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Chapter 72: Talking with His Mom
Before going downstairs to face Derek's family, Meredith decided to take a quick shower. As she stood in the shower nervously, she contemplated how she was going to confront, let alone explain everything to them. All Meredith could think about was how much his family must hate him now, especially Addison and Mark. However, she knew it was her turn to fight for him, just as much as he fought for her.
With her newfound confidence, Meredith dressed herself in a light sundress and checked on Derek. Once she realized he was still sleeping, she had it downstairs towards the smell of the coffee. As she came around the corner, she realized that Carolyn was the only one awake. At least she didn't have to face Derek's whole family at one time.
"Good morning, dear." Carolyn said with a smile.
"Good morning," Meredith returned. "How did you sleep last night?"
"Well, thank you. Amelia, Addie, and Mark stayed at the inn last night. I, however needed to come here because I needed my medicine and such. I hope you don't mind." Carolyn smiled.
"Of course, not! Our home is your home- Well, Derek's home is your home."
"Nonsense, this is your home too! My son loves you to pieces!"
"And… I love him." Meredith says shyly.
"I know," Carolyn smiled. "I saw it as clear as the Heavens last night."
"I'm sorry Mrs. Shepherd. I think…umm…I know it's time that I tell you the whole story."
"First, it's either mom or Carolyn and second, you don't have to dear. I believe I was able to gain enough of a background on what happened, yesterday." Carolyn said understandingly.
"No Mrs.- Carolyn, I must, for my sake as well as Derek's." Meredith pleaded.
"Okay dear, but first, let me get us some coffee so we can sit."
Meredith nodded and sat at the table. Carolyn prepared both cups of coffee and thought about how proud of this young girl she was. She had trusted her enough to fully shed her secrets. Once she was done making the coffee, she sat down at the table and handed Meredith her cup.
"Carolyn before I tell you I have to ask, could you please keep this to yourself? I do plan on telling everyone else, but on my own accord." Meredith asked.
"Of course dear, your secret is safe with me. Anything you tell me always is between us." Carolyn smiled.
Meredith breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Carolyn."
"Okay, before we get into the nitty-gritty stuff, we have to step back in time to when I was a child." Meredith starts off as Carolyn nods.
What Meredith and Carolyn don't know is that Derek is quietly sitting on the steps listening, making sure not to ruin their moment. He couldn't be prouder of his Meredith.
You know who my mother is, don't you? I'm sure Der or Amelia has mentioned her." Meredith questioned.
"Ellis…"
"Yes, my mother didn't think she needed me around much when she had Richard; the man she cheated on my father with. She agreed that dad should get full custody. I was always just an obstacle for her, in surgery, her affair," Meredith shrugged. "She was only happy to see me go. Then, Richard left her, he went back to his wife. That made her angry. The fact that my dad picked up the pieces of his life didn't help matters. He started to see Susan. She's a lawyer. She was his lawyer throughout the divorce proceedings. She made him happy again, and me too. My mother thought she had screwed everyone but, in the end, Ellis Grey was the one left with nothing. So, she changed her story and claimed me back. Susan and my dad did everything to fight for me, but the mother's voice is always heard more favorably in these matters."
Carolyn continued to listen intently.
"One day she packed up and we left for New York, without a word to my father. However, he and Susan didn't give up on me. It didn't take them long to track her down. They came to New York after me. Susan completely uprooted her life for me. My mother didn't say her last word yet. My dad and Susan got married, they had Lexie and then Molly and then my mother decided to move again. For some reason she didn't choose Seattle, but Boston. She always created problems for them to meet me and now, we lived in different cities, and it wasn't that easy for them to relocate again now that they had two children. They came to see me as often as they could but- she managed to poison me, my mother. With her hatred, her cold, her anger. I would have drowned altogether if I hadn't had my dad, my stepmom and my two sisters. All in all, I wasn't the easiest person to build a relationship with."
"Oh honey, I am so sorry! Carolyn said apologetically with tears in her eyes.
"So, when I met him, well, Mitch… it was hard at first, but over time he broke down my defenses, and I fell in love with him.
