The Hipkins drove home in silence brooding over the information that was heard at the Marquee's. While Marcus and Celia stewed over the revelation that their son had committed a crime against their pastor's daughter, Johnny was unaware that his parents had heard the conversation he had with Gram. The three understood one thing. They were all in trouble and needed to find a way to fix things in a way that would avoid a public scandal. The fact that they had friends with the Marquees for decades gave Marcus and Celia hope that it was possible to handle things without involving the media.
At the mansion, Marcus dismissed the help before dragging his son into their private study. The room was soundproof, so he needn't worry abut listening ears outside the room. Marcus forcefully made his son sit on the sofa then went to pour himself a drink. "You've embarrassed me yet again, son."
Johnny looked at him with wide eyes. He gave his mother a pleading look only to find that she too, looked at him with disappointment. "What? What'd I do this time."
Marcus sighed behind clenched teeth. "I've tried to be lenient with you, son. I remember what it's like to be young and want to have fun before settling down into life. That's why I never forbade you from fooling around as you saw fit. But this… What you did to Gram… This was not…" He swallowed his drink in one go. "You were supposed to be smarter about this kind of thing, son."
"I thought we raised you better than this, son." His mom added.
"What are you talking about?" Johnny tried to play innocent thinking Gram's parents must have said something. "I didn't do anything to Gram. She's just a fr…"
"Enough! We heard the two of you talking tonight!" Marcus bellowed. "We heard all of it."
Johnny's eyes widened in fear for a moment before he steeled his resolve. "Well, she's lying. She's just mad because…" ~SLAP~ He covered the cheek his mother just slapped with his hand. "Ow! What was that for?"
"I heard from your own mouth what you did to her! How dare you blame her for this!" Celia growled.
"Don't you have any idea what will happen to us as a family if this gets out?!" Marcus demanded.
"And what about the baby, Johnny. Will you at least take responsibility?" Celia asked coldly.
Johnny had never experienced his parents' wrath at this level before. He'd been grounded occasionally over the years, but never had either of his parents raised a hand to him or spoke to him with such anger. He decided he'd better appease them quickly before they decided to revoke his freedom. "I-I'll pay for an abortion. No one will have to know anything." He blurted out. "And if she says anything, it'll be her word against mine."
"Don't be stupid! She is Pastor Marquee's daughter. What makes you think any one of them would allow her to have an abortion?"
"Her folks don't have to know anything." He explained. "She can get it done and just not tell them about it."
Marcus shook his head at his son's audacity and chuckled. "Your mother and I heard the conversation you had with Gram in their house! Who do you think was listening with us?"
"You'll have to marry her, John. It's the only way to avoid scandalous mess." Celia suggested.
"What?!! NO WAY! No how. Nah uh. Forget it." Johnny immediately rejected. His mother crossed arms over her chest while his dad glared at him as he poured himself another drink. Clearly, they were serious. "She'd never agree to it anyway." He explained hoping they'd come up with another plan. "Maybe we can tell the press that the baby is George Gabbard's. He's like her best friend so it would be believable."
"And if they demand a DNA test after the child is born and it's proven to be yours? What would we tell the press then?" Celia demanded.
"I don't know."
"Then let's hope she agrees to marriage. Otherwise, you're going to jail, I will lose the election and your mother will never be able to show her face in public again. Is that what you want?!"
"No." He answered meekly. "I'll try to convince her to marry me, Dad."
"Good! Now go to your room and start figuring out how you're going to make that happen. And don't even think about sneaking out of this house before making her your wife!"
Johnny ran to his room and threw himself on his bed. He was in trouble deep this time. He didn't want to marry Gram and he was certain she wouldn't want to marry him. His dad was right, though. What he did to her was a crime that cost his family everything his parents had worked so hard for. Everyone in the family would be negatively affected if he couldn't succeed in marrying her. But how would he convince her to agree? How could he even get her to consider the marriage option versus filing charges against him. Maybe she'd be willing to save his parents' reputation?
