AN: I'm sorry again for the long wait in updating this story. I know quite a few of you have been waiting, so my apologies again. We pick right up at Tommy getting busted. LOL. Enjoy!
Father and son were seated at the breakfast nook with the previously assigned weapon sitting nonthreateningly atop of the table.
"Dad, I'm sorry." Tommy hung his head in shame with tears in his eyes after the initial shock of being caught with his hand in the cookie jar had worn off.
Fitz was both relieved and shock to see that the intruder was Tommy and not a burglar. But for the most part he was relieved.
"If you were hungry why didn't you come get me or your mom?" Fitz asked, wondering why he was apologizing for being hungry and needing a snack. He disapprove of the Oreo he chose for a snack, but he wasn't going to rain fire and brimstones on him for it.
Tommy's tears fell freely from his eyes from his father's question. If he was cunning enough he would've rode on his father's trust in him and agreed that he was hungry but he couldn't do it because they'd raised him better than that, so he came clean. Through sobbing, he said, "I wasn't hungry…. I like Oreos… And…. and… I want to eat…eat them all the time."
"Do you come downstairs to eat Oreo often?" Fitz immediately questioned, realizing that there was more to the occurrence than he'd initially believed.
Tommy nodded his head yes.
"How often?" He shot him another question.
He shrugged his small shoulders. "I don't know. Sometimes Iya gets it."
At his confession Fitz' eyes widened even further; he couldn't believe that not only one, but two of his children were sneaking snacks behind his back. "Your sister is involved too?"
Tommy gulped and nodded his head again. He was going to pay for that later.
"Wow. I don't know what to say right now. I'm in shock." Tommy looked up then at his father and met his cool eyes.
"You know what you did is wrong, right?" He asked the little boy and he nodded his agreement. "What is wrong about it?" he probed.
He sniffled through his nose before answering, "going behind you and mom's back."
"Exactly… your mom and I do not appreciate when people go behind our backs. We appreciate transparency in our relationships, where we can trust people and not have to worry about what they might do when we're not looking. That's the kind of relationship we have or thought we have with you and your sister. Can you not approach us if you need something?" Fitz stopped talking, even though he was surprised by his son's act he spoke to him in a calm voice with patience and love. His wife called these moments "teaching moments" whenever one of their children messed up. It was important that they learned a valuable lesson.
Tommy knew that he could approach his parents if he needed anything. That was abundantly clear to him.
"Yes, dad," he answered.
"So your behavior has no excuse. In the morning your mom and I will sit you and your sister down but for now…" He trailed, getting up to his feet. He walked over to the refrigerator and took out the box of vanilla flavored almond milk and grabbed two 8oz-sized glasses from the cupboard and carried it to the nook. He poured some milk into each glass before setting the box down.
Tommy looked on in curiosity.
"Here," Fitz slid a glass in front of him and then grabbed the packet of six Oreos from in front of him. "Tonight you'll get a pass because it will be a long… time again before you eat these again." He wiggled the packet at him.
Tommy grinned and accepted his offering. He soaked one of the cookies into the milk and took a small bite at it and smiled when his father mirrored his action.
"These are pretty good. I forgot how good these can actually be," Fitz mumbled through his bite.
"See…" Tommy laughed.
"Still doesn't excuse you for sneaking down here at night," his father quipped.
"I won't do it again, dad, I promise," Tommy quickly returned, making a cross over his heart.
"Good. That's what I want to hear. Now go grab another pack of Oreo. "
Tommy elated by this request quickly scooted back in his chair and advanced towards the pantry. Even though his supply of Oreo will be caught off in the future he reveled in the moment's victory. He was eating his favorite snack with his favorite guy.
And even though Fitz had plans to play his piano he much rather spend his time with his little guy, teaching him, loving him and yes, even disciplining him. And somehow the present reminder of his own family made his heart a little lighter at the thought of his parents moving away. He was going to be more than all right because he had his own family.
The next morning at the brink of dawn, Tommy rushed over to his sister's room before their parents and nanny came to wake them.
"Go away," Iya mumbled at his annoyance. He was currently tapping her shoulder to get her attention.
"Iya wake up! I have to tell you something."
"Ughhhh!" She groaned; she was so not a morning person. Sitting up roughly with the comforter around her waist, she exclaimed, "What Tommy? What!"
"Dad knows we've been sneaking up snacks. He caught me last night and I told him that you did too."
"What! I can't believe you sold me out!" Iya was angry. She couldn't believe that after all of the things she did for him he would sell her out.
"I'm sorry. I had no choice," he pouted. Tommy was a sensitive soul, so seeing his sister angry with him wasn't pleasant.
