Minnelli Love Stories

Fade Away

Subtitle: Loud and Wrong

Grams was concerned. It was well into the night and Jai had yet to come inside from the garage. Her heart dropped as her lips twisted. Her mother was spending time with friends from work and wasn't due until the next night.

Grams grabbed her cane and a thick shawl to shield her from the cold. Jai had avoided her long enough.

"Jai!" the wind howled against Grams' voice. "Come out from this shop!"

Sniffles caught her off guard. Her heart dropped further. "Just a minute, Grams. I just need a minute." Her voice cracked as the door slammed close.

"What happened?" the shop was shockingly warm. Almost suffocating. Grams takes a seat next to Jai on the old couch. She rubs her granddaughter's hair.

"Greyson and I are over." That's all she said. Her voice croaked. Her hands shook. The scene kept playing in her mind like a record. And each time she thought about what she could've said differently. A different reaction here and there.

"Why?"

"I lied." Speaking on it made it feel even worse. More real. "Well, I didn't lie...well, maybe I did."

"You didn't tell him about NASCAR." Grams pulls the younger woman in her bosom tightly. "I told you, you needed to tell him."

"And I was going to, but everything was happening so fast. No time felt like the best time."

"Jai, that's no excuse, my child." Grams interrupts her. "At the end of it, he found out the truth instead of you telling him the truth. Does that make sense?"

"It does but he wasn't going to listen to me anyway when I found the courage to tell him. It was clear that I wasn't what he was looking for...like those before him."

"What was the real reason you decided to not tell Grey about NASCAR? Your car career as a whole."

"No man wants a woman to do something like that. Gramps always told me that. I thought, maybe if we were in love enough it wouldn't matter..." Jai sniffles again. "He was so angry with me...I'd never seen that side of him before."

"Wouldn't you be upset if he kept something like his wealthy status from you? Something like...his family? Would that be a deal breaker?"

Jai stays quiet for a moment. "Grams, I don't know how to answer that. I just know that I was falling in love. I don't know how to explain it, I just didn't want my passion to be a deal breaker."

Your occupation isn't the issue, Grams thought. She pats the younger woman's hand and guide her back to the home.

Meanwhile, a few weeks later, Jai started the process of moving to California like she'd planned. She found the perfect cabin with ready to plant land just inside city limits of Sunset Valley, California. In the hills and cliffs.

True to Greyson's word, she deleted everything she had of them. Selfies, messages, numbers, everything was gone. Her hand shook for days after doing so but each breath was a little easier to take. Most days. A month later, Jai Lawson was gone.

Two months later, Royce had had enough of Greyson's snappy attitude and quick to answer speech. No longer was he thoughtful in his words. And before Royce and Stone fucked him up, Everest suggested that a special person in Grey's life paid a quick visit.

Everest spent some time telling them what the situation was and before the end of the month...

Gianna Minnelli breezed into the Minnelli Brothers Corporation, annoyed. Her twin was acting like a damn fool. Armed with her research, she barged in her brother's office.