Chapter 15 - ("Losing sleep")

Grace walked inside the house and the sound of laughter immediately filled the living room. She raised an eyebrow when she saw her mother and her grandmother Victoria sitting down on the couch together, smiling and giggling as if they had been best friends from the very start. Grace set her purse down on a chair in the living room as she continued to look at them.

"Hi honey," Kathleen said in a light hearted tone. She got up and hugged her daughter and Grace gave her a suspicious look.

"Uh...hey. Hi Victoria."

"Honey she's your grandmother, you don't have to call her by her first name," Kathleen smiled.

"Right...Um, mom can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure honey." They made their way to the kitchen and Grace grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and then turned to look at her mother, "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well you guys weren't exactly getting along before and now all of the sudden you guys are laughing and hanging out? I don't get it." Grace chugged down half of the bottle of water as she waited for her mother to respond.

"We talked everything out honey...She's been through a lot, your grandmother. I'd much rather her tell you everything than me, she's better at explaining it. Why don't you come sit down with us?"

"No thanks."

"Gee, I would think you would be in a better mood considering you just went out with Jack tonight...did you guys not have a good time?" Kathleen asked, a little concerned.

"We had a great time...and I'm in a great mood. I just don't feel like talking to your mother. I don't even know that woman."

"Grace!" Kathleen hissed, "Don't be rude. She's here now, and you can get to know her. Maybe God brought her here for a reason."

Grace sighed, "Just don't expect me to be all buddy-buddy with her. I mean, she was never even here for me. I don't remember spending any time with her when I was little, and I'm all grown up now, what do I need her for?"

Kathleen rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest, "Ok seriously, what has gotten into you?"

"Nothing...Let's just go back in the living room," Grace muttered as she brushed past her mother. She knew she shouldn't be upset with her mother, and she wasn't upset with her. She was upset with him. She was upset with Jack, but she couldn't tell her mother why, not yet anyway.

When Jack arrived home, he went in search for his mother or father, but they were nowhere to be found, "Mom! Dad! You home?"

"No, they're not home. They went out for a little dinner date. Your family is so cute."

Jack whirled his head around to see Chloe standing there. He looked at her, completely taken aback by her presence, "Chloe? What are you doing here?"

"Leo, Ben, and Camille went out to eat but your mom invited me over. She wanted to talk about the court case," Chloe said, "By the way your room is a mess dude."

"You were in my room?"

She shrugged, "Sorry I got bored."

Jack rolled his eyes, "Well just stay down here. I need to go get changed...by the way what did you tell my mom?"

"I told her that the court case was going well...And then Ally fainted."

Jack sighed, "Poor girl."

"I know...I think Ben really likes her."

Jack's eyes widened, "Ben? But he's in love with Amy."

"He hasn't talked about Amy since he's been talking to her...although..."

"Although what?"

"Well don't tell anyone, but he told me that he read Amy's E-diary. He thinks she might still be in love with him."

Jack's eyes widened, "What! That's impossible. Amy is with Ricky."

"Amy's been with Ricky and Ben before. If you ask me she seems like she's always well...confused."

"Well think about it I mean she had a baby at fifteen years old, and then Ben comes and rescues her...and then all of the sudden Ricky changes. That would confuse anyone."

"Not me, I know who I love and who I just want to be friends with."

"And who is that?"

"What?"

"Who do you love Chloe?"

Chloe chuckled, "I love myself and my new found family. I love Leo for taking me in. I love Ben for being a brother to me. I love Camille for being loving and kind, and I love you too, because you got beat up by a pimp at my expense and that helped get me out of there. Those are the kind of people I want in my life. If Mickey ever changed, I wouldn't grow to care for him, I just wouldn't think he was such an asshole."

"Wow...I'm not gonna lie I didn't expect that answer. It's good to know that you love me though," Jack chuckled.

"Of course, like a brother, or a dog."

"A dog? Gee thanks."

"You know what I mean, besides you have Grace."

"Yeah of course but there's different kinds of love."

"And what kind of love do you have for Grace?"

"Spiritual, emotional, and physical."

"Wow. I hope you guys work out and look who's getting all mature," Chloe chuckled.

"Thanks. I'm gonna get changed but make yourself at home."

"Okay."

"I know this is a big shock that I'm here honey...But there's a lot of things that I need to discuss with you and Tom. Where is Tom?" Victoria asked, scanning her eyes around the house for Tom as they all sat on the couch.

Grace crossed her arms over her chest, "Tom likes to go off on his own a lot. He's probably in the guest house, and if he's not in the guest house then he's hanging out with Tammy or something. I'm not sure."

"Ok well I guess I'll just have to explain it without him...But before I do that, do you have any questions?"

"Just a few...Why didn't you support my mother? And if you didn't like her so much did it really have to affect Tom and I?"

"Gracie-"

"You didn't come to any of my birthdays! You weren't there when Tom got adopted! You were never there! And now all of the sudden you just want to pop up and live here because your husband left you? Give me a break," Grace hissed.

"Grace Bowman! That is enough!" Kathleen hissed, standing up to look at Grace with a stern face.

"No, let her finish. Keep going Grace," Victoria sad sadly.