"Get out of my room, Tommy. I don't want to talk to you. Now you're going to make me get grounded."
"Iya… no."
"Don't Iya me. I told you I was done!" She angrily folded her arms around her midsection.
"Dad wasn't too mad, he's not going to ground us," he tried to assuage her worry.
Iya huffed she didn't believe him.
"You better hope so or else I'm not talking to you."
All throughout breakfast the kids were surprised that neither of their parents brought up the snacks sneaking situation. It was a little too good to be true so they were on edge all morning. By the time they were heading through the front door for school they thought they were in the clear; that was until they were giving their mom good-bye hugs and she whispered, "we'll discuss what you did when you get home from school this afternoon." With forlorn faces they gulped and followed Mr. Huck to the awaiting SUV.
"I'm not talking to you," said Iya when they were safely buckled into the backseat of the SUV.
"You can't do that," Tommy cried but she didn't respond to him, but instead turned her back towards him.
Huck looked at them through the rearview mirror and shook his head. They were heading for a long day.
Back at the house, Olivia grabbed a giant sized garbage bag and was dumping all of the candies, cookies and other confectionaries into it.
"I can't believe they've been snooping behind our backs. That's the part that doesn't settle well with me. The fact that this has been going on for quite sometime, who knows what else they are doing?"
Fitz sat at the breakfast nook with Amia nestled in his arms while listening to his wife rant. He knew that she would've overanalyzed what he'd discovered and even thought to keep it a secret, but he knew better than that. That would've made things worst if he hadn't told her.
"Liv… kids do stuff like this all the time. It is just cookies; it's not like they're running a mass murder operation behind our backs. The poor thing was scared out his mind when I caught him."
Olivia huffed, tying a knot on the bag that held the sweets. "I won't stand for it. As small as it may be I won't…"
Great… Fitz internally sighed. "So what's our recourse of action?"
"No sweets for awhile and two weeks of no TV, Gameboy or none of that stuffs."
"How about no sweets for awhile and ground for one week?"
She mulled it over in her mind and eventually agreed to the one week. They balanced each other out, where she can be too strict he can be too lenient, so they meet each other in the middle for a perfect balance.
For the next few minutes, Olivia continued rifling through the kitchen for sweets before storing the bag away and the trio retreated from the room.
"So what are you and Mia doing today?" Fitz asked, walking upstairs with his wife and daughter. They were returning to the master bedroom.
"Absolutely nothing. I'm tired," Olivia yawned for good measure, holding onto the tail of his shirt while walking beside him.
"Mia draining you?" He asked, kissing the plump cheek of his infant who was lying contentedly in his arms.
"Not everything is Mia, you know? I have to deal with you and your two sneaky kids." Olivia said playfully.
"Wha…what… Me and my two sneaky kids? I love that when they're acting up they're mine but when they're angelic they're yours."
"What can I say, their momma is an angel. Isn't that right, smuckums?" She touched Mia's soft foot bottom and tickled her, on cue Mia gurgled.
Laughing, Olivia said, "I think this one might be on my side. Sam said she looks a lot like me."
"We'll see. These Grants genes are strong baby," Fitz returned and Olivia rolled her yes.
When they'd arrived in the master bedroom Fitz' cellphone was ringing incessantly. He gently handed Mia over to her mother before retrieving his cellphone that was connected to the charger on the nightstand on his side of the bed.
"Hello," he greeted authoritatively.
Olivia was seated on the bed with a hungry Mia latched onto her right breast while listening to his end of the conversation.
"What! ... She can't do that! She signed a contract… This is not good…. I'll fly out there… What else can we do? … Have you spoken to her manager? …. No, no… That's not necessary…. I'll have to fly out myself… okay… I'll talk to you later… Ok, bye."
At the mention of flying Olivia's attention was completely piqued. Where was he flying to and for how long? She mentally questioned.
By the time the call had ended Olivia watched as her husband's previously relaxed Fitz was contorted with annoyance.
"What's wrong?" she immediately asked.
"Rihanna is backing out of her contract to produce with us. I have to fly to California and try to persuade her not too. She already signed with us." He explained, running both his hands through his hair.
"Oh no… And her manager can't talk her back into it? Why would she backpedal when she agreed to work with you? Don't make sense to me." Olivia shook her head, angry on her husband's behalf.
"I don't know either. The studio price was fair so I have no idea what went wrong in the space of two weeks. Fuck…" he muttered the last part underneath his breath. He was riding on this contract to launch him bigger for his producing career. He'd had some fairly big artist but working with Rihanna would be bigger than the people he'd produced music for in the past. He needed this.
"I'm going to have to go to the West Coast."
"For how long?" Olivia asked, somberly.