He had spent the last few years coveting Gram from a distance like she was the forbidden fruit. Unlike the other girls he played with, Gram had refused his advances on numerous occasions which only fueled his desire to have her. He knew she had a crush on him, but she refused to act upon it. And although he had been sleeping with her cousin Hilda, he was still uncontrollably attracted to the unattainable Gram. Maybe it was because he knew he couldn't have her. Maybe it was because of her constant rejections of him that made him want to take her. He knew she would hate him if he forced it, but he didn't care. He had to have her at least once to kill his insatiable craving. Once was all it took. Once, to kill his attraction to her. Once, to plant the seed of hatred in her heart for him. Once, to cause an unwanted pregnancy he now had to deal with. He curled up into a ball and cried himself to sleep that night trying to think of a way to get the girl he was no longer attracted to; the girl who hated him the most, to accept him.
*
Gram awoke just as the night sky was relinquishing its darkness to the sunrise. She lay there contemplating the dream she had with a heavy heart. She knew better than to ignore it because every dream she has had to date had come to pass. Her mother told her it was God speaking to her and though she wasn't entirely sure that was true; the fact remained that her dreams always came to pass. Good or bad. That's how she knew her older siblings would leave them to go to their father. It's also how she knew Honey would leave Tristan. The one time she ignored her dreams was when she chose to go to the New Year's party that led to this current situation. She had learned to trust them.
'Lord, you know I don't wanna do this.' She muttered to herself. 'But if this will save my father's reputation, then so be it.' With a deep sigh, she threw her legs over the edge of the bed and walked to her window to watch the final ascent of the sun before facing the difficulties of day.
Greeting her parents at the breakfast table with a kiss to their cheek. "Good morning."
"You're up early," Sandra mused. "What's occasion?"
"Couldn't sleep. Had a weird dream."
Paul spit out his coffee. "Sorry," he apologized to his wife as he grabbed a handful of napkins to clean up his mess. "Gerts?"
"It was just a dream, Papi. Don't worry too much." She knew he would want to know what her dream was about, but she wasn't yet ready to admit to anything just yet. "Just expect a phone call or a visit from the Hipkins relatively soon."
"Hmm. How should we prepare?"
"Don't worry, Papi. Nothing bad is going to happen."
"Then I'll trust you." He returned his attention to the food in front of him.
Sandra placed her hand on Gram's shoulder. "If I don't like what's about to transpire, don't expect me to agree to it."
Gram looked into her blazing green eyes and understood that her mother knew exactly what Gram's dream was about. "I don't like it either, Mom. But I doubt Abraham was overjoyed at the thought of sacrificing Isaac."
"Not the same thing." She argued.
"And I doubt Jesus faced the cross with a giddy, 'I get to die today' attitude. We do what we must, Mom. You taught me that."
"Still…" she grumbled.
"What are you two saying?" Paul demanded. "What kind of sacrifice do think we have to make here?"
Gram was about to placate her dad's demand when the phone rang. "It's for you, Papi." She claimed giving her mother a knowing look.
"This conversation isn't over." He muttered as he went to the phone. "Hello. Oh. Hey Marcus. Yeah, I think we can spare some time… How about at the church? Yes, okay. See you then. Bye."
"That was sooner than expected," Gram muttered to herself.
"What did Marcus want, dear?" Sandra inquired.
"To meet us this afternoon around 2pm at the church. You free, Sandra?"
"Yes. Tristan is off today so we won't have Melissa."
"Gerts will need to go with us, too. I've no doubt this about what they learned last night." He met Gram's cold blue eyes with his own steel grey. "Wanna tell me your dream now, so I'm not caught off guard?"
"You won't like it." She admitted.
