Ellison Taylor

"Ellison." Mom said as soon as she saw me, she dropped the oven mitten aside and came to give me a hug.

"Mom." I said hugging her tightly and when I moved back. I see her looking at Ian with awe, the chatty room suddenly turned quiet and I watched everyone's reaction. Ian is handsome, no doubt about that. Everyone looked at him like he is some celebrity as their mouth was wide open.

"Mrs.Taylor." Ian started as he handed her the wine bottle and flowers. "Thank you for having me here."

"Pleasure." My mom said still in awe.

"So this is Ian." Marilyn's mom came forward, very impressed by what she is seeing.

"Hello, Aunt Melissa." I said.

She ignored my greeting and stood in front of Ian. "You are handsome, I was thinking why Marilyn was going overboard talking about you, you are a handsome man."

"Please allow me to introduce myself.." He said with the same gentle smile. "I'm Ian Collins and I'm Ellison's boyfriend."

She gasped and looked at me, scowling. I'm sure her oh-so-lovely daughter have broke the news to her but if she's pretending, she is doing a good job.

I see my grandpa and I was super excited as I skipped towards him.

"Ellison." He beamed. "My little snowflake."

I laughed at his nickname for me. I give him a tight hug. "I missed you."

"I miss you too." He said. Ian came to greet him.

"I see, this young man has stole my granddaughter's heart. Not just one, but two." He joke. "You get to choose one."

"I think Ellison is the one who stole my heart and since she have my heart I don't think I get to choose someone else, can I?" Ian grinned and my grandpa laughed.

"Please take good care of her." He sighed. "I hope her grandma understand that to please her one grandchild she will be hurting the other one. In the end, one will be having a broken heart-but that's how life is..She should see what is right and what is wrong. I support your decision, young man. Ellison is beautiful and I hope you will cherish and love her the same, forever."

"Always, I promise." He said as he took my hand.

I heard buzzing from the outside. "They are outside in the backyard doing the barbecues." My grandpa explained.

Marilyn was excited to see Ian,but Ian- not so... he walked passed her while holding my hand and walked towards my dad and my uncle who was talking about fishing.

The backyard is decorated, way too beautifully. There were fairy lights all around the backyard. Flowers spread around the place. There was a picnic table spread with foods and decorations. There was a small bar with lights covering it. I never expected such a decoration from Brent. I wondered why Brent decided to decorate the backyard like that.

I didn't see my grandma yet. While Ian was busy talking with My dad and uncle with El and Cooper joining them.I saw Claire who was busy setting up the table.

"Where is grandma?" I asked.

"She must be in her room." She shrugged. "How are you doing?"

"Nervous." I said. "He's here and I don't want any dramas."

"I doubt." She said. "Marilyn even dressed up to impress a guy that's taken. How rude is that."

Our talk was interrupted by my grandma walking out to greet Ian. Grandma like everyone else was very pleased to see Ian.

"You all have handsome genes." She said impressed as she looked at all the cousins.

"I agree." Uncle Jim said.

"Ian." My grandma said. "Can I call you that?"

"Of course." Ian said politely.

"I heard you own businesses here and as well as around the states." She said.

"I do." He said. He was confident and polite at the same time. Marilyn came and stood beside grandma. The nerve of her to do that.

"I think you caught the eyes of my two lovely grand-daughters." She said, starting the topic.

"Mom." Uncle Jim started.

"Not now." My dad said, not really happy with the way the conversation is flowing.

She laughed lightly. "I'm just curious about his relationship with Ellison." She said. "I think Marilyn is better for you." She smiled and looked at me.

"Mom." Uncle Jim snapped. "Let them be, stop interfering in their relationship."

"Enough mom." Dad said. "I have enough of you looking down on my daughter. She have been nothing but polite to you as a child. I have no idea why you never liked her."

"Why I never liked her?" She snapped. "Look at her, she is bringing down the name of our family. She didn't even graduate from our family's ballerina school. She can't even walk in heels without being clumsy. Look at the way she is dressed up in jeans instead of dress and what else She is now fighting with her cousin for this young man. How embarrassing is she. She doesn't deserve him."

Marilyn give me a cocky look and I felt the tears spring into my eyes at her harsh words. Ian's jaw was tensed and gone was his calm self.

"I'm sorry." He started. "You have no rights to interfere and think who is right for me. I love Ellison. I love everything about her. So what? If she is clumsy, she is still beautiful. You know who is the embarrassing one right now? Your grand-daughter standing beside you. She knows I love Ellison and Ellison love me, but she still want me. Beauty has nothing to do with dresses and heels. She look stunning in her jeans and shirt. Ellison is a smart woman who is working towards her dreams and I love her for her kindness and the way she looks at everything with positivity." He was polite yet firm with his words. "Just like how I respect you, I want you to respect my relationship with Ellison. This is not the way, I wanted to talk to you or her families,but I want you to know I can't watch her cry because of someone. Her tears are too precious for me and I hate when someone make her feel upset." He looked at Marilyn.

"You are a grown up. You are no more a child. You shouldn't go after your cousin like that. It's embarrassing." He said to her. "You getting dressed up in expensive and good clothings and make up won't make you a nice person. You need to be nicer to people."

Marilyn's mouth dropped opened. "Grandma." She whined.

"Don't you dare." Uncle Jim said. "I'm so ashamed of you right now. When you were a child, you were always after Ellison's toys and that time, we kept saying it's okay, Ellison needs to be nice and share her things, but We were wrong, we kept taking her things from her just to satisfy you. You are the one that needs to learn how to give up things. You don't know how it feels like to give up things." Uncle Jim fumed.

Marilyn was crying and grandma stood quietly. Ian give me a hug and rubbed my back gently.

I noticed El, Cooper and Claire has silently left the backyard.

"But she is not who she claims to be.." she looked at Ian.

"You are not who you think you are." He said to her. "You are talking bad about your cousin, but how about you?" He questioned her. "I'm done talking to you. Leave me alone and leave Ellison alone and I mean it."

Grandma looked at Ian with a raw emotions I have never seen before. "It's embarrassing someone outside our family has to correct me." She said. "Brent spoke to me like that, but I thought they were siblings and that's why. Hearing from a man outside our family make me question the way I have been seeing things."

"Grandma." Marilyn cries in disbelief.

"I always thought Ellison was a selfish one, never ever share her things with her cousins, but I didn't see her point of view. We kept snatching things away from her and when she held on things tightly, she was just protecting what was her's but I snatched that from her too." She said in disbelief. "For this girl." She looked at Marilyn. "Who I deep down know doesn't really care about me. I know you send me birthday gifts every year." She looked at me. "I pretended it was Marilyn who was sending me gifts but I know she doesn't even remember my birthday."

"I-I do." Marilyn said.

"I'm sorry." My grandma said looking at me with defeat. "I was wrong, I used way too much harsh words that I can't even take back even if I want."

"You need to always remember." Ian said. "I know I have no rights to be talking to you this way, but all I want to say is before you talk- you should always think,would I like it if someone else says it to me that way? I know, sometime I may sound rude- it just slips, we are human. We make mistakes but we can apologize and be better."

"This is not how it was suppose to be." Marilyn screamed. "Mom!"

Author's Note: Thank you for reading this book, please give this chapter a Vote and share this book with others. One more chapter to go 😭 thank you for supporting me in my writing!