Grace sighed, "You know what never mind, just forget it. I just want to know what you could possibly want after all of these years?"

"What I want...is forgiveness."

Grace's face softened at this, because she knew all about forgiveness. She had made a lot of mistakes in the past couple of years, and somehow people managed to forgive her over time, "...Forgiveness?"

"Honey you have to understand, I loved your father. When we were together everything was just beautiful and not a day went on that I didn't want him."

"So what happened?"

"Religion happened...He got caught up in religion instead of having faith. His parents were strict and apart of various cults and he swore that he would never do that kind of stuff, but eventually he did. He wanted to join the Amish society, that's when he tried to get your mother to join and she refused, so he kicked her out."

Jack had just finished getting dressed after he got out of the shower. He started putting his dirty clothes in a laundry basket when he remembered the steroids and decided to check his pocket for them. He felt his whole body freeze up when he realized that they weren't there. Oh no...No, no, no where the hell could they be? He searched his pockets thoroughly and his heart started racing.

He raced to his cabinet and opened it and he saw that his bottle of pills weren't in there either. He could feel his blood boiling now. There was a mixture of anger and fear that he had never felt before. Quite honestly, he wanted to explode, and he wasn't sure why. He had always been pretty good at keeping his anger in check. He raced down the stairs with fear in his eyes and saw Chloe sitting on the couch, flipping through a magazine.

"Hey Chloe, you said you went in my room right?" Jack rushed the words out quickly.

Chloe nodded without saying anything.

"Did you take anything?" His eyes hardened as he looked at her, and she still didn't look at him. She kept reading her magazine.

"CHLOE! I'm talking to you!"

Chloe wasn't even startled by the tone of his voice, "You know anger is a side affect to steroids right?"

At this Jack felt his whole body freeze up as he looked at her furiously, "You went through my stuff!"

"I was just looking around! I had no idea you'd be an idiot and try steroids!" Chloe exclaimed.

"And what business is that of yours huh! You have no right to go through my stuff! Give me my stuff back!"

Chloe rolled her eyes, her face turning to a shade of red due to her anger. She got up with the pill bottle in her hand and handed it to Jack. He grabbed it without saying a word and then opened it. He gasped, there was nothing in the bottle. He looked at Chloe and his eyes darkened a little, "What the hell did you do with my pills!"

"I got rid of every last one. You don't need them Jack! Just stop it!"

In a rage, without even thinking, he pushed Chloe onto the ground. Chloe looked up at him, frightened and almost as scared as the time that Mickey had taken her. Jack saw the fearful look in her eyes and immediately snapped out of it. His expression softened, "Oh my gosh, wait Chloe I'm so sorry."

"What the hell Jack! You have issues! You need to go to therapy or something!" She got up, ignoring his offer to help her up. She glared at him and he couldn't help but feel guilty.

"Chloe I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"...Just tell me what you're using those pills for."

"Chloe-"

"If you don't tell me, I'll just tell your mom, and your dad, and whoever else-"

"Ok fine! Have a seat," Jack sighed.

"So let me get this straight...Grandpa was brainwashed by his parents lifestyle so he decided to join the Amish community?"

Victoria sighed, "You have to understand dear, his parents always talked about being a part of a cult as something great, and he wanted the same thing for his family. After your mother was kicked out, there was no reason for me to say no, and even though I wanted to get my daughter back, I loved your father, and I had to do right by him."

"So you sacrificed everything for grandpa? Even your daughter? That's just not right, you held mom inside of your stomach for nine months, and then you just watched her walk away?" Grace could herself getting teary eyed and Kathleen tossed her a sympathetic smile.

"Honey at the time I really wanted to be on my own anyway. It may have been wrong, but everybody makes bad decisions, and if she hadn't made this bad decision, I don't think it ever would have went that far with George."

Victoria nodded understandingly, "And that's why I'm here. I missed my daughter for so long. I tried to follow everything your father told me to do. And then he started drinking and getting harmful-"

"He hit you?" Grace's eyes widened in shock, and she felt like she was going to cry.

"Repeatedly dear. And so when I got this email, I knew that not only was it my escape, but it was God's way of telling me that I needed to be reunited with you guys. And now here I am. I'm here to support my daughters wedding and meet my beautiful grandchildren. I love you Grace, and I want to be apart of your life. I want to be the grandmother that I should have been all that time ago."

Kathleen smiled in the background as Grace and Victoria hugged each other. Things were definitely starting to look up.

"Jack...what the hell were you thinking?" Chloe asked. They were both seated on the couch and Jack had spilled the beans about everything, about how he went to the bar that night and met Joe Young, about his fighting experience so far, and about his fight coming up.

"I was thinking that I'm scared Chloe," Jack could feel his voice starting to tremble, "I'm tired of being afraid of him...I need to do this for myself."

Chloe could see it in his eyes that he was being serious. She knew that feeling, the feeling of helplessness, the desire to do anything and everything to help escape from that. She stood up and he looked at her with curious eyes.

"Where are you going?" Jack asked.

"We are going for a ride? Come on," Chloe explained.

A/N: Just a short chapter to say that I'm back you guys! Ahaha. I've been pretty busy but I finally had time to write the next chapter. Thanks for reading!