The Payne family was sitting in front of the Carla Grayson, mother of Stewart and Lauren Grayson. She, however, didn’t take her eyes off of Lauren and Samantha for some reason.
“What is the meaning of all this?” She asked again, facing Lauren, as if it wasn’t enough for her to ask in the previous chapter. Lauren didn’t answer her repeated question as she bowed her down and nudged Stewart.
He uncomfortably rubbed his side before glancing at Lauren and turning his focus on his mother. “Mother, what a pleasant surprise, yes?” Carla didn’t think so as she gave her son a glare.
“A surprise, yes, pleasant, I don’t think so.”
Scarlet gulped as she heard what her mother-in-law spoke and how she said it. It made her afraid to come out to her as the woman her daughter was marrying so the time being she remained behind her bulky cousin, who was finding the scene way too amusing.
“Isn’t it amazing how young Lauren’s mom looks?” Blake whispered to Juliet ignoring the fact that a scared Scarlet was hiding behind him. Katie nodded her head unconsciously even when Blake was addressing Juliet.
“I’m looking forward to what she’ll do when she finds out Scarlet is marrying Lauren.” Juliet chuckled in a low voice, which made Scarlet smack both of their napes with a frown.
“Sometimes I wonder whose side you both are on.”
“Don’t worry boss, I’ll be on your side.” Clark whispered to his boss, who gave him an appreciative smile before glaring at her cousins’ backs.
“Now answer my question. Why did you come here out of all the places in the world?” Ms. Carla asked with a serious expression as she looked at her daughter, completely ignoring her son.
“I wanted to have a quiet wedding here.” Lauren muttered more to herself than to her mother, as she kept her head bowed. Scarlet wanted to help her fiancé but she wasn’t sure if she would be more of help or not. Who knew what Lauren’s mother would do?
“Speak up, child!”
“I was here to have my wedding!” Lauren burst out as she looked up at her mother, who was taken aback by her reply but didn’t take long to compose herself. “And why did you find the need to have your wedding here? It’s such a small town, there’s nothing here.”
“Mom, my fiancé’s family is here. And I wanted to share my joy with them.” It was like Ms. Carla was noticing the Payne family for the first time as she glanced at them before looking at Blake in particular.
“Is that the numbskull you’re marrying?” She asked as she pointed her finger towards an unsuspecting Blake, who widened his eyes and began to shake his head frantically with his hands raising up in defense.
“Oh, no ma’am, it’s –” He didn’t have time to correct her wrong assumption as he found himself being in a headlock which was done by none other than the woman herself. “I’m sure, you set my daughter up to do this! You disappointing man!”
Scarlet didn’t know what to do as she saw her cousin being tortured in a head lock by a woman, a way older – but young looking – woman at that too.
As Lauren stood up to pull her mother away from the innocent guy, who was about to cry for his life, Scarlet had already separated the two. She pulled her cousin away from the woman, and he didn’t waste anytime to hide behind Scarlet, who could only give Ms. Carla a faint smile.
“Uh, I’m the one marrying your daughter, ma’am.”
Lauren looked at Scarlet, as she stood in front of the older woman with her best rendition of a forced smile. Ms. Carla glanced back at her daughter, who nodded her head confirming the queries that her mother held.
There was only a moment of silence, as the Payne family looked on as to what might happen. Juliet and Katie were busy trying to soothe a wounded Blake, who was finding comfort in his cousin’s arm while resenting Katie’s presence altogether.
Clark stood amused as to what was happening around him, while there seemed to be a smirk on Angela’s face. She was finally enjoying what was happening in the Payne household.
There was another moment of silence before Scarlet had found herself getting her head stuck in a lock by none other than Ms. Carla herself.
“Do you think that I would discriminate between a man and a woman, you disappointing woman!”
Lauren was quick to stop her mother this time since her lover was directly being suffocated under her mother’s arm, who was definitely not ready to let the woman go.
Stewart had tried to be a better person and went to stop his mother as well even when he wanted to just watch the whole scene while munching on a bag of chips.