"I don't know, maybe for two days. Shouldn't be more than five days, though. I'm sorry this is last minute but I need her to stick with the contract."
"I understand." Olivia muttered, already feeling anxious that she would be left alone with their three kids for the first time. Since it was Friday Mama Awa was relieved of her duties for the weekend starting at noon. She was used to them doing a lot of things together especially when it came to the kids.
"You sure?" He searched her eyes for doubts.
"You gotta do what you have to, right? It'll just be a few days," she gave him a small smile.
Bending down he pecked her on the lips before saying, "thanks babe. I'll be back before you know it." He smoothed his index finger across Mia's belly before retreating to his closet to pack a carryon suitcase.
Olivia sat listening as he made plans via phone with his assistant to book him a plane ticket on the first plane out to California, business class preferably.
Iya's POV
She was having a hard time concentrating in class all morning because her mind was set on her punishment that was to come later that day. So by the time it was lunch she just wanted to grab her food and eat in peace but that wasn't going to happen that day.
As she and her friends, Zoey, Tiffany and Kendra were standing in line at the cafeteria; they were talking about the new girl in their class, Niketa. From what they know she was transferred from Virginia because her dad got a new job in the Big Apple. Niketa was the talk of the class because she was Asian, of Chinese decent, which wasn't prevalent in their school as were other people of color. The kids made fun of her because of her heavy-lidded eyes, making statements as… whether or not she can see out of them.
"Here comes chinky eyes," Tiffany spoke up and the four girls snickered aloud.
Niketa happened to overhear them and walked up to Tiffany. "What did you just called me?"
Tiffany rolled her eyes and flipped her brunette hair over her shoulder with flair. Her mouth was opened and before she could've replied one of the teachers on lunch duty walked over to them.
"Before you utter another word, follow me to the principle office. All five of you," he summoned.
Iya immediately ran cold because her day just got infinitely worst. She was in so much trouble and the principle's office was the least of it.
Olivia's POV
It was a little after lunch and Olivia was finally able to have some me time. After taking a long shower and eating a nice bowl of Caesar chicken salad that she'd prepared, she was curled up on the comfortable sofa in the living room with a book in hand and Rex snuggled against her legs. Aside from Daniel in the security room and Mia sleeping upstairs she was home alone. Mama Awa had already left for the weekend. She'd insisted on staying for the weekend since Fitz wasn't there but Olivia turned her down. She did way too much for their family and she deserved a break from them to regroup and reenergize herself. After all she had a family of her own.
The book she was reading she'd bought it sometime ago and it was just sitting on her bookshelf collecting dust.
She looked over at the baby monitor and breathed a sigh of relief that Amia was still asleep. Relaxing her body further into the sofa she began reading the Ralph Ellison novel.
Several minutes passed her in this safe haven with her book and dog at her side, and then the telephone rang, bringing her out of it.
"Hello," Olivia answered a bit annoyed.
"Hello, this is a call from Léman Manhattan's School for the parents of Iya Grant."
"This is her mother," Olivia stated.
"Good day, Mrs. Grant. I'm Celeste Conway, Principle Thomas's secretary here at the school."
"Is there something wrong with the kids?" Olivia asked, almost in a panic.
"For the most part they're good. However, this call concerns Iya. She is being suspended because she was an accomplice in using racial slurs to one of our students."
"What?!" Olivia boomed, scaring Rex off of her legs. "What do you mean using racial slurs? What did she say?" Olivia could feel the bile rising in her throat; she prayed that this was a misunderstanding. Her daughter using racial slurs is implausible.
"We can't go into too much details over the phone but it was brought to our attention that one of the girls in her circle called one of our Asian students a name that is normally used to make fun of them, and she laughed including the others."
Olivia couldn't believe what she was hearing, her heart grow immensely heavy. She didn't know what to say.
"How long is she being suspended for?" Olivia asked after a beat had passed, when she was able to gather some of her scattered thoughts.
"For one day, she'll be home with a letter today that will include most of the details about the suspension. If you need to speak to the principle, I'll be happy to schedule an appointment while we're on the phone."
"I will like that please. Is there anyway I can get the phone number to the parents of the child? I would like to apologize in person because this is not how we raise our daughter. I'm so disappointed in her behavior to say the least." Olivia could feel the onslaught of tears rising because her heart was deeply saddened by the fact that her daughter could participate in something so terrible.
"I'll have to get permission from them-"
"If they say no, please give them my contact information. Please try your best to let them reach out to me."
"I will try my best," Celeste said. They spent a few more minutes on the phone scheduling an appointment for Olivia to meet with the school for a follow up. By the time the call had ended Olivia was left staring at the wall blankly. But her thoughts were abruptly ended by the loud wails of Amia coming through the baby monitor. Standing to her feet she quickly rushed to her awaken infant.
