Ronnie
Manuel, my father and a whole group of people arrive first thing this morning. My current cases have been handed over to another associate to cover for me until this is over. I tell them I'm able to handle my workload, but they advise me that I need to concentrate on this fully.
Monday afternoon, a letter arrives by messenger for me. I open it and of course it's from Griffin:
Ronnie,
You're looking good and I have a cute daughter. You can keep her if you stop the order of child support and pay me a hundred-thousand dollars. Bring it to me before the court date and I'll drop it. If not, see you in court.
Amy's father
He knows her name? He must have been looking for me longer than the time that I've seen him. I hand the letter to Manuel and my father intercepts it. I snatch it back from him and hand it to Manuel.
"Ronnie--" He starts.
"No. I still don't want to have anything to do with you. The only reason you are here is because Manuel says 'the more the merrier'. He actually thinks you can help. It can be done without you speaking to me. So show me you actually want to help without expecting anything in return from me and maybe I'll think about speaking with you again."
I spin around in the other direction and go to Tyler who is waiting for me. He pulls me in his arms when I reach him. Frankie and my brothers burst inside of the door, "Why didn't you tell us what's going on?" Cameron asks as he approaches.
"I'm sorry. Everything happened so fast, I didn't have enough time to call you. How did you find out?" I ask.
"Grandpa called to see how you were doing," Frankie's hand is rubbing my back above Tyler's hand around my waist.
I turn around so my back is to Tyler's front, "I'm sorry I didn't call you all. It's been a rough night. Griffin just sent me a letter saying he'll drop it if I pay him a hundred grand and stop taking child support. I'm willing to pay because I don't want him in my life anymore.
Frankie tucks my hair behind my ear and puts her fingertips gently on my cheeks, "No one here will let him anywhere near you or Amy. I'm sure they'll have this taken care of in the next week. Everything will be just fine." I smile and give my sister a hug. I'm glad I have her here to lean on also.
I look around at my support system. You would think as large as my family is, we would have each other's back when things like this happens, but I'm quite sure if this happened before I graduated from college, I wouldn't have had this support. I would have had to call our grandfather's to help. I know that I owe a lot of this to Frankie.
It's funny that her arrival in our lives completed our family in ways that's indescribable. Our grandfathers love her so much and in return have learned to love their grandchildren again. With their support, we are able to do what we need to do. Then our parents are trying to piggyback off of us, though not successfully. Eventually, when they figure it out, it will work for them, if it's not too late.
The bottom of the letter has an address on it where I'm supposed to bring the money. I'm ready to go to the bank and get it out, because I just want this to be over.
"Since we have a month before the court date, just give us a week to figure this out, okay?" Manuel requests. I nod, giving him time.
I try to concentrate on other things, but this stays in the forefront of my mind. I can't lose my baby. Especially to him. I know I loved him, but I also know what he did was wrong. It took me a while to figure that out with some secret visits with a psychologist. One of my friends in high school suggested that I visit one when she saw that I was suffering from what happened. I asked my parents if I could see one and they told me that no one in our family has ever needed therapy and it wouldn't start with me.
I kept looking until I found one that would see me without my parent's permission. I was able to talk about my feelings freely and without judgement. She helped me to see that what happened with Griffin wasn't my fault, but his. He was the grown up who was supposed to be responsible in his relationships. As time went on, I was able to deal with my situation better. When Amy was born, I was able to love and cherish her without the bitterness that would have otherwise been associated with her birth.
I will always be grateful to Dr. Sun. Yep. That's her name. When my inheritance was signed over to me, I made sure to send her a nice check. I also had her put on the top of the list for a referral doctor for our firm. She helps people all around the area. We even sent her to Florida once to help someone. She has a gift and I love that she uses it to help people.
So I don't hear surprise in her voice when she hears that it's me on the other line, "It's so nice to hear from you Ronnie. How can I help you?"
I explain what's going on and she talks me through it with that calming demeanor of hers. When we get off of the phone a couple of hours later, I feel a lot better. She helps me to come up with a plan of action to be proactive and to relax. She reminds me I have the country's best lawyers on my case and they are working on it twenty-four seven until they figure it out. By the time Frankie brings the girls in from school, I'm almost completely relaxed and we're able to have normal family time.
By Friday, Manuel and my father has come up with a plan for Griffin. They won't tell me what it entails until after they successfully get him off of my back. I inform them that I don't want any more child support from him, I just want him out of our lives forever and a guarantee it'll stay that way. They promise me that will happen.