“Oh my god, mother!” Lauren managed to pull Scarlet away from her mother who was not done yet, as she frowned at her daughter and tried to pull Scarlet back into her oh so loving arms, but Stewart held her back.
“Your mother’s crazy, Lauren!” Blake yelled at the blonde and got a quick response from the mentioned woman, that made him quiet down immediately.
“Oh, you shut your mouth, young man!”
“Mother, why are you here?” Lauren asked as she brought her mother’s attention back to her, and away from a silent and terrified Blake.
“Of course, to bring you back to New York and get you married there.” It was like the Payne family had been invited to step into the conversation as grandma Payne rolled forward in her wheelchair and directly addressed the other woman.
“Excuse me, Ms. Sharla.”
“It’s Carla.” Lauren’s mother corrected the older woman, who just smiled fakely at her. “Whatever.”
Scarlet and Lauren’s mouth fell open as they watched with amusement the way Grandma Payne had stepped forward voluntarily to represent the whole family.
“I don’t care what your name is, I just care about your intentions and how they are bad for my granddaughter and her fiancé.”
“Well, your granddaughter is marrying my daughter, which justifies my intentions for her.” Carla narrowed her eyes at the older woman, who wasn’t ready to back off at all.
“Yes, but look where we are now, there must be a reason why Lauren didn’t want you to know about her wedding.” Grandma Payne spoke with attitude as she smirked towards the other woman.
The whole Payne family stood speechless just as grandma Payne was done finishing her sentence. Clark manage to whisper the one thing on everyone’s mind, “Savage, man, savage.”
“My daughter has always hid things from me, this is not the first time.” Carla spoke up after a moment of silence but nothing could match up with the fact that this wasn’t something ordinary like when Lauren had hidden her ballet shoes, or if she had gotten a boyfriend or not.
This was serious.
She was getting married, and people usually don’t hide that from their parents unless they’re planning to run away from home.
“Look, I understand that you care for your daughter but we all care for her too. She’s the one that managed to help my Scar move on from a bad breakup.” Blake gave Katie a side-eye that she tried hard to ignore even when she felt guilty. “But we all should care about what the kids want instead of making decisions for them.”
Carla stood looking at the woman in the wheelchair, as she thought about her words.
She didn’t want her daughter to regret ever wanting to have a wedding in a small town in North Carolina. There was practically nothing in the town and it didn’t make anything better that she had already given off a bad impression to the whole family as well as her daughter’s fiancé.
She turned around to face her daughter, who gave her an apologetic look before speaking, “I’m sorry mom, for not telling you about this, but I was afraid of this happening.”
Carla listened as Lauren continued, “I really do want my wedding to be here, with Scarlet’s family. They make me feel like a part of them.” Lauren’s mother could understand why Lauren thought like that. Ever since she was a child, she didn’t know what a family really was, since her father passed away when she was only four, and she had no one else in her family other than Stewart and Carla herself.
Carla had no siblings and the only sibling her husband had, had died years before he himself did.
They had no one other than themselves, and it must’ve been hard for the blonde woman to feel as if she was a part of a bigger family.
Surely, the Payne family was a huge family.
“Okay.” Carla sighed out as she gave her blonde daughter a smile after giving everyone around her a pointed look. “I will let you do what you want.”
Lauren left Scarlet’s side to hug her mother, as the blonde’s fiancé stood smiling at the two. She still wasn’t over how beautiful Lauren’s mom was and how strong she was even at her age.
Stewart came in intruding their hug as well as he wrapped his arms around his mother.
“Group hug!” Someone exclaimed, that someone being Blake, as everyone gathered in the middle of the living room to embrace the three Graysons.
“Oh my god, this family is crazy.” Carla muttered as she was squished by the multiple bodies of people embracing them. Lauren could only laugh as she hugged her mother tighter. She was happy that things were going as she wanted and nothing was ruining her happiness.
But, she surely didn’t know that good things come to an end quicker than bad things.
And the end was approaching, rather slowly, but approaching.
Comments (1)
See all