Greyson

EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON

That was something people used to tell me when my Mother had passed away. Somehow it taught me that despite the bad outcomes, they were necessary for the good to breed from. A necessary comfort that helped me survive the rougher years.

As I stand at the alter watching Hudson walk back from checking in on Sage, he was alone and his expression told more than he'll ever be able to word. So I stare at Scarlett who was oblivious and waiting for Sage to walk through those doors.

Then I loosened my tie and stormed down the isle, passing all of the concerned people around. The only person not accounted for was Bianca and I had a gut feeling she was the root of whatever was going on.

Hudson followed after me, trying to slow me down.

"Greyson." He calls out.

I stop and frowned. "Where is she?"

"Bianca's driver came and picked them up." Hudson explains.

I scoff. "Then why the fuck aren't we following them!?"

"Greyson just relax." Hudson grabs my shoulder.

Relax, is he out of his mind? "You want me to fucking relax!? My fiance just walked out on her wedding day!"

Whatever Bianca fed into Sage's head she'll pay for every moment of it. Every feeling of pity I had for her went down the drain, for all I care she's dead to me. I don't even claim her to be the mother of my child, just a surrogate from here on.

"Whats the bloody commotion all about? The guests are confused, where is Sage?" Father appears and questions.

Hudson rubs the back of his neck. "She left."

"Can't say I'm surprised." Father scoffs. "Any sane woman would."

If I wasn't infuriated already, he now added fuel to the flame. "Why would you say that?"

"Son, have you watched these past few weeks or are you blind?" He explains. "I'm not happy about this either but have you sat down and spoken to Sage about any of this? You're inviting more reasons for her to run each day, she's eighteen and although you're ready to settle and be a family man, have you ever sat down and asked if she was ready to be a wife?"

Hudson sighed. "This wouldn't have happened if Bianca didn't say anything."

"No, as much as I dislike that woman this isn't only her fault." Father tells us. "Sage left on her own accord, she wasn't dragged or kidnapped. She walked out with her own two feet and this would've been avoided if you'd just bloody spoken to the girl."

I scoff. "She said nothing, she has a mind of her own if she was afraid or against any of this she had all the time in the world to say it."

"You plan a secret wedding and think she's wrong for not telling you she's against it when she found out only a few hours ago she'd be walking down the isle?" Father chuckles. "If that happened to you at eighteen you'd be fleeing to the next country. Just because she deals with everything well on the outside, doesn't mean she is on the inside."

I couldn't believe this. "You're on her side? You and Andrew arranged us together, the purpose of our meeting is purely beneficial to both businesses. Since when did it matter whatever Sage said in this? You've been molding her and preparing her for this moment since we found out she existed."

"Since when did you care about any of that?" Father's brows furrow. "Admittedly, in the beginning she played a key role in the larger scheme of things, in fact she still does. But that's not your job to worry about, it's mine. You are her fiance, the man she loves, your job is to pay attention so things like this don't happen."

Ripping my tie off of my neck, I shake my head. "You don't give a shit, either way you win. Now you won't have to have an Emerson waiting to stab you in the back. Here I thought you were finally acting like a Father. My fiance left me at the alter and it's my fault, I get that I'm putting a lot on her but shit the world is putting a lot on me. I need your support not a fucking lecture."

"Grow the fuck up." Hudson speaks out loud, shocking both Father and I. "You're just standing here arguing with Richard about something he can't control. Stop acting like a drama queen and blaming everyone, this is what being an adult is all about. Every action YOU did led us here, it's up to you to fix them. You have our support, but I refuse to stand here and watch you use Richard as a punching bag when we both know he did nothing wrong."

Father clears his throat. "And that's why he's the favorite."

"Really, jokes?" I rub my face.

His brows go up. "This conversation is getting quite serious, I thought a joke would help ease that stick out of your ass."

"Again, FIANCE left me at the alter." I remind them.

Father returns to a more serious expression. "Sage loves you she's just not ready for the Blackstone baggage to be her whole life. I support you but I'm not going to help you push the girl into a doomed marriage. Now, I assume you've remembered I'm your father and that I'll do anything to help you through any disarray that presents itself in your life. What do you want me to do?"

"I apologize." I tell him. "I'm just—"

Hudson scoffs. "An ungrateful asshole."

