When Sh*t Gets in the Way

by Ines Vieira

  “Are you sure this is wise, mom? The kids getting access to those types of funds at such an early age doesn’t sit well with me,” my father states. His expression is cautious and guarded, but his tone shows exactly how he thinks this idea of my grandparents handing us the key to the castle so early in life, might be our downfall instead.

  “Craig, don’t look so troubled. Your father and I have discussed this at great length, and the decision is final and legalized. It is after all, because of your past mistakes that we took such steps, to begin with.”

  “I don’t understand,” he says genuinely puzzled.

  “Well, the Trust will only be at the kids’ disposal when they turn thirty. Again should they wed before then will they have access to it sooner. This would be the only exception. Trusts for my great grandchildren will also be set up but that is neither here nor there,” my grandmother states patting my grandfather’s hand and signaling him to the globe at his side. Their minds are so intuned with each other, that she doesn’t have to be vocal to ask he pour her glass of brandy for him to be handing it to her a couple of seconds after.

  “That’s ludicrous,” Olivia shouts and everyone now stares at the red-faced woman holding back venom that I see her constantly swallow back down.

  “Why should your grandchildren be treated any differently than your sons? It’s absurd denying them their legacy until they are thirty. They should be able to have the same advantages their fathers’ had at any age. What you’re suggesting is just absurd!”

  “Absurd you say. Ludicrous. Is it really, Olivia?” my grandmother stares right into Olivia’s glacial eyes as she takes a small sip from her glass. My grandmother maintains the same flawless poise as she looks upon Olivia at last.

  “My dear Olivia, I have never done anything ludicrous or absurd in my life. Everything I’ve done has never been impulsive or unsounded in any way. However, from time to time, there have been some errors of judgment from my part where I failed to see danger routed inside my house. I’ve paid dearly for those lapses. Mistakes I wish I could have undone, but alas I hate to spend time reminiscing on past failures. No, Olivia, I’ve always been a big believer at never repeating the same mistakes twice and since only one of my sons was able to hold onto their inheritance, I’m just making sure my grandchildren are afforded the same luxury.”

  Olivia goes pale and my father and mother also grow rigid around me.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, did you think I was unaware of the little agreement you had made ten years ago? If you thought that, then you are the ones who are foolish. Your father and I were perfectly made aware of the contract you made with this conniving devil, Craig. She wears your fortune well, I must say, but still, it should have never reached her hands in the first place,” my grandmother explains and my head is trying hard to catch up to what she’s insinuating.

  “Dad?” I ask, but he refuses to look at me, fixated on his mother’s cold stare.

  “How did you find out?” he asks not hiding his displeasure from the room.

  “Dear child, you think handing offer your whole inheritance to Olivia would escape my attention somehow? Tsk Tsk,” my grandmother taunts. “Every move my children make, I notice. You might have run off to Plymouth of all places, but it’s not too far for your father or me to know exactly what you’ve been up to all these years. No place would ever be far enough.”

  “Dad, what is she talking about?” I ask this time unnerved. I need answers and no one is leaving this room until I get them. My father continues to stare at his dear old mother, while I turn to mine in return, hoping she at least would be more forthcoming. One pleaded look is all Taylor needs to sink into my side and take my hand.

  “Quaid, I don’t want you to give this a second thought. Your grandmother should know better than to bring up such sensitive subjects,” she says giving Gran the evil eye.

  “But she’s not lying either. At the time, we thought it was the only way to protect you. To make sure you lived a normal childhood instead of the ping-pong match Olivia craved. I had my own selfish reasons, I won’t deny it, but the heart of it all was always what was best for you. Leaving the city and distancing ourselves from Olivia and the rest of the family felt like a dream we would never obtain, until the fateful day your father decided that our peace, our way of life was more important than anything that the Stevens legacy could bestow upon him. Once he made that decision, then everything else just fell into place,” Taylor explains all the while holding both my hands in hers. Offering as much comfort as we’re allowed with such an attentive audience.

  I hear my grandfather let out a discontent growl taking my attention away from my mom.

  “What your mother is trying to tell you is they bought your happiness by handing over all they had to your biological mother. In return, she signed on the dotted line that she would not make any contact whatsoever until you were legally an adult. It shouldn’t surprise you how Olivia jumped at the opportunity. Since Craig had married while still in his twenties, he had access to both trusts long before you were born, something Olivia knew very well, yet she still took the money and never looked back. Fully knowing she was walking away with an inheritance that should have gone to you, not her.”

  “Oh please! It’s not as if Quaid was going to go hungry without it. Besides if this is all about inheritance, what about Quaid’s then? Where is his inheritance from his real father?” Olivia spats no longer holding in her temperament. My father straightens his back at this, and immediately my mother removes one of her hands off mine to rest it on his thigh and give it a light squeeze.

  “Craig is his real father, Olivia. Just as I am his real mother. You and Adam were simply the people that procreated Quaid into existence. Nothing else,” my mom scowls at her. Olivia just rolls her eyes at her in response.

