Johnny looked at how happy Yvonne and Xavier were, and he immediately turned his gaze to me. The pen, which I had been holding, was snapped in half without me knowing about it. My palms were sweating as well.
"Cole?" Lorraine was the first one to sense that something was wrong. She darted over and held my hand before carefully placing it on her cheek. "Does it hurt?"
"No." I hadn't been able to bring myself to tell Grandma the truth because I was afraid the emotional distress would be too great to bear for her.
However, it seemed like Grandma would be kept from the truth if I continued to keep quiet.
"I have to tell you something, Grandma." When I walked over, Yvonne's body visibly stiffened. Body language wouldn't lie. I knew I was right when her eyes became shifty the moment I looked into them.
"So, you're aware that you did wrong by Xavier." Grandma glared at me, signaling for me to stop talking.
"Xavier is all I have left."
Jonas wasn't close to Yvonne. That was why she couldn't lose Xavier.
"For the sake of what we once had with each other, please let it go, Cole." The last part of her sentence referred to the pressure I had been putting on them. On top of that, she was pleading for Jared's sake as well.
"Where is that coward?"
Jared only knew to put Yvonne on the spot when things got ugly. I had no idea what she was thinking when she got together with him.
"Let's talk outside, Cole."
After what had happened for the past few days, Yvonne was no longer that aggressive. It was especially obvious after we stepped out of the courthouse.
Yvonne was practically begging me, "Tell me. What will it take for you to let him go?" She didn't know that I had someone investigating Jared until yesterday.
Now, Jared had been taken away. Without my help, he would have no choice but to remain incarcerated.
"I can see myself letting him go on a condition," I rubbed my chin and agreed to it without any hesitation. I saw Yvonne's eyes sparkling, and I added without the slightest hint of guilt, "You need to leave Jared."
I wouldn't feel safe enough to give Xavier to Yvonne unless she left Jared. Otherwise, the deal was off.
"Okay. I'll leave Jared." Yvonne was genuinely scared. She knew that I wasn't kidding around.
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