Fitz' POV
By the time he had landed in California and took his phone off of airplane mode his phone was bombarded with notifications for missed calls, text messages and voicemails but one message in particular stuck out to him. It was from his wife, Call me it's urgent, was all it said. He placed everyone else on hold while he dialed his wife, as he made his way out of LAX airport. He hoped that everything was all right.
"Hey babe, what's up? I just landed." He said when she accepted his call; and instead of answering him, she was in hysterics and that raised several alarms in his head. Fitz looked around through the sea of people, ignoring those that were looking at him with interest for an empty spot where he can talk. Luckily, he saw a vacant spot by a vending machine and he quickly wheeled over his carryon there.
"Livvie, calm down. What's wrong?"
"Iya got suspended. Some girl used a racial slur on an Asian girl and Iya laughed along." She sobbed.
"What? How long is she being suspended for? Jesus!" Fitz exclaimed but quickly tempered his voice when he realized that he only drawing more attention on himself.
"For one day. I'm waiting for them to come home from school. Fitz, I don't know what to say to her. I can't believe that after all of the things we've been through and instilled in her that she would do something like this. It's like the Oprah interview we did was for nothing," Olivia cried.
Fitz sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Now he regretted being on the opposite side of the country when something like this happened, leaving his wife to deal with it alone.
"Livvie, take a deep breath. We'll talk to her and hear what she has to say. When she gets home from school try not to say anything in haste. When you think you're ready to talk, FaceTime me from the computer and we'll talk with her together."
"Are you there?" He asked, when several seconds had passed and she hadn't said anything.
"Sorry… I'm here, Fitz. I'll call you later, sounds like they just got home."
"Remember what I said, take a deep breath. Ok?"
"Ok."
"I love you."
"I love you too," Olivia said before hanging up.
Fitz took a second to collect himself and his thoughts before continuing his trek out of the LAX international airport. He pulled his ball cap lower on his head while ignoring the paparazzi and some fans calling his name outside of the airport. He mentally said a little thank you at the sight of the familiar face of Sean. He quickly approached his longtime friend and manager and embraced him in a manly hug.
"Welcome back to the Westside," Sean greeted.
When the kids first entered through the door Olivia tried to put on a face like nothing was wrong but she was deeply upset so it didn't sell. The minute her and Iya's eyes made connection the little girl started crying silently.
"Mommy, I'm sorry for what I did."
Tommy looked between the two of them and wondered if he should also apologize for the cookies situation and was about to until his mother spoke. He wasn't aware of his sister's suspension.
"Tommy go upstairs and change out of your school uniform." Tommy nodded and gladly leaped up the stairs.
Olivia turned to Huck and said, "Thanks for bringing them home."
"No problem. If you need anything since Mr. Grant is out of state, let me know. Ok?"
"I will, thank you." Olivia gave him a small smile and he retreated out the front door.
"Let me see it," Olivia addressed her daughter for the first time since she entered the room, stretching out her hand to her.
Iya hesitated and Olivia specified, "the suspension letter. Let me see it," her voice was stern.
Iya slowly took off her book bag, tears still running down her cheeks as she opened the front pocket where she stored the letter. With shaky hands she retrieved the letter and gave it to her mother, she removed it from the envelope and read it.
Olivia learnt that one of her friends, Tiffany, had called Niketa who so happed to be Chinese, chinky eyes and Iya and two others laughed along with her. Standing in the living room after reading the letter, Olivia looked up at her daughter who was crying her eyes out. For the first time since giving birth to her she didn't know what to say to her. She didn't expect perfection from her daughter but she never expected bullying either.
With a heavy heart, she pointed her index finger at the staircase and said, "Go to your room."
Iya complied silently with her mother's instruction and retreated to her bedroom.
To be continued….
AN: Things about to get saucy, since this chapter would've literally gone on forever I decided to split it into two. There's more to be covered and I hope you enjoyed this update. Please don't get on Iya too badly, remember that kids do ish all the damn time and parents have to keep correcting them.
Fitz confronted the cookie monster, literally… and they had a moment. Iya is not speaking to her brother because he snitched on her and now she's suspended. LOL. The Grant kids are acting up. And poor Olivia is all alone while Fitz is in Cali trying to bring in Bad gal Riri. LOL. Remember this is fictional so this in no way reflects the way Rihanna handles her business agreements.
Let me know what your thoughts are on this chapter. I appreciate your reviews as they fuel me to keep writing.
Will update the next part soon….
PS: Check out my new story called Gladiatorland, completely different than what I usually write, FYI.