"Mitch was adamant, persistent- superhumanly patient- and we made it. I was happy, no matter how much I want to say it's not true, I really felt happy. I said yes when he proposed. I thought I had everything. Then, it turned out I had nothing…"
Flashback
Meredith frowned surveying the living room. Everything was the same, yet something was different. Then she got it, everything was spotless. How was that possible? When she left for work earlier, everything was in the normal middle of the week state of mild disorder. Mitch was surely at the company doing his boring corporate lawyer stuff. She heard footsteps coming from the corridor.
"Mitch?" she stared at him as he entered the living room, surprised to see latex gloves on his hands. "What is going on? Why aren't you at work? Oh, don't tell me we have insects in the building!"
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the company for the next four hours," he remarked, his eyes giving her a look she had never seen before, something she could describe as coldblooded.
"Just- incompetent employees," she shrugged, taking off her coat. "Thought I could use a free afternoon. What's- what's this for?" she suddenly pointed at a small suitcase that stood behind one of the armchairs.
"Meredith, you've disappointed me," sighed Mitch.
She turned abruptly to face him, sending a questioning look in his direction.
"You go like a clockwork usually," he went on. "Solid, planned, no surprises along the way. You make no mistakes and foresee everything. You never miss work. And yet today you did, today of all days."
"Where is this coming from?" she replied defensively. "Suddenly you have something against my job or my workload?"
"Not at all," he gave her a lenient smile. "But it would be better for you if you had stayed at work. You would have come home in the evening, and you wouldn't have seen me at all. I would have just mysteriously disappeared. Without a reason. Until the premiere of the drug you invented of course."
"What the hell are you talking about?" she inquired him but in fact, she wasn't sure she wanted to hear anything more. She felt a sense of foreboding, a chill ran down her body. She had never seen this Mitch before her, and she didn't like him.
"Have you never doubted me? Had no suspicions whatsoever?" he chuckled putting his knuckles in the pockets of his jeans as though he was retelling a fascinating story.
"I am good, very convincing, it wasn't that difficult to play your boyfriend, your fiancé. It was easy- and pleasurable I say. My best job yet. I'm actually sad to see it go, baby."
She fixed her eyes at him wordlessly, listening to him with growing bewilderment and disbelief.
"It was very comfortable, very satisfying," he scanned her body longingly. "I had been so relieved Dr. Grey turned out to be a young hot babe, with apparently an insatiable sexual appetite. I'd have completed my task even if you weren't, but you were certainly a bonus to my job."
"What job?" she whispered, her fists clenching.
"You're a genius, Meredith, no question about that. You know that without me telling you.
"What-?" she asked feebly.
"You invited a wolf to your house. You were so easy to deceive, surprising given the fact that you're such a tough bitch at work. You don't advertise your little romantic heart all that often, huh?"
"I still don't understand what you're talking about," she whispered.
"Oh, that's simple enough. I was to disappear without a trace today, but your arrival complicated my plans somewhat. But only a bit, no worries," he laughed. "We did spend almost a year and a half together, didn't we? You deserve an explanation. I can indulge you, it's not like it's going to send trouble to me or my bosses."
"Your bosses?" she whispered. "You don't-"
"I'm not a lawyer, sweetie," he shook his head condescendingly. "Or I am. I can be anything I want, that's my job. Anticipating your further questions, my name is Mitch as long as I make you believe it is."
She was surely dreaming; the situation was too absurd. However, the truth was already sinking in. She had been played and she was yet to discover why and by whom.
"Who the hell are you?" she spat out, rage, humiliation, and restraint mingling in her voice. Her eyes darted to one of her purses she had left on the shelf near the door. There was a taser inside it as she went to a party without Mitch two days prior. If she could only get to it without arousing his suspicions-
"Don't even think about it," he shook his head, following her gaze and line of thinking without fail. "I don't want to hurt your pretty face, I said I grew fond of you. You will not outsmart me."
"Who are you?" she repeated in a deadly whisper.
"You really haven't done your homework before accepting this job, have you?" he smirked at her. "If you had, you might have been wiser. You ever heard of the term industrial espionage?"
He might as well send a bullet straight to her heart. No further explanation was necessary. She might have been naive, but she wasn't stupid.