"Hot headed..." I look at Hudson. "Do we have a problem?"

He grins at me. "Yeah, you're still standing here when your ass should be behind a drivers seat fixing this mess."

"Thank you both, I'll leave this to you guys." I clear my throat. "I need to borrow your car, Hud."

Hudson pulls out a pair of keys. "If I find one scratch on her, I'll rip your bank account in half."

"I'd still have enough money to buy you a hundred of them." I inform him.

Father chuckles. "Maybe a thousand."

"Rich people." Hudson rolls his eyes.

I grab the keys and nod my head at them. "If I find one scratch on my daughter, I'll rip you in half."

Arriving at home, I couldn't help but notice it was radio silent. It worried me because this could mean an abundance of things. My worst fear is she packed up and left for good, but Sage isn't that type of girl. Unfortunately, Bianca was with her so who knows what was fed into her head this whole time.

Walking through the hallway to the Living Room I am greeted by Bianca who sat on the couch sipping her glass of wine.

That fury I buried down rose immediately. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Please, redirect that anger to someone who cares." Bianca places the glass onto the table.

I went up to her. "Get out of my house, you're not welcomed anywhere near my family."

"Last time I checked I'm the mother of your daughter." She reminds me.

I scoff. "More like a surrogate, I've got full rights so her, we don't have any reason to include you in her life anymore."

"So you're mad at me because I'm the only sensible one to remind a young girl that she's constantly being rushed through the motions?"

"No I'm mad at you because you had no right to say anything that has to do with my fiance." My jaw tensed.

She rolls her eyes. "I don't care what you think."

"Are you doing this to ruin my life? Do you want to be with me again? Why would you do this?"

Bianca stands up and looks me in the eyes. "Believe it or not, I see a lot of myself in Sage, so as someone who was in love with you and would do anything for you. Regretting that I was so consumed by you because it made me forget who I was, I had to ask her. No one dared to ask her anything, no one cared enough about her opinion."

"That's not your place!" I shout. "You and Sage are nothing alike, she's not widely hated by everyone she meets."

Her eyes become watery. "If you think for one second that I am hurt by your words, understand this, you are the last and only man I've ever loved. I am the bad guy so that you can be happy and I refuse to apologize for anything. What I did was make sure Sage didn't hurt you in the long run, that she wouldn't ruin Scarlett's father."

"If you believe Sage is capable of wanting to hurt me, you are sadly mistaken." I frown.

She looks up, fighting the tears. "This isn't about her wanting to hurt you! You're a force that the average woman cannot handle without the proper foundation to stand on. Sage is barely an adult, we just forget that she isn't because of everything that has gone on. One day she'll realize that every bad thing that has happened is because of you and she'll be trapped, unable to deal with it until she just breaks."

"You don't get to speak for her and a hypothetical future."

Bianca shakes her head. "You're bad for her and you know it. This world is bad for her. When will you realize that you thought you were setting her up to be your wife, when in reality you were only preparing her to live a life of one ordeal after another? I wouldn't wish half the shit that's happened to her on my worst enemy. Do you see what you've caused!?"

"I've done nothing wrong." I pinch the bridge of my nose. "You're just fabricating things that aren't there!"

"Stop arguing!" Suddenly, I look up and see Sage down the hallway, holding luggage in her hands. "Please, just stop."

I finally took my first breath for hours. "Sage."

"Greyson." Sage walks up to me, her eyes filled with sadness.

Bianca grabs her glass of wine and walks away, leaving us alone. I wasn't done with her yet but at this moment all I could focus on was Sage. It's been so long since I've seen her that even with all that's happening, my body relaxed at the sight of her.

She was wearing regular clothes, a t-shirt and jeans, her makeup was removed and hair was put up into a bun. I watched her place the luggage's down and it dawned on me that my worst fear was happening.

"Why did you leave?" I ask, wanting so bad to touch her, but noticing she wanted to be as far from me as possible.

Her eyes drop to the ground. "I'm not ready, Greyson."

"No, you were ready, you just let that woman talk you out of it." I frown.

She shakes her head. "Greyson, I love you, and it's all I know."

"So what's the problem?"

She looks up at me. "It's literally all I know."

"I don't understand."

