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Reva was nervously working the strap of her pocketbook with her fingers, looking coain "Ms Denton, I’m Mark Wyatt and I believe you have y and an explanation"

Suddenly Reva’s head came up and she turned to the man beside of her "No Mark, I did this and I need to be the one to explain" He reached over and gripped her hand, love evident in his eyes as he looked at her

Ok, so obviously not a brother with the vibes flowing between the the live-in nanny or so another squeeze of encouragean "Suzy, I don’t really knohere to start so I’ll just go fro Mark and I have been in love for several years He works for uard You would have to know my parents to understand why this would be a problem I love the the social ladder and I’ve always been one of their ways to do that When they found out that I was involved with Mark, they hit the ceiling No as their daughter going to end up with some blue collar worker especially one orked for them Th…They fired Mark and threatened to cut ain"

Suzy had a feeling that she knehere this was headed Even though this wo hell, she still felt syh as well "Reva, can I get your sorateful expression to hers at the offer When she returned with two bottles of water, Reva took a long drink of hers before continuing her story

"Even though I wanted to keep seeing Mark behind their backs, he wouldn’t do it He said that I either stood up to my parents or ere finished I…I just couldn’t do it I wasn’t strong enough to stand up to theured I could either h to take me on my terms or distract myself from my misery with someone new" With a rueful expression, Reva said, "That’s where Gray conant right before I met Gray"

"You panicked," Suzy said softly

With tears running down her face, Reva said, "Yes, I did and thus started months of the most horrible behavior that anyone could ever fathoh I could tell that he really didn’t want to get involved with me I think he only slept with me the one time out of pure pity He’d probably neverover at Mark, Reva said, "I’m sorry honey, I know this is hard for you, too"

"Yes, it is, love, but if I’d stood up to your parents, this probably wouldn’t have happened Go ahead and finish your story and don’t worry about me"

Reva kissed their hands where they were joined and turned back to Suzy "Gray broke it off with uilt to literally stalk hiet hinant after a fewheld me back It would have probably been less painful for hi In my defense, I think I really just lost it there for a while When I finally couldn’t hide er, I told them that Gray was the father instead of the truth Instead of looking upset, they both looked thrilled I strung the a lot and that ould all get together when he was back home Gray didn’t even know at that point"

"My God Reva, you ave a rueful laugh, "I can’t even be that pissed off at you when I kno much you have suffered"

A smile lit Reva’s face as she looked at her in relief "Suzy, it kills ood people so much pain When I ht, I could see how much you and Gray loved each other and I had probablythat Gray had another woman in his life, but I had no idea how serious it was Gray stepped up after that and really tried to take care of h dinner with ht over o ahead with the deception The night of h Gray was by my side the entire time and then the next day I found out he’d missed your birthday He was so sad after that It took that for "

Suzy ondering why it had taken her a month to come forward after that revelation, but held kept her silence, letting Reva finish without interruption

"I’m not proud to say that I was still hesitant to do what I knew I had to I’d never stood up toit terrifiedto be with Mark, that I couldn’t rely on hiht I told my parents the truth" Then on the whisper, Reva ad else to do with me II left there and went to Mark where I poured out the whole story I’ a therapist because I know that a nors I’ve done to Gray I stalked him and tortured him because I was so terrified of ould happen when my parents found out about the baby I was desperate for them to think it was Gray’s"

"Holy crap, that’s a lot to take in Reva, I’ll be frank and say you have put h hell this last h, I think you have been kicked enough It took a lot of guts to come here today and face me How did you do that by the way?"

With a shy sht?"

With a laugh, Suzy said, "You got that right I’ such bone heads, but it looks like Mark has your back"

With a look of relief and gratitude, Reva reached out and took her hand "Thank you Suzy for being so good about this I can see why Gray loves you I’ets home today"

As Reva and Mark stood to leave, Suzy i After a moment of hesitation, Reva returned the embrace After she’d shut the door behind them, she fell down onto the couch and tried to process it all

What if this made no difference? Had too much happened with Gray to start over now? Oh blah, find your backbone That’s yourand went after him or do you need another disaster to realize how much you love hiaht that she had to attend It was the entertainment portion of the conference and consisted of drinks, dinner and live entertain and when it was over, she was heading to Charleston and the oing after what she wanted

Chapter Twenty Six

Suzy found Beth going over the dinneron schedule for tonight, sis? I don’t want any delays so let’s stay on top of things Has the band arrived yet?"

Beth stopped to study her in surprise This was the most animated she’d seen Suzy since her breakup with Gray "U?"

"What? Of course not, why?"

"Well, you look kind of high or so ok? Your face is all flushed, and your eyes are glassy"

With a dra else"