Love Makes Us One (Part 2 of Four Makes One) Ronnie's Story(Completed)

Chapter 20 - Taking Down An A**hole

Ronnie

Manuel, my father and a whole group of people arrive first thing this morning. My current cases have been handed over to another associate to cover for me until this is over. I tell them I'm able to handle my workload, but they advise me that I need to concentrate on this fully.

Monday afternoon, a letter arrives by messenger for me. I open it and of course it's from Griffin:

Ronnie,

You're looking good and I have a cute daughter. You can keep her if you stop the order of child support and pay me a hundred-thousand dollars. Bring it to me before the court date and I'll drop it. If not, see you in court.

Amy's father

He knows her name? He must have been looking for me longer than the time that I've seen him. I hand the letter to Manuel and my father intercepts it. I snatch it back from him and hand it to Manuel.

"Ronnie--" He starts.

"No. I still don't want to have anything to do with you. The only reason you are here is because Manuel says 'the more the merrier'. He actually thinks you can help. It can be done without you speaking to me. So show me you actually want to help without expecting anything in return from me and maybe I'll think about speaking with you again."

I spin around in the other direction and go to Tyler who is waiting for me. He pulls me in his arms when I reach him. Frankie and my brothers burst inside of the door, "Why didn't you tell us what's going on?" Cameron asks as he approaches.

"I'm sorry. Everything happened so fast, I didn't have enough time to call you. How did you find out?" I ask.

"Grandpa called to see how you were doing," Frankie's hand is rubbing my back above Tyler's hand around my waist.

I turn around so my back is to Tyler's front, "I'm sorry I didn't call you all. It's been a rough night. Griffin just sent me a letter saying he'll drop it if I pay him a hundred grand and stop taking child support. I'm willing to pay because I don't want him in my life anymore.

Frankie tucks my hair behind my ear and puts her fingertips gently on my cheeks, "No one here will let him anywhere near you or Amy. I'm sure they'll have this taken care of in the next week. Everything will be just fine." I smile and give my sister a hug. I'm glad I have her here to lean on also.

I look around at my support system. You would think as large as my family is, we would have each other's back when things like this happens, but I'm quite sure if this happened before I graduated from college, I wouldn't have had this support. I would have had to call our grandfather's to help. I know that I owe a lot of this to Frankie.

It's funny that her arrival in our lives completed our family in ways that's indescribable. Our grandfathers love her so much and in return have learned to love their grandchildren again. With their support, we are able to do what we need to do. Then our parents are trying to piggyback off of us, though not successfully. Eventually, when they figure it out, it will work for them, if it's not too late.

The bottom of the letter has an address on it where I'm supposed to bring the money. I'm ready to go to the bank and get it out, because I just want this to be over.

"Since we have a month before the court date, just give us a week to figure this out, okay?" Manuel requests. I nod, giving him time.

I try to concentrate on other things, but this stays in the forefront of my mind. I can't lose my baby. Especially to him. I know I loved him, but I also know what he did was wrong. It took me a while to figure that out with some secret visits with a psychologist. One of my friends in high school suggested that I visit one when she saw that I was suffering from what happened. I asked my parents if I could see one and they told me that no one in our family has ever needed therapy and it wouldn't start with me.