"It was all a lie-?" she breathed out, a statement more than a question. Lies, lies, lies-
Her life for more than consisted only of lies. It was all staged. Their first meeting, the first night they spent together, the many nights that followed, him chasing her, courting her, asking her to marry him.
"Oh, well, not all entirely. I enjoyed myself plenty. I don' think any straight guy could, or have any need, to fake while in bed with you. Some of the best orgasms in my life," he snickered.
She felt her blood boil in her veins despite the sea of despair she was drowning in. Fast like a lightning she grabbed a China figurine from a shelf, a present from Lexie, and flung it at him with all her might. Unfortunately, he ducked skillfully, and it smashed against the wall to powder.
"Careful, darling," he grinned at her. "Remember I won't be here anymore to clean your mess and I know you hate house chores."
"Who are you working for?" she bellowed at him, losing all control, and throwing another figurine, partly because she didn't take into consideration of possible consequences, partly because she was still looking at the man she lived with for months.
His only answer was loud carefree laughter. "Don't worry, you'll know soon enough, we won't wait too long with patenting your baby. And, by the way, all the files in your neat little pile are already scanned and sent to my bosses. The wheels are in motion with the speed you cannot even imagine."
"You're standing here calmly talking about it with me? The person you stole it from?" she shrieked.
"What can I say?" he shrugged laughingly. "I'm an artist and this work is by far my best yet."
"You're a worthless piece of shit!" she spat at him. "You're not even human!"
"We have that in common," he nodded. "That's what makes us so good at what we are. You've got conned but you're still learning, baby. I love that scowl on your face, I'm sure it would have lead to some extraordinary make-up sex-"
"You'll never touch me again, scumbag!"
"I know I won't, I don't want to leave any DNA behind. But still, what a pity."
"You think they won't catch you? The police will have your portrait, you're on photographs-"
"I'm not on any photographs, I have left no belongings around, I took care of that.
To answer your question, I'm sure they won't catch me. There're ways to disappear without a trace-" he sighed consulting his watch with a smirk, purposefully striking another blow. The silver watch was her birthday gift for him. "It was nice to have that little chat with you but time presses on." Not taking his deep green eyes off her, he grabbed the little suitcase with his gloved hand and gave her a long look.
"Goodbye, sweet Meredith."
With that, he was gone. He was out of their- her apartment, out of her life. As if he had never existed, as if he was a phantom, a magician vanishing in a cloud of smoke performing his tricks.
Her throat began to burn, her lungs couldn't seem to get enough air to sustain her life. Almost blindly, her hands clutching at her neck, she found her way to the bathroom. She scrambled into the shower opening the water, hot, cold it didn't matter. Her fingers clawed at her clothes frantically tearing them off of her
trembling body, ripping the tiny scraps of leather on her Christian Louboutin shoes, mangling her jacket, the snow white shirt, expensive lingerie- In her frenzy, she hit her forehead on the metal tap. Another dose of pain- She didn't even notice a trickle of blood diluting in water and staining the scraps of clothing at her feet.
Suddenly she burst out in a loud maniacal laughter. The hit to the head seemed to have enlightened her. She laughed her throat apart as the image of Dr. Reed Adamson apologizing profusely for her mistake fleeted through her mind. Mitch, or whatever her executioner was called, scanned the files containing grievous error making the drug commercially useless- True, he could count on Meredith's flawlessness, but not on that of her subordinates.
Meredith's bitter laugh ended all too soon, she didn't even have the strength to feel the final triumph. The tears of laughter transformed into those of dark despair as she sank down, her wobbly legs finally giving in under her.
End of Flashback
"That is where my compulsive distrust in other people stems from," Meredith concluded her tale trying desperately to hold her voice steady. She had spilled enough tears already, too many. "I had over a year of my life stolen by a professional liar. I was used in every possible way, emotionally, physically- He was the first man I had a relationship with, I gave everything I had in me to him. Then, Derek came along, and he flipped my world upside down, for the better.
"I am in love with your son Carolyn. I hope to marry him one day."
Carolyn immediately rose and embraced Meredith in a long hug. Now understanding where everything came from.
"No more crying my dear, you are safe with us. I can already say I love you like a daughter." Carolyn says with tears in her eyes, along with Meredith and secretly Derek.