  “Don’t test me, Taylor! To be a mother, you need to be a woman first, and your poor excuse of a womb was begging at the chance of taking what was mine,” she yells. My mom flies off the couch ready to slap the smile off Olivia’s face as she sees she touched just the right nerve to piss my mom off. Both my dad and uncle grab her before she can strike the first blow, but the two women are still insulting one another long after both men have them far enough apart for real damage not to occur.

  “You conniving evil bitch! If it wasn’t for my son, I swear I would have rearranged your face years ago!”

  “Oh just try it, Taylor! Show us exactly how low Craig married and how the real reason he left the city was because he could no longer bear everyone’s ridicule. The first born to the Stevens’ empire marries a small town nobody who can’t even give him a rightful heir. No, he needed to buy his little brother’s son instead.”

  “Let me go! Let me at the gold digging tramp! She wants to see what a real woman can do? Give me five minutes, and I’ll show her exactly what a small town girl can do!” my mom screams.

  “ENOUGH!!” I yell above both women. They freeze in place immediately but Olivia is the first to gather her bearings.

  “Quaid baby, I need you to understand how young and foolish I was at the time your father came to me with the offer. I was barely twenty-five years old in the city alone with no college degree to my name or a family that could provide for me. My modeling career didn’t pan out as I had hoped, and I was struggling. The offer felt too promising to turn down. But I always knew when the time came, I would be able to explain myself and we could start fresh,” Olivia coos, as if I’m one of her pathetic boy toys or sugar daddies, that come and do her bidding every time she bats her eyes and uses her soft voice. She forgets I’m neither and those tactics do little to sway me.

  “God, you’re so full of it. Does anyone actually fall for that shit?” I bark at her, enraged she's daring enough to pull her tricks on me.

  “Baby, you’re angry. I understand that, but don’t you see? I’m here to protect you. Something your so-called parents should be doing in my stead. What your grandparents are proposing is insane and if I’m frank, u
njustifiable. Why should you have to wait so long for something that is already yours in the first place? Yes, because Adam’s estate should have gone to you as soon as you became an adult. That’s eighteen in this state and your grandparents have yet to bestow it on you.”

  “And how do you know that?” my father asks still holding my mother back behind him. “You’ve been better informed of Quaid’s estate then I have been apparently. I had no knowledge of this at all,” he continues this time removing his stare from Olivia’s cock-eyed expression and meeting my grandmother’s indomitable one.

  “Well, I guess I’m the culprit of that piece of information. When Olivia came to us pregnant with Quaid, I told her I would not care for her in any way, but I would care for my grandchild. Adam’s own two trusts were also combined and put under Quaid’s name. I might have also mentioned that Quaid would only have access to it once he was of age and not a minute sooner. I thought at the time, this would be enough to dissuade Olivia’s plans. I even planted the seed that both James and I would be willing to adopt the boy and take him off her hands. Unfortunately, she didn’t turn to me as I had planned. No, no. Instead, once the seed was planted, she saw an opportunity I didn’t account for. You and Taylor,” my grandmother quips still unnerved at the idea someone was cleverer than she.

  “But you know this part of the story, all too well.”

  “I don’t,” I state looking my grandmother in the eye craving for her to continue, but it’s my grandfather who hears my plea.

  “Olivia promised Craig and Taylor guardianship of you. All she asked in return was they front the bill of her expenses in order for her to continue her modeling career without having to have the added stress of rent and utility payments. A small gesture of their good faith in return for hers, I believe was what she said. Your parents, seeing a teenaged pregnant girl down on her luck and carrying their nephew no less, came to her aid immediately. Once you were born, her checks kept being signed every month. But greed is a mighty thing. You never know how it will affect you and you never know when it’s going to knock on your door again. Your parents were greedy in wanting to adopt you, and Olivia was greedy to live the life of a 5th Avenue princess. Once she saw a way to obtain her wish, that’s when we came into the picture. Trying to right a wrong that should have never begun in the first place. Your grandmother and I passed a seven-figure check granting both wishes. Adoption papers were signed when you were five and Olivia became a millionaire. Still, she had one more clause to make it all happen. She wanted something we couldn’t give her.”

  “What?” my cousin Petra asks entangled in the novella we’re playing out. Both my cousins are frozen in place watching this badly-produced opera, while my uncle and his companion grow more uncomfortable by the family drama by the minute.

  “She wanted Quaid,” my grandmother answers and it’s the first time I hear exhaustion in her voice. Like she’s fought this battle for too long and the reveal of it is the thing that finally takes her remaining strength away.

  “Taylor doted on Quaid just as much as Quaid thought she hung the very stars and moon at night. She was everything a little boy could ever wish in a mother. She still is, I’d wager,” my grandmother hushes, and we all grow silent at witnessing this miraculous event. My grandmother complimenting anyone is in itself a feat, but for that person to be Taylor Stevens has the whole room grow silent.

  “A bad mother knows when she’s in the presence of a good one. To some women, this can be intimidating, but to others, this can be more of a nuisance. Something that needs to be dealt with accordingly. I don’t think it takes a genius as to how Olivia responded to having her leverage have such a strong bond with a woman that wasn’t her. So, I guess in her own way she tried to outdo Taylor any way she could, but not every woman is meant to be a mother. It takes more than to conceive a child to hold that title, I’m afraid,” my grandmother informs picking up imaginary lint of her immaculate Versace burgundy dress.