Frankie and my brothers take the girls for the day on the day that they go to meet him. My guys make sure that I'm occupied so I'm not dwelling on the situation while they are gone. They plan my day from the moment that I wake up.
They start my day with breakfast at some out of the way bistro. It's amazing and we talk about my birthday that's coming up in May. They ask me what I want to do and I tell them to surprise me. I don't really care what we do for my birthday, just as long as I get to spend it with them and my girls.
After breakfast, they take me to the art museum and we take our time walking around looking at the art, reading the descriptions and discussing each piece. It was interesting and calmed my mind some.
They then took me to see Fifty Shades Darker. I spend the two hours enjoying the highlights of the book. I squirm in my seat some because a few of the scenes were kind of hot. I look at my guys and they are glancing at me in amusement.
By the time we head back home, I've receive a text from Manuel advising they are back. We hurry the rest of the way home and inside so they can tell me what happened.
Manuel greets me with a smile on his face. I feel some relief but still want to know what happened so I can relax the rest of the way. He sits me down and begins his explanation, "We knock on his door and he takes one look at me and says, 'I only told her to come so the deal is off'. I advised him that it was in his best interest to let us in and talk to us, so he opened the door and let us in."
The smile on his face gets bigger as he continues, "I spread out the papers on the table for him and tell him to sign them. He asks, 'Where's my money?' I told him there wasn't any and again it would be in his best interest to sign the papers and leave you alone."
"He stands up and goes to show us out when I say the one thing that stops him in his tracks, 'Statute of Limitations'.
"He tells us that he looked up the statute of limitations and it's up in California. His lawyer also confirmed it. I kindly explain to him that the crime was done in New York and the statute of limitations for New York is ten years after the child turns eighteen and also explained to him that the statute of limitations in every state stops when the perpetrator leaves the state and starts back up when they come back."
"Then I follow up by telling him that even though four years of the statute is up, he's been in California for two of them and Maine for the other two so he'll have the full ten years, when he decides to return to New York before it's up."
Manuel leans back in his seat with a self-satisfied smile on his face and my father continues for them, "When he sits back down, I tell him that if he doesn't sign the papers, we'll have him arrested, extradited and we'll find every little girl that he has ever done this to and make him pay for it. I told him that he'll spend the rest of his life in jail if he doesn't sign the papers." He hands the signed papers to me. I peruse them as he tells me, "I had him sign papers giving up all parental rights, and papers saying that he will never bother you again. After he signed, I gave him the good news that he's off the hook for child support."
I take a closer look at the papers and they all say exactly what I was told they say. I look up at both of them, "Thank you all so much. I don't know what I would have done without you."
"It was our pleasure. Anytime," Manuel leans back in his seat satisfied and my father nods.
"You've gone a long way into getting back into my good graces," I tell my father. His smile gets bigger.
"Our work here is done. We'll be going now," My father moves to stand up.
Tyler strolls into the living room, "I've been making a celebratory dinner. Would you two like to stay and have dinner before you leave?"
"Yes." My father eagerly answers. Manuel nods.
"It's ready. Come on into the dining room," he invites everyone.
Frankie and the guys arrive just in time with the girls. We have a wonderful celebratory dinner. I was able to talk to my father for a little while and we'll see what the future holds. Before they leave, I see Dylan and my father in the corner talking. Rather Dylan is urgently talking to my father as he listens. No doubt he's warning him that this is their last chance. I love my brother.
Greyson
Everyone finally leaves and our heart looks more relaxed than she has since Griffin started this nonsense. We spend the evening playing games with the girls until it's their bedtime. We go to our bedroom and Get ready for bed ourselves.
"Are you feeling better?" Tyler is rubbing her feet.
"I do. I'm glad this is over. I'm sorry my child has to suffer because her father's an idiot. I know I've been lucky so far, because she hasn't asked about him, but I know she's going to ask one day." She rolls her eyes, "I'm going to have to tell her the truth." I can see the tears forming in her eyes.
"It'll be just fine. She has us here and your brothers. She doesn't need to ask about him, because she has such good role models in them and now us hopefully," Solomon leans forward and kisses her on the cheek. Tyler and I agree with him.
"She has his eyes. I didn't realize it until I saw him the other night," her lips turn down at the corners.
"But she's still one hundred percent you everywhere else. She looks like a miniature version of you," Tyler says, "And both of you are beautiful."
She smiles at all of us, "Thank you all for being here. I love you so much."
As we tell her we love her back, I take her hand and put it on my heart, because she owns all of it.