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Chapter 704  Tolerance

As far as she was concerned, Kimberly\'s parents were irresponsible to have released such an information to the public without caring about the long term effect on both their daughter and granddaughter.

She knew that brows would raise now that Tom was about to release a statement to prove he wasn\'t the kid\'s father and that Lawrence Hank was actually the kid\'s father.

Doing that would pass all sorts of message to the public and they would undoubtedly come to the conclusion that Kimberly had been sexually involved with both grandfather and grandson, and that wouldn\'t be good for Kimberly\'s reputation or for Dawn.

It wasn\'t like any of this was good for Tom\'s reputation either or hers anyway, considering all that was being said about her on the internet by people who knew nothing about her.

One truth she knew was that everyone was going to do what they could to fix things, but they would all be too busy doing only what worked best and suited them.

She doubted that any of them would really put the kid into consideration. All their actions kept showing that they never put the kid first before making their decisions.

That was was shown in the way neither Lawrence nor Kimberly had given much thought into dragging the kid into their prank, and even the way Kimberly\'s parents had involved Dawn in the news they had released about Tom and Kimberly.

She doubted that Kimberly had taken her time to explain what was going on to the kid. The kid would be thrown into a state of confusion. How would the kid feel when she grows up and possibly sees all of this?

None of this was fair to the kid.

Or maybe she was just overthinking and over worrying unnecessarily. It wasn\'t like she cared about the child more than Kimberly or anyone else did. She wasn\'t even related to the kid in anyway so why was she worrying so much about it? She mused with sigh, drawing the attention of Tom who glanced up from his laptop to look at her, "Are you okay?" He asked and she held his gaze for a moment as though contemplating whether or not to say anything and after some time she gave him a nod.

"Yeah," she said, wanting to stick to her decision of not getting involved in any way.

Tom reached for her hand and kissed the back, "Don\'t worry, I will do all I can to fix this, okay?" He promised and she nodded.

Lucy reached for her phone when it started ringing and she raised a brow when she noticed it wasn\'t a number she was familiar with, so she received the call.

 "Hello! Lucinda Perry on the line," she said in a formal tone, while Tom watched with interest, wondering who it was.

"Hello! This is Doctor Julia, I hope I didn\'t catch you at a bad time?" Lucy\'s therapist asked, and immediately Lucy moved away from Tom making him raise a brow and she raised a finger, asking him to give her a moment.

"No, you didn\'t," Lucy said as she wondered why Julia was calling her.

"That\'s great. How are you doing today?" Julia asked and Lucy resisted the urge to sigh.

"Please give me a moment," Lucy said before muting the call and turned to Tom.

"It\'s the therapist," she explained to Tom and before she could step out of the bedroom, wanting to find somewhere private where she could speak with the therapist in private, Tom rose.

"Don\'t worry. I will go to the study," Tom assured her as he picked up his laptop and walked out of the room.

"Thanks," Lucy called after him before unmuting the call.

"I\'m sorry for the pause, I needed privacy," Lucy explained politely.

"It\'s fine. I understand," Doctor Julia assured her.

"So, how are you doing?" She asked again since Lucy had not given her a response the first time.

Lucy sighed, "I\'m fine, I suppose," Lucy said as she waited to find out why Doctor Julia was calling.

"You suppose?" Julia asked and Lucy sighed.

"Yeah. I\'m not letting you trick me into a phone therapy session," Lucy said dryly and Julia laughed softly.

"I had no intention of doing that. As your therapist… You plan to come over for your next session, don\'t you? I am your therapist, right?" Julia asked since that was part of the reason she had decided to give Lucy a call.

"Yes, you are," Lucy said without hesitation, and Julia smiled.

"But I won\'t be there tomorrow. I am not in Ludus at the moment," Lucy said before Julia could say anything.

"Well, distance doesn\'t have to be a barrier. If you can make out the time, we can FaceTime," Julia assured her.

"Really?" Lucy asked with interest.

"Sure. Not all my patients are based in Ludus, you know? So, back to what we were saying, as your therapist, I\'d like to know if you\'re alright or not, and what\'s going on with you. This is a midweek routine call I make to my patients, or clients as you prefer to be called. It\'s totally free of charge, I promise," Julia said and Lucy smiled.

"Well, this has nothing to do with what I\'m receiving therapy for. I mean it isn\'t related to my past experience," she said, not sure if Julia would be interested in hearing about how she was having a hard time fitting into Tom\'s family.

"It\'s my job to determine what is related or unrelated to your past experience. You never can tell how much influence your past has over your present. So, why not tell me what\'s going on with you and we can both see how to help you feel better?" Julia suggested and Lucy sighed.

"Are you sure you have the time for that? I mean, you might end up spending a lot of time talking to me when you need to check on your other clients," Lucy said and Julia smiled.

"Do you want to talk about it or not?" Julia asked and Lucy drew in a deep breath.

"I don\'t know if it\'s okay to talk about it or if there is anything to talk about in the first place. It\'s just that I feel sort of out of place with my boyfriend\'s family. They\'re great people and I care about them the same way I know they also care about me," Lucy said and Julia raised a brow.

"But?" Julia asked with interest.

"But I\'m not used to the way things are done in the family. It\'s not my character to want to know what is going on in every one\'s life or to want to interfere, but here everyone seems okay doing it and it not only makes me uncomfortable, it gets on my nerves too. I confronted them about it, but I don\'t feel relieved. I feel like I\'m messing things up and causing problems for everyone," Lucy explained.