Sage crosses her arms. "I've forgotten how to be me Greyson, I'm so dedicated to making your life easier that I am lost. I used to speak my mind and not take anything that I didn't deserve, my ideal way to spend my twenties was going to Greece or aiming to work for NASA. Not being a wife and a stepmother. Before marrying you was something I was forced to do but now for the first time in a long time, I have a choice."

"You've always a choice."

She sighs. "No, because if it were my choice I wouldn't have been here in the first place. I haven't decided anything for myself in a long time and I know once I marry you, that problem won't be fixed."

"We're in a relationship, that's why we communicate." I explain to her.

Sage bites her lip. "Greyson we both know that you can't juggle everything, something has to give. I'm the leftovers."

"You're the woman I love." I scowl. "Don't ever say that about yourself."

She scoffs. "It's true though, you Father entrusted you with businesses that consume so much time out of you already. Not to mention you've got this daughter who needs all the time in the world to heal the wounds she's been carrying since her birth. Then there's me? When do I fit into this equation? When we sleep at night? When we have sex? I'm no longer your priority—"

"Sage—"

She stops me. "And its fine, I'm okay with that, but I don't want to settle for it just yet. I'm not ready for that, I need more time, I need...more...time."

"You're just as much as a priority as any of those things, I'll shorten my hours, we'll do family dates. I'll schedule one day a week with just the both of us."

Sage shouts. "Stop it! Just Stop. You are not compromising anything for me, these were two things you've wanted since before you met me and I refuse to be in the way of that."

"You're talking nonsense!"

"You're not listening to me!" She starts crying. "I don't want to get married Greyson, not yet."

Listening

Everyone was right, I've been trying to talk her into something she's clearly telling me how she feels. I didn't realize the pressures of my life and the tole it would take on her, this whole time she's been the victim not me.

This broke my heart in two. "I understand."

Her eyes rise to mine. "I love you and I want to be with you, please don't take this differently."

"Sage," I grab her hand. "I understand."

She rubs her eyes. "But I'm not ready...I'm not strong enough..."

"Shh," I pull her into my chest, wrapping her around with my arms. "I understand."

We stood there in silence for what felt like an eternity, stroking her hair slowly. I had to grow up and say what we both were two scared to speak out. Every second I held her was the most torture I've ever experienced, because this would be the last time I'll be able to.

Sage didn't deserve this, I didn't deserve her. This isn't new information, it's just something I thought I could ignore. Like Father said, I keep inviting more reasons for her to run, the least I can do is alleviate the guilt she'll feel from it.

"Sage." I gently push her away.

Her face was covered in tears.

"I'm going to let you go." I tell her.

Not surprisingly, her eyes widened with shock. "Greyson?"

"You're right, we can't be together, not now." As the words came out of my mouth, I swear it felt like a spear flew through my chest. "I have to let you...go."

She backed away. "I wasn't planning on leaving forever, I just wanted to spend a few nights with my dad to think."

"Sage, I know I haven't been a good man and listened." I grab her hand. "But you need to listen to yourself. None of these problems aren't going to be solved or disappear any time soon."

Her brows formed into a 'v' shape. "But you just said we can work on it."

"No, I realize we can't." I explain. "I'm not going to hold you back anymore and I know you want a say but for this last time, I am going to do what I feel is right. We both can't succeed if we're not on the same page."

She shakes her head. "No, that's not what I wanted."

"Sage do you know what you want?" I ask. "Because I've lived a good portion of my life to know what I want. I want more children and shoot, I want to make my Father even more proud by making the family business even stronger and more successful. Setting up our future generations for a life of comfort. I want to teach Scarlett what real love is and how to rely on someone. Right now if my own fiance isn't on the same page, if she regrets even a little bit that she didn't get to live her own life. Then I've failed as a husband."

Sage remains silent.

So I continue. "And if there comes a time you move on because you realize that there's better men, who won't give you all these problems. That's a gamble I'm willing to take in order for you to be the best version of yourself."

"Greyson, you've got to be kidding me."

I shake my head. "I'm not, you're the one I want to marry and I'll wait however long it takes for you to be ready. But I'm not going to rush you anymore, one way or another you need to go out there and experience the things you want to. Go to Greece this summer, take an internship at NASA, we surely have the connections to get you there. I will not have you play house here and waste all that potential."

"Stop, shut up, now." She moves in close. "Don't say another word."

And now for the final nail in the coffin

"We've got to break up."