"Karen!" Stevie yelled from her bedroom and she furiously started packing the things that she had just unpacked, all the while trying to comfort her daughter who was crying from all the commotion. She could barely see through the tears the flowed freely but all she knew was she had to get out of here and she had to do it now.
"Stevie, please just calm down. Honey, we should sit down with Chris and talk this out." Her mother pled with her while Stevie walked around her.
"Fuck Christopher. He better not fucking still be here when I leave this room." She added with a shout for Christopher's benefit, but he didn't hear it, he was already gone. "He better have all of his shit out of my fucking house by the end of the month. I'm such a fucking whore that he shouldn't have to bear living with me anymore. He should probably find a new job, too. Wouldn't want to get money for working on my tour. I might sleep with someone while I'm gone and Mr. Saint wouldn't be able to handle that." She added spitefully.
"Stevie, stop, you don't mean that. Stop calling yourself names. You know it isn't true." Her mother said.
"Mother, I don't need you trying to make me feel better about myself. I know exactly how I am."
"STEVIE! STOP! Stop talking like this right now!" her mother couldn't bear to hear it anymore.
"What's going on Stevie?" Karen said as she entered the room warily.
"Get us the fuck out of here today, next flight to LA. Then I need help packing for the kids." Stevie said after throwing the last few things into her bag and looking around her room to see if she had forgotten anything.
"OK, I'm on it." Karen said and left the room as fast as she could. Stevie was on one right now and she did not want to be involved.
Within the hour Stevie was on her way back to Sky Harbor leaving behind a very confused father and a heartbroken mother. She loved Stevie so much and she hated when Stevie lashed out like this. She knew it was because she was lonely and hurting and she wished she could just take that away from her.
She had just put the kids to bed and went downstairs deciding that she deserved a glass or even a bottle of wine. This day had fucking sucked in so many ways, but she was still happy to be home with her babies. She never expected to have them but she was so thrilled to be a mother. She contemplated calling Lindsey and telling him that she had come back early, but thought better of it. A few drinks in and Christopher was right, she'd be begging Lindsey to take her to bed and that wouldn't help anything at all. She would just be sad, guilty, and alone the next day. She sipped the wine slowly and strained to hear the sounds of the ocean but all she could hear was the static from the baby monitor she had with her. As she sat pondering her existence, she wondered exactly how she had gotten here. She used to be desirable, admired, sought after. Now she was a mother of two and utterly alone without any signs of her fate changing soon.
After more time of quiet contemplation and a few more glasses of wine she had decided that she just wasn't meant for a happily ever after. The one she had would not include a husband and she would have to just be OK with that. And she thought she could be, but her mother was right, she had to stop what she had going on with Lindsey. It would hurt like hell, but it already hurt, watching him leave, seeing him married to someone else, playing with THEIR son and daughter, while she imagined him being married to her and being a father to her son and daughter. It was just too much. She made a decision she never wanted to make, but she knew it would be for the best.
She heard cabinets closing in the kitchen and it was enough to pull her back to reality. She sighed and started toward the house from the patio. Grayson tended to take a few days to adjust to their LA home after they'd been gone for a while.
"Grayson, honey, what are you doing up? Little boys have to get their rest so they can grow big and strong." She called as she walked in. She could see the light from the refrigerator and she shook her head.
"Who the hell is Grayson?" an English voice said and she saw Mick's head peek around the door.
"Holy shit! You scared the hell out of me! What the fuck are you doing here?" she asked, half whispering, half shouting.
"I didn't think you'd be back yet and Lynn threw me out. You said I could stay whenever." He explained
"Yeah, no that's fine. We came back early but you can still stay in the guest room. Why did Lynn kick you out?" she asked curiously. She had thought things were going well and they had twin daughters that weren't even a year old. She watched as he shrugged and sighed loudly.
"Same shit as always. I put the band before everything else, she says all I can think about is getting back on the road."
"Well the last part is true, we're all like that, but that's nothing new. She knew that about you. Why's that a problem now?"
"She said she thought it would be different after we had gotten older and especially after the twins were born and it's not. She says she needs to "reevaluate." Whatever the fuck she means by that." He said resignedly.
"Well stay here tonight and go talk to her tomorrow." Stevie said, looking over at the clock. She hadn't thought when agreeing to let him stay about the kids. She led him to the guest room downstairs and told him goodnight.
"Hey, you never answered my question earlier. Who is this Grayson you thought was downstairs? Do you have some young guy hidden upstairs?" he asked, giving her a mischievous look. She fully intended to ignore the question until at that second a shrill cry rang out through the baby monitor, the sound overpowering the silence downstairs. She knew this was the end of her secret.
"My son. Grayson is my son. Goodnight Mick."
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