  “You were nine when your father came to us to explain he was not only quitting the family business and starting his own, but also to formally advise us that you were moving off to Plymouth. You already spent most of the summers there instead of in the Hamptons with us, so I wasn’t fazed at the location. I was at the timing though. Olivia had also called a few days before your father’s visit saying she was moving to Europe since they were less picky about age when selecting models for their runways and fashion magazines. Yes, the timing did strike me as odd, so your grandfather did his due diligence. And what do you think he found out? Any wager as to what he was able to discover?”

  “That my dad paid Olivia off again,” I mutter feeling defeated in every way possible. Betrayed even by the two people who loved me most. I stand before my grandmother on unsteady feet, yet I don’t want her to keep anything else from me. If she’s come this far, let all of it come out tonight.

  “Oh my sweet child, if Olivia had only gotten a payout, believe you me, we would not be having this conversation. No Quaid, ten years ago Olivia got so much more than a payout. She cleaned your father dry, and he handed it over with a smile on his face. Luckily, Craig was unable to give her his shares of the company. If he tried, both your grandfather and I would be immediately notified and would have stopped the madness he was doing. Still, when we did find out it was already too late and her seven pieces of silver had been already hand delivered and flying over the Atlantic.”

  “Is this true?” I ask my parents who look like they’ve been in a war of their own. My mother is out of breath gaping at the whole scene in front of her, not knowing which fire to put out first, while my father continues to look brazen.

  “To some degree yes, it’s true.”

  “So you bought me?” I ask still apprehensive with the word and even at the idea that such a thing molded my whole upbringing.

  “No!” my mother finally speaks out. “It was never like that, Quaid! We did not buy you at all. We would have adopted you any way we could, but Olivia made the whole process so tangled and full of strings attached. Money was the only thing she was willing to accept. I was the first person to hold you, the first person to kiss your chubby cheeks, to bath you and change a diaper. We loved you the moment we put our eyes on you; there was no way we would live with ourselves if we didn’t do everything in our power to protect you. To keep you close to us. The day she decided to walk away from you completely and let us live our lives without her presence hovering over us, was the first day I was able to breathe again. I hated every time I had to hand you over to her, but we thought at the time, you should be entitled to grow up knowing who your biological mom was. A mistake we are sorry for to this day.” I watch the strain in her eyes, the emotion behind each word and the genuine hope I understand where they were coming from to make such a decision. But right now, my mind is too hectic and running amok to make sense of anything. This room with all its square footage is stifling me, and the air feels as heavy as my tight chest suggests. I need out of here. Now.

  “Are we done? Is there anything else you needed to discuss with us?” I query my grandmother, my voice almost betraying how shattered this night has left me. Sensing my breaking point to be reaching its edge, she nods and waves her hand as if to dismiss me from her presence. On any other day, this might have offended me. Tonight I see it for what it is. No more words are necessary. All has been fully exposed, why stand around and gawk at the ruined pieces it left behind. I walk past my parents, not giving them a second look and I hear my father ordering my mom to let me go. Dad was always the smart one of our little trio. He knew when to bend and when to break. Letting me go to process this whole fiasco is the intelligent thing to do. Trying to hold me back might be just the match that will start this forest fire.

  Olivia though isn’t as smart. She runs to the door and grabs my elbow to try to keep me in place. Her eyes are wide and anxious as she bites her bottom lip with her front teeth in a nervous tic.

  “Quaid, no baby, wait. You can’t leave. You
r grandparents still have to tell you where Adam’s money went to. It’s your birthright, baby. You need to confront them and get what’s owed to you,” Olivia begs.

  “Have you burnt your nest egg already, Olivia? Is this why you suddenly can’t stop calling and wanting so badly to see me? Is this the reason why your maternal instinct kicked in and you so desperately wish to bond as mother and son?” I grunt slapping her hand off my elbow and pushing her away from the door.

  “No need to answer, Olivia. I’ve known the answer since birth what your reply would be. While my blood runs deep red, yours most definitely is a shade greener. We have nothing that connects us, not even blood. So step away and leave my sight. I would rather burn every dollar before you ever got your hands on a dime,” I tell her with all the bitterness and malice I hold in my heart for her, for this moment and for all my acquired knowledge of my past. This night has tainted it even further, and right now all I want is to put as much distance to it and all the people in this room as I can master.

  Being Steven’s born not only comes with its baggage of exclusivity but also with its own price tag. Maybe Olivia is more Stevens then I gave her credit for. Anyone in this family can be bought if the price is right.

  Me included.

  Chapter 30

  Quaid

  “Get dressed. We’ve been summoned,” Jason barks at me throwing one of my school hoodies at my head.

  “I’m starting to hate that word,” I bark back, but most of it is muffled by my pillow. After yesterday’s ordeal, I’ve been face down on my bed trying to erase the last twenty-four hours from my memory. I was getting the knack for it too if Jason would just keep to his room instead of barging into mine every five minutes to make sure I was still breathing.