"Do they interfere in your personal business?" Julia asked and Lucy considered it for a moment before shaking her head.

"No. Not exactly. But they interfere in our relationship some times," Lucy explained, not wanting to go into details.

"So, it\'s not like they\'re directly interfering in your life. It\'s your partner\'s life they\'re interfering in, and you have a problem with that?" Julia asked reasonably.

"Yes."

"And what does your boyfriend think about them interfering in his life?"

"Well, unless things get out of hand I don\'t really think he minds. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you admitted that it\'s the way their family operates, but it\'s I\'m not sure it upsets him as much as it upsets me," Lucy admitted.

"It sounds like a YOU problem," Julia pointed out and Lucy frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you admitted that it\'s the way their family operates, but it\'s not your style. What makes you think your way of doing things is the right way and theirs is the wrong way?" Julia asked and Lucy\'s frown deepened.

"Because it\'s not normal to want to interfere in other people\'s life! Even you should know that," Lucy said, not liking that Julia was also sounding like she was wrong to want them to change things.

"Who determines what is normal or what is not? If the reverse was the case and his family was very reserved while you were the one who loved to know everything about everyone and interfere, don\'t you think you\'d still think your way was normal and you\'d want them to adjust to suit you?" Julia asked and this time Lucy scowled.

"Did you ask me to share my problem with you just so you can take sides?" Lucy asked irritated by Julia\'s response.

Julia didn\'t even know that details of all that happened yet, so how could she be taking sides already? Besides, wasn\'t she supposed to take her client\'s side if at all? Lucy mused.

"I\'m not taking sides. I\'m helping you address the problem from a neutral ground. I haven\'t said anyone is right or wrong. All I\'ve said is that this is a YOU problem that you need to deal with," Julia explained patiently.

"I don\'t have any problem! I\'m the one minding my business here, don\'t you get it?" Lucy asked with a frown.

"Are you going to break up with your boyfriend because you can\'t stand how things are done in his family?" Julia asked patiently.

"No. That\'s not exactly an option," Lucy said and Julia nodded.

"Good. So, let\'s say you were going on a trip with a group of people on a bus and they\'re all noisy and loud, while you on the other hand prefer to sit quietly and maybe read a novel or see a movie during the trip. What do you do when the noise becomes too much?" Julia asked and Lucy shrugged.

"I will simply ask them to keep shut," Lucy said easily.

"They are majority, remember? How can you, a single person ask everyone else to stay a certain way simply because you are not okay? Do you think they would be okay sitting quietly when it\'s not really their thing? Don\'t you think asking them to stay quiet would mean inconveniencing them too?" Julia asked reasonably.

"So, what are you saying? That I let them inconvenience me and do nothing?" Lucy asked, wondering where all this was going.

"No. We haven\'t decided that yet. What other options do you have?" Julia asked and Lucy shrugged.

"I could just get out of the car and get another ride…"

"No, that\'s not an option. You don\'t want to get out," Julia said and Lucy sighed.

"Well, if I have my earpiece with me, I could plug it on and listen to music until I sleep off or get to my destination or I could find a way to distract myself," Lucy said with a shrug.

"Good. That\'s your own form of adaptation, right?" Julia asked, pleased with her response.

"I suppose so."

"Do you know what I would do in such a situation?" Julia asked and Lucy raised a brow.

"What?"

"If I can\'t beat them, I would join them and wear them out until they\'re all begging me to take a break," Julia said with a grin and Lucy giggled.

"That\'s funny."

"Yeah. But that\'s also another way to adapt. Now imagine that bus as your relationship and the occupants are your boyfriend and his family. Breaking up is not an option the same way getting out of the bus isn\'t. You have to find ways to adapt so that you wouldn\'t be stressed out by whatever anyone does around you…"

"I did think of that initially," Lucy admitted.

"Good. You can\'t just come into his family and expect things to change to suit you. You can\'t expect everyone to do things as you like things to be done. It doesn\'t matter whether you are right or wrong. What matters here is how you let what happens around you get to you. You can\'t decide or determine how others would behave, but you should be in complete control of how you react to it. Things won\'t always go your way, will you be upset every time it doesn\'t go your way?" Julia asked and Lucy sighed.

"So, are you asking me not to expect changes or are you advising me to join them if I can\'t beat them?" Lucy asked curiously.

"I\'m simply saying since you have no intention of breaking up with your boyfriend over this, you should find a way to adjust to it whether or not they choose to change. It\'s called tolerance. When you relate and interact with other people, you will always encounter characters, beliefs, and opinions that are in contrast to yours. When the relationship is important to you, and as long as the behavior of the other person is not detrimental to you in any way, tolerance comes to play. Tolerance requires a conscious effort from you. I\'m saying this for your sake, not theirs since it is easier for one person to change than for a group of people to change," Julia said reasonably.

"I will leave you to think about it. We can talk some more about this during your session tomorrow if you are up for it, and then maybe we can both discover how your past is influencing this character in you," Julia said when Lucy said nothing.

Lucy raised a brow, "I told you this has nothing to do with my past."

"And I told you it\'s my job to determine whether or not it is related. If you\'re going to be available for the virtual session tomorrow, do well to reach out to my secretary before tomorrow. I have to go now," Julia said before hanging up, and Lucy sighed.

Tolerance. Was that really what she needed to do? To learn how to be more to tolerant to Tom\'s family and their lifestyle? Lucy mused.