Cut And Dried

Building Bridges

Chrissie

(4 years later)

Another loud insistent buzz emanated from the box on the wall indicating someone was waiting to gain admittance through the security gate to our house.

Wiping my hands on the towel and charging out of the kitchen, bellowing at Brandon my hyped up mini version of my husband, to go into the downstairs cloakroom and I would be there in a minute to clean him up.

Who the hell would call at this time of night, we're not expecting visitors.

"Hello" I gasped into the box "Who is it"

"It's Elena and Alan Simons your in laws" came the males reply.

I froze what the hell did they want.

"Umm Brent's not here, won't be back till late he's filming" I spluttered out.

"We know, we came to see you"

"Why, what do you want"

"Can we at least talk face to face, it's difficult through this box"

I debated telling them to come back when Brent was here.

"Please" came through the speaker.

Sighing I pressed the button to open the gates, I just hope I don't live to regret this decision.

"Come on in"

A few minutes later there was a knock on the front door, mentally pulling myself together I took a deep breath and opened it.

We stood staring at each other for a few minutes neither party knowing what to do or say, eventually I made the first move.

"Would you care to come in" standing back and waving them in.

"Thank you" Alan mumbled as they made their way in, I directed them into the lounge even though they knew where it was having been to Brent's house countless times in the past.

"Can I get you something to drink" playing the hostess, though I would rather play the bad guy and kick their arse out, they declined.

Making myself as comfortable as my nerves would allow in my chair opposite the sofa they occupied, again it was left to me to break the silence.

"Well what do you want" it came out a lot harsher than I expected and I noticed the uncomfortable look on their faces, but hell after what they had pulled they deserved it.

"Well" Mr Simons started leaning forward with his elbows resting on his legs and hands clasped together.

"We would like to apologise for our behaviour towards you and our son, it was wrong, very wrong of us, but you have to see where we were coming from......"

"No" I butted in mirroring Mr Simons stance.

"I don't, there are no excuses for your behaviour, you are your own selves, you dictate what you can or can't do not your parents, I would never do that to my son for any reason and certainly not for money"

"Yes, well that's besides the point" Mrs Simons butted in.

"We've decided to forgive and forget" she continued. "And we're here to say we are quite happy for you to be married to our son now, just so long as he remembers he needs to give up this movie star nonsense and get ready to take over from his father"

The bloody nerve of the woman, forgive and forget, happy for me to be married to their son.

"You do know we are selling this house and moving to England permanently, Brent will be keeping a small condo in LA for when he's needed to film here"

By the look of shock and horror on their faces, they didn't.

"What! Why you, how dare you take our son away from us and his future you little..." Seethed Mrs Simons, now the real reason for their visit was out in the open.

"You wanted me to persuade your son to take over your company, that's it isn't it, that's why your here"

"It's what he was born to do, it's his future, till you showed up" screamed Mrs Simons.

Now my back was up, how dare this woman come into my house and shout and demand what I should do.

"You tried to destroy his career to force him to marry in an arranged marriage and take over your company, you engineered our break up, well it didn't work we found each other again and pieced together your plan, now you have lost your last sibling due to your lack of love for their personal needs, yet you expect me to get him to take over your company anyway, god you two are unbelievable, I won't encourage him or beg him to do anything, he is his own man and he will do what he believes is right for him and his family and in that I will back him 100%" I fired back, my anger building the longer this woman was in my house.

Mr Simons glared at his wife, who huffed and sat back arms folded across her chest, but at least she shut up.

"Look" began Mr Simons. "I'm sorry for what has happened and the way we went about things, on hind sight it wasn't the way we should have gone, I can't alter those mistakes all I can do is apologise.
However the fact remains that Brent is the eldest and his rightful place is CEO of Simons Industries, surely you can see that, all I want is for him to keep the family business going with a Simons at the helm"

"Mr Simons, I understand your concerns, but you need to stop and think, forget business for the moment and think family, between the two of you and your short sightedness you drove your children away one by one, now you need to build back up the bridges you have wantonly destroyed with your offspring, not through business, money or threats, but love and understanding"

I could see the driving force behind all this was mainly Mrs Simons, the look of barely controlled anger in her eyes, the clenching of her jaw, she hated loosing and now here she was having lost everything and in her eye's demean herself by having to beg for help rather than demanding.

I knew this woman and I would never be friends, I would never visit her or let my children be near her without me in close attendance, I could not bring myself to trust her ever.

At that moment Brandon came storming in.

"Mummy I'm waiting" before he noticed we had visitors, then he turned into his shy self and jumped into my lap hiding his face in my chest.

I noticed the awkward atmosphere leave the room as all eyes were on Brandon, the calculating look in their eyes the future of the Simons empire sat before them, over my dead body.

"Brandon say hi to your grandparents from America, you know the ones I told you about"

"You told him about us" Mr Simons asked incredulously.

"Of course I may not like you, but at the end of the day he is still your grandson and if you wish to get to know him then you are more than welcome to visit from time to time, but he will not be visiting you, until he is old enough to make up his own mind"

I felt more than saw the glare Mrs Simons gave me, even in defeat she was still a formidable woman.

Just then the door flew open and in stepped my husband.

"Honey I'm home" so clichéd.

Stepping into the room he never completed his next sentence.

"How are the two loves of... What the hell are you doing here"

His happy smiling face, changing to one of anger and disapproval.

Getting up quickly I picked Brandon up and settled him on my hip.

"We'll leave you alone, I need to wash Brandon" I moved to my husband's side as he bent down and kissed his son on top of his head and brushed his lips over my cheek, not once taking his eyes of his parents.

"Remember" I whispered in his ear. "I love you always" and then I departed the room.