Trying Not To Love You

Part Ninety Eight

Chapter Ninety Eight

Michael smiled as Ethan climbed the huge tree in his garden, there were signs that Scott had probably climbed it as a child, maybe even Michael himself, weathered and worn footholds looked as though they'd been purposely moulded into the bark.

"He's like a monkey, so nimble!" Martha chuckled from her position behind him watching Ethan run around the garden from the safety of the huge glass windows of the dining room.

"I think it's because they have no fear." She looked up at Michael, "he doesn't believe that he can fall, therefore he doesn't."

He laughed at that, "life is so much easier before you reach double figures."

The awkward paused between them that followed needed to be broken, "sorry Michael, Sonny still isn't discussing anything with me, he's hurt...and defensive."

Michael sighed, "I can't blame him, we were just starting to make some headway, he was just starting to trust me...he's a long way from liking me, but...then that cow..."

"You were talking to her, that was how he found out?" She prompted him, wanting to know what happened herself.

Michael sighed and looked to the ceiling for a moment, "I didn't know...I wasn't involved...not like he thinks. Do you believe that?"

She looked at the man and smiled, "I have no reason to think you'd lie. You never have up to now."

And that was the truth, when she contacted him to say she was pregnant five years ago, he'd stuck by her, no questions, no doubts, and other than the way he reacted after losing his son, he'd never done anything more than support her unconditionally. She really had no reason to think that he'd lie. Not to her.

"She called me. About a week after they left. Crying. She told me that she needed money, that Sonny was struggling to make ends meet. I was meeting him most weeks for lunch or a few drinks, he'd never said that, but I knew he wanted his independence and would never take help from me. She was a different case. She asked for money first of all. I of course ignored her. But then she started to threaten to take him away. Apparently she's got relatives up North, and she tried to blackmail me, I'd lose Sonny if I didn't."

"So you gave her money." Martha could see how broken the man was, he didn't want to lose his son, not so soon after finding him.

He nodded, "it was the wrong thing to do as then she started to blackmail me, she'd tell him I'd given her money. I knew that he'd hate that I'd been so stupid, and I didn't want to fall out with him."

He sighed, "then one day, I met her in London and I overheard her say something, and it was then I realised that she wasn't pregnant. She denied it, but I turned up at the flat that day to make her listen, make her tell him the truth. I didn't think he'd believe me, and I didn't want to interfere. Not like that."

Martha groaned, "and instead he walked in and heard you confronting her as conspiring with her." "It'd be funny if wasn't so hard."

Crossing the room she placed a hand on his arm, "he's not unreasonable, he'll understand. He just buries his head in the sand when he gets hurt. If he hadn't grown to care about you he wouldn't be avoiding you. I will keep working on him, ok?"

Michael smiled, "I just take heart in the fact that I see my grandson, you do more than enough for me."

They ate dinner in the conservatory overlooking the river and Martha watched with pleasure as the two interacted so happily.

But all too soon they had to leave and go back to their home and there was still so much to sort out, Sonny's stubbornness over his father wasn't helping.