*
By the time Gram and her parents had reached the church for the meeting, Paul had no less than four major hissy fits over Gram's dream. He was adamant about not letting Gram proceed with her decision to save everyone's reputation while throwing away her future. She was his only little girl, how could he let her sacrifice herself for the benefit of everyone else. He insisted that he didn't care about his reputation, and that he certainly didn't care about his friendship with the mayor if it was going to cost him his daughter. "You're the victim here, Gerts! Why do you need be the one to fix it. You need to be vindicated and that little punk needs to go to jail!! To hell with our reputations! Let people think what they want."
"That's enough, Papi!" Gram yelled a bit louder than she intended, successfully silencing his latest rant. "Have my dreams ever been wrong? And I mean ever?" She watched him scowl knowing he wouldn't be able to answer her question with a 'yes'. When he dropped his gaze to the floor in defeat, she continued. "Then trust me now. This is the right thing to do. Please don't fight it." She rubbed his back to calm his nerves. Before he could argue with her further, there was a knock on the door.
Sandra let the guests in and directed them to the sofa in the room. Parents and son looked like they hadn't slept much. Celia's eyes were still red and swollen from crying while Johnny looked terrified. 'He should be scared,' Gram thought as she made eye contact with him. "Mr. Hipkins, may I have a word in private with Johnny? Please?" She could see he was about to argue so she continued with, "You see, I know why you are here today and I just have a few conditions to discuss with your son before I agree to anything." Speechless and dumbfounded, Marcus, together with his wife and Gram's parents left the room.
Johnny shifted in his seat nervously. "Um… My parents think that…"
"I know what your parents want and why they want it, Johnny."
"You do?"
"Yes, and if I agree to it then everyone walks away unscathed by the scandal your actions created. Your dad won't lose the election over this. Your mom will keep her standing in society, my dad won't suffer the 'prodigal daughter-typical pastor's kid' scene and you won't go to jail. Everyone wins." She threw him a fake smile before frowning again. "Except me. If I agree, I lose my right to prosecute you, which I really want to do. I lose my hope of marrying for love because trust me, I don't love you. I will lose my friends. My freedom. Everything. With your one act of selfishness, you robbed me of all my firsts and my dreams. You've disrespected me, my parents, your parents and the spouses God had chosen for us. You did this. Not me. Yet I will be the one to pay the biggest price."
"You don't think I'm losing anything with this insane deal?" He growled. "True, I don't want to go to jail but in order for that to happen, you'd have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that what happened between us was not consensual and that would be hard to do."
"Agreed, but the mere accusation could ruin you and your parents."
"Yes, which is why I'm willing to do what they want. But I, too, would lose. I'd lose Hilda…"
"That's a lie and you know it. Even if she knew about us, which I'm sure she does; she'd still be with you. As many times as you have cheated on each other, you should have been done a long time ago, yet you still manage to stay together. Yeah, so I cry bull on that claim."
"Still…"
She held her hand up. "Look! These are my conditions. Meet these and I will agree without argument. Failure to comply and I will leak everything to the press regardless of what it will do to my reputation. Clear?"
"Okay?"
"One. No sex. Ever. No intimacy of any kind. At least not with me, that is. What you took that night is all you will ever get from me. I don't care who or what you do outside of our house. Just don't get caught."
"Done."
"Two. I don't believe in divorce so I will never seek one; as long as you are willing to stay with me, I will stay with you. BUT should you decide to twist off at any given point, I will gladly let you go. You will have to be the one to break this deal because I won't. If I have to be married to you for the rest of my life, then so be it. If you leave me, then so be it. I'll be fine either way."
"So, I have to be the bad guy when the time comes?"
"Yes, but no matter what, this baby is mine. I won't share him with you. You leave? You do so alone."
He frowned but conceded. "Fine."
"No one outside of our parents should know about our arrangement. We can pretend to be happy for others when necessary."
"Doable. Anything else?"
"Not on my side. You?"
"No. I can live with your terms." He sighed. "I'm surprised by you, Gram. I thought I was going to have to beg or bribe you to agree to marry me."
"Oh, it'll cost you. I ain't cheap by any means." She smirked as she watched the color drain from his face yet again. "I'll just let our folks back in so we can get this nightmare over with."