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"Oh, come off it, Mom I love you and I know you loveto make sure I’m happy and taken care of But I AM happy, much happier than I ever have been, and that’s because of Leah I love her, she loves onna be When you decide to stop showing off yourVictoria Jones on s I know you and Dad can be, then we’ll be back Until then?" He paused and then shrugged his shoulders "I’ else then, just turned on his heel and tugged me with him towards the foyer

"Ian Thomas Mitchell, how dare you speak to your mother like that!" she sputtered "We’ve stood beside you when you’ve desecrated your body with all of those…those…things all over yourself We put you through school, let you follow your dreah your father wanted you to go into investments with him We just hat’s best for you, and we don’t want you to have to work yourself to death in the process And the whole thing with Victoria, well, you’ve been close friends for your whole lives, and it’s just been assuether She’s heartbroken that you refuse to go out with her any longer, especially now that Leah’s in the picture"

She turned to htly less hackle-raising than usual "Leah, I do apologize that we’ve irl and all, it’s simply just a matter of differences You understand, yes?"

I opened h I was at a loss for words since she’d pretty h (in not so

"And once again, Mother, you’ve just reaffirmed my decision I hope that you and Dad will eventually coet your noses out of the air" He leaned in and kissed her cheek gently and swiftly "Goodbye, Mother"

And that was that My heart ached for him, because he’d just essentially written his parents off because they were so…so…stuck up There’s no other word for it And I was the reason he did it

For the first ti it What kind of person would I be to allow myself to come between Ian and his family?

"Stop it"

I blinked and turnedout the atching the scenery pass by as he drove us home

"Stop what?" I asked, carefully

"Stop overthinking what just happened It’s not your fault"

"But, Ian-"

"I’ You know it, too, and I hope you realize that I would never stand by and let someone continue to belittle you And that’s what they’ve done since they o on for too long, and for that, I’hed "I know you’re not like that, Ian I’ve told you before, I’ raised by theed "And you’re the woman I love You’re the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with They’ll coe e coot ho it for the rest of the drive My cell rang as we got inside I reached into rab it as Ian headed down the hall toward the bedroo at the display

"What are you doing?" Chloe asked ot home from Ian’s parents’ house," I told her

"Oh How’d that go?" she asked, and I could hear the sarcasm in her voice She already knew the score on that front

"Meh About as well as you’d expect Only this ti back there anytime soon"

"That bad?" she asked, and I could tell she incing, even through the phone