Once Mary and George become grandparents, their one desire is to lavish their granddaughter Ellie with attention. However, as Ellie matures and prepares to head off to college, the pair must teach her a valuable lesson about whom to put their trust—both financial and emotional—into.
Upon Monica’s marriage, I came to the realization that George and I had finally earned our vacation time. Our daughter was married and will ultimately bring us grandkids.
Until our grandchildren entered our lives, we planned to make the most of our remaining healthy years.
Ellie, our lone granddaughter, was born to Monica and Eddie a few years later.
With George and myself spoiling her, time flew by. She represented our opportunity for atonement—for us to be good parents.
On the day Ellie was born, George stated to us as we were leaving the hospital, “This little girl is everything.”
“Mary, we’re going to give her everything we have, okay?” As we got into bed, he remarked.
I concurred. We had the chance to make the right decisions, and since we now had money, we could treat our granddaughter well.
Let’s go back to eighteen years ago.
Ellie is a high school student currently, almost done with college. George and I loved every second of it, but she grew up in front of us with all the attitude that Monica had as a youngster.
However, Ellie’s perspective shifted. Her brash nature had stopped being attractive and instead posed a threat to her entire identity.
Like any other Sunday morning, I was making the weekly pancake and bacon breakfast in the kitchen when the breeze took over. George and I had developed this routine so long ago that it was now practically automatic.
The doorbell rang, cutting into the peaceful morning, and George brought us cups of tea, the way he always did.
Turning off the burner, I went to respond.
Our granddaughter was waiting at the doorway, her eyes studiously avoiding mine.
I moved aside to let her enter and said, “Hello, darling.” “Just in time for breakfast, that is!”
When George turned to look at the person at the door, Ellie scowled a little and pointed to him.
George held out his arms to embrace her and said, “Come on, the bacon is extra crispy.”
Ellie, though, shook her head.
She remarked, her voice quivering slightly to betray her icy front. “Look, I’ll get straight to the point.”
There was something strange about her actions. She would usually storm in, giving us hugs and kisses and inquiring about our well-being. Every time she brought us cookies, they were baked with less sugar. She would show how much she loved.
Ellie, however, had become a shadow of the young girl who had grown up in front of us.
“You recall Tom?” she inquired nonchalantly.
Her boyfriend was Tom. Already a college student, he was subsisting on student loans. He had seemed respectable enough the few times George and I had met him. However, there was always something strange about him that I found unsettling.
One afternoon, when we went to a coffee shop to catch up, I told my daughter, “I don’t know what she sees in him, Mon.”
Monica sank her teeth into a piece of cake and murmured, “I don’t know either, Mom.” “You know Ellie, and Eddie isn’t happy about her dating someone older.” She argued her point, claiming that Tom was a fantastic fit for her. Additionally, he was assisting her in comprehending the change from high school to college.
Ellie leaned against the wall now and carried on talking.
“I take it Tom has this business idea? And all of this has to do with renewable energy, or something like. He has been addressing a wide audience, including advisors. It might be large. Like big. There’s a catch, though. To get things truly moving, he needs money.
My granddaughter pulled her phone out of her pocket, and I watched. She was still not making eye contact with us.
George and I looked at each other. I could sense what was about to happen next.
Even still, Ellie’s comments struck me like a blow to the stomach and were said with an unbelievable coldness. It was not anything I ever connected her to.
“You guys need to move in with Mom and Dad and sell the house,” I said. This house will bring you a lot of money, particularly because of the neighborhood. It’s advantageous. Don’t you want to be with your mother again since you’re older anyhow?
“What happens next?” I enquired.
She threw her hands up and yelled, “And then you can give the money to Tom for his project!”
George’s brow was deeply furrowed in pain and surprise at Ellie’s contempt as his cup clattered onto the saucer.
“Ellie,” he said. “This is where we live. Not a thing to take money out of. It has every recollection of our family and ourselves in it. Why would you expect us to simply give it up for what appears to be a shady business venture?
I said nothing. It wasn’t time for me to intervene. I took a seat on the couch and waited for George to talk Ellie out of her crazy.
He was the only one who could make her stop worrying and get back to being herself since she was a young child.
“You’re my grandparents, that’s why!” Ellie’s normally composed tone faltered as her voice cracked. “You ought to want to assist me. Tom’s plan will succeed. You’ll discover. All we need is this initial funding.
A tense, suffocating quiet descended upon the room.
Her eyes betrayed a wild and disturbing determination that I could sense was desperation. She was obviously only seeing what she wanted to see since she was so consumed by her love for Tom.
However, I had a gut feeling that Tom wasn’t the ideal choice for her. They were different in age, but there was still something off about them.
George and I exchanged a mutually hurt gaze. We both understood that going straight after her wouldn’t work; all it would do is annoy her and force her to look for the money elsewhere.
George said to her, “We’ll see what we can do.”
We sat down after her departure, the weight of her visit bearing down on us. While I started to wash the dishes, George came up with a strategy.
With a strong voice, he stated, “We need to show her, not tell her, about this man’s true character.”
George launched into a complex con including fabricating a fictitious lottery ticket.
“Mary, don’t worry, Johnny is a computer wizard; he can make it for us.”
The son of one of our neighbors, Johnny, would frequently make posters around the neighborhood for lost dogs.
George came up with a harmless ruse to expose Tom’s true motivations without leaving any lasting damage. After talking with Johnny, we ordered a ticket meant for a jackpot winner and discreetly mailed it to Tom, implying that it was a lucky draw from a nearby store.
We hadn’t anticipated the sudden and catastrophic nature of the outcome.
Ellie reappeared two days later as I was mopping the living room, her face pallid and smeared with tears.
“What took place?” I asked, throwing my arms around her.
Tom’s gone, she declared. “Grandpa told me about his actions.
And Tom packed his things as soon as he decided he had won. Without me, he departed to begin his real life in the Caribbean.
My heart broke along with her voice.
Though I knew Tom’s story would end tragically, I didn’t anticipate it happening so quickly.
Whimpering, “I thought he loved me,” “How did I become so blind?”
I caressed her hair, sensing her tremble with every cry.
“Oh, my love, we didn’t mean to hurt you in this way,” I muttered, tears welling up in my own eyes. “We simply had to check to see if he was genuine before sacrificing everything to support him.”
Ellie’s wounds started to heal as the weeks stretched into months. She came with her art supplies and set up shop in the living room, spending extra time with us.
In the end, Tom became just another aspect of her maturing.
How would you have responded in that situation?
Here’s another story for you if you liked this one.
Eliza thinks that Tom will whisk her away for a romantic retreat when it comes time for their tenth wedding anniversary. She converts it into a girls’ weekend when he needs to work and forgets their anniversary, only to discover that Tom’s business trip is actually a meeting with his mistress.
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