father seemed about as impatient as I was. "Get to the point."

"Patience." My grandfather shot my dad a warning glance before continuing on. "The thing is Wilson and I are both the main reasons for the wealth of our own families. As we got more and more involved in the world of the wealthy and the elite we noticed a pattern."

"Which is?" I gripped the armrest of the chair.

"They all set up arranged marriages for their children." He bowed his head in shame for a moment before looking back at my father and I. "Wilson and I agreed that since we both started out the same way that it would be best if our families chose to join together one day."

"Most arranged marriages are between your children, not your grandchildren." My father made it known in his tone he was not pleased right now. "What the hell does this have to do with my son? My son that you have never had any guardianship over."

"It was meant to be between our children." My grandfather focused more on my dad. "The only ones in the same age range were Ava and Wilson's youngest son Elliot, Elise's father. However, that all fell apart when we found out she was pregnant with Justin."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" My father's voice began to raise. "Even now that bitch is messing with others' lives!"

"She didn't do it on purpose." My grandfather responded. "She didn't even know about it Damon."

"Are you sure?" My father was holding back but it wasn't going to last much longer, his sister has always been a touchy subject. "Because if I'm being honest getting pregnant to get out of an arranged marriage seems like the exact thing Ava would do."

"She never knew." My grandfather seemed so sure of his answer. "It's something only your mother and I knew about, no one else until now."

"If the plan was for Ava and Elliot, how have I gotten involved in this?" I questioned further, there was still a lot of explaining to do.

"Well after that didn't work out, the plan had to change. Your father was too young to marry any of Wilson's children. He could've been paired up with Wilson's oldest granddaughter but we figured it was a better fit if our grandchildren were the ones who joined the two families together." I could see the regret on his face as he looked at me.

"Did you learn nothing from Melissa?!" My father's anger was coming in full force now. "After all these years are you still the same man who I cut myself off from?!"

"No!" My grandfather's voice filled the room. I could tell on his face he wasn't thrilled by how my father was reacting to all of this.

 I took a silent deep breath in and let it out. I suppressed my feelings the best I could right now. I knew if all of us ended up angry at one another we would get no answers. We also wouldn't be able to come up with any plan to help get us out of this situation.

"Please go on." I made sure my tone was calm with him.

"First of all, I didn't know I had a grandson for years." My grandfather's voice was lower now. "When I did learn about you Sterling, so many years had gone by that I figured Wilson Tunt had forgotten about the deal we made."

"Apparently not because here we are." My father scoffed in annoyance.

I shot him a warning glance and then looked back at my grandfather. "Did you know who Elise was when I got involved with her?"

I felt like I already knew the answer. If he's been aware of the Tunt family all along there was no way he didn't know this deal he had made was falling into place. The real question was why didn't he say anything?

"I did." My grandfather answered. "With the way you two seemed in the beginning I thought that maybe, just maybe, it was a coincidence. You seemed to like her a lot and I didn't want to bring it up and ruin your happiness."

"And after seeing how things have unfolded do you still stand by that decision?" I folded my arms across my chest.

"No." He shook his head.

"Then why not tell me when you realized things were going south between Elise and I?" My father had the audacity to step in, I wanted to know what held my grandfather back from saying anything.

"I didn't want to meddle." He answered. "I felt like it wasn't my place to bring it up and involve myself in your relationship."

"Great looking out for the grandson you claim to care so much about." My father's voice remained lower but he's still clearly pissed off. "Thank god he has me to help him see the goddamn light or he would've been stuck miserable with that witch because of a fucking deal that you made."

"I shouldn't have done it." My grandfather's remorse was clear. "It was wrong of me and I can admit that. If I knew it would turn into all of this I would've never even entertained the idea."

I stood up from my seat. "I need some air."

I stormed out of the study and headed downstairs. From the sounds of it my grandfather didn't intend for me to be stuck in this. However, it still didn't stop me from feeling frustrated and angry about the fact I was roped into some fucked up deal.

I exited the house and shut the door behind me. I leaned against the mansion walls as I took in deep breath after deep breath. I needed to calm myself down because at this point I could feel myself getting ready to blow.

A few moments passed and the door to the mansion opened. Both my father and grandfather came outside.

"Sterling." My grandfather spoke sincerely. "I'm so sorry this has turned out this way. I'll do my best to try to help the situation the best that I can."

I looked between him and my father. I still felt too worked up to talk about this further. I needed to get away from here. I needed to just have a moment where I could clearly think about this, maybe even get Isabelle's opinion.

I looked away from my grandfather and over to my dad. "I'm going to need some time to process this, but for now I think I'd like to go."