"Good evening, ma'am." The young maid greeted them as she took their jackets.

"Are they already at the table?" Samuel asked.

"Yes. Peter would be down soon. He is the last one."

"Thanks, Mindy." The maid scurried away, and Samuel looked at her. "Try and keep your head."

"I promise nothing but to keep my sanity."

"Dad wants us on the same page."

"I know. You sang me this song the entire ride here. Let's go see what this is about."

"Hey." Samuel cheerfully announced their arrival. "Hope we didn't keep anyone waiting."

"Not at all."

He hugged his father and mother before Giovanna walked up and hugged him as well. Kali embraced Timothy warmly, complimenting him on his outfit while she merely greeted Ysabel and said a sweet but straightforward hello to Giovanna. There was keeping the peace, and there was lying. She didn't need to act like Ysabel, and Giovanna were in her good books. They both went out of their way to alienate her.

"Sorry if this might have put a dent on any plans." Timothy joked.

"It's alright. I enjoy dinners outside of the home every now and then." Kali replied.

"Then we might make a habit of this. It's good to sit with family every once in a while."

"Little brother!" Peter shook Samuel's hand before slapping him hard on his back and then sweetly turned to kiss Kali. "Sister-in-law. Hope we are feeling better today. You look great."

"Thank you. I am feeling much better."

"Let's sit to eat." Timothy invited, and they moved to take their seats.

Samuel pulled a seat out for Kali that placed her at his side, but also in front of Peter, as opposed to sitting in front of Giovanna. Also, thankfully, it had her closer to Timothy and farther away from Ysabel, who sat at the other end of the table.

Peter was in charge of sharing the food and did so diligently. They ate and had a casual conversation for the first twenty minutes. Kali knew it was to set a tone for what was to come, so she used it to pace herself. She gladly talked about her job, her sister's college, her family, and life with Samuel. Whatever they asked, she answered.

Then, after the minutes passed, it was time to face the elephant in the room. For that, Timothy took the charge.

"I guess we all heard about what happened at Mrs. Winston's dinner." Ysabel's eyes glued to Kali, but she didn't say a word. "Unfortunately, it is something that has taken off since last night. I don't know if you read the Glamour magazine today, but Moses was kind enough to bring it to my attention."

Kali didn't read those magazines, so his words caught her off guard. "It's news now?"

"Of course, it is," Giovanna whispered, but with one stare from Timothy, she kept the rest of the comment to herself.

"What did it say?" Kali asked, dragging her eyes away from Giovanna.

"It talks about your debts. Glamour magazine is mostly for scandal news and gossip. Someone at the party might have been a journalist or had contact with one. They started...investigating your debts. The article speculated that you rushed to marry into the family because it was one way to ensure your debts would be paid before you lost valuable assets. There was a claim that the loan sharks were about to call in your loans. It stated that the final payment of your debt went through on the day after the wedding."

"I see."

"We are trying to stop the rumour from spreading, but we can't deny it's started and might take a while to die down."

"I understand."

"Do you?" Ysabel finally spoke, and Kali's cold stare travelled to the other end of the table, prepared to hear her string of hypocritical lies. "Do you understand the position you have put us in?"

"Last I remember, you paid those debts." Samuel's retort stopped Kali from replying but surprised her as well. He was looking at Ysabel, making it difficult for Kali to see his expression. "Kali never asked you to do any of that."

"She stopped it from being you who ended up paying that debt." Giovanna jumped in to defend her mother. "She has you around her finger. After the wedding, you would have paid it off anyway, and the results would have been the same."

"So your argument is, because she has debts, she should never marry?" Peter sarcastically threw at Giovanna.

"Why not insist on paying it off herself? Maybe she hasn't lived a life where you need to maintain a public image, but marrying into a prestigious family should give her a clue. Right?"

"Whatever would have happened doesn't matter. The baseline is Kali didn't ask for our help. She married Samuel and got a job. How do you know she wouldn't have paid that debt off by herself anyway?"

"Stop it. Both of you." Timothy spoke up. "Ysabel, Samuel makes a good point. This is not her fault when you decided to pay the debt off for your own reasons. It's not a crime to be in debt. People have their reasons."

"And hers is what? Living extravagantly?" Ysabel challenged. "Knowing she had little, she rented an apartment in the city, bought a decently expensive car, and kept herself in the latest fashion. What did she think would happen living like that?"

"How is that any of our business?" Timothy's voice was growing an octave but still carried the tone of calm with it. "Kali is our daughter-in-law. The woman our son chose. We won't let you be humiliated under any circumstance. Yesterday was appalling, and you don't deserve to go through such."

What she deserved was to find out who decided to start the story. She had a feeling the head of the snake was seated at the table.

"I apologize if this is damaging to you in the long run. And I appreciate you trying to protect me despite it." She glared over at Ysabel while keeping her voice sweet. "I can assure you that I'll also do my best to find who is responsible for this."

"Then?" Giovanna asked. "Would you make them take it back? Fight them? Cause even more of a scandal to bury the truth about your backstory?"

"A debt is not my backstory."

"Again with this." Peter groaned.

"Giovanna is not getting her point across well, but the baseline is that Kali's life before marriage is affecting our life now. You are very...fiery. All I can ask is that you don't get your claws out anytime someone tries to get the story from you. This drama is enough. We don't need you catfighting the community."

"Not much she should be defending. Can't get angry at people for speaking the truth. You just have to live with it."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Samuel seethed.

"I said it before, even though no one believed me. There was more to why she wanted to be married to you than love. Don't get me wrong, you are a good catch outside your wealth, but she had more economic motivations."

"Like the debt?"

"You know best. She's your wife or maybe because of that you don't know best after all."

"We didn't come here to pick apart Kali's character. Kali," Kali faced Timothy. "I want you to know that we are on your side. We have seen how good it has been for Samuel to be with you. And I, personally, trust that you love and care for each other. I don't want this to cause discord between you two."

"It won't, sir."

"It can't. For that, Samuel would need open eyes."

"Giovanna, you don't know everything. You don't understand anything. You only have your suspicions and haven't made any effort to get to the truth." Samuel spoke up.

"The truth?"

"Yes. Not everything that goes into your head is fact and law."

"Kids. Let's not fight." Timothy cajoled. "Let's not fight. I hoped we could talk about this and understand where we stand. Not for you all to pick at each other."

"It's hard to do, dad. When I confronted her about this, I got slapped. Look where it's gotten us to. Now we are the talk of the town."

"Giovanna," Timothy warned.

"No, Dad. I am being serious. Mimi and Brenda will definitely talk about it. It will be embarrassing."

"Which part of it?" Peter dryly asked, mindlessly turning a pea back and forth on his plate.

"They will say she is playing us for fools. It's demeaning to always try and defend our family because of her."

"You." Kali stepped in.

"What?"

"You mean to say you. You mean to say, 'It's demeaning to always try and defend our family because of you.' I am right here. Don't talk around me. Say it. To my face."

"I already have. You don't seem to care what we face as long as you get to dress in the nicest clothes, wear the newest shoes and have a plethora of jewelries to adorn your neck."

"That's enough. Giovanna, be quiet." Samuel softly warned.

"I am only telling the truth. I am sorry, you are too lovestruck to see it, but this woman..."

"What part of be quiet do you not understand." Samuel exploded, slapping his hand on the arm of the chair. "When do you stop? When do you think of the words coming out of your mouth? For an eighteen-year-old, you are insatiably bitter and entitled. I don't understand why your nose is always in my business. What concerns you if I am she's made a fool of me? Don't give me the stupid excuse of family money. You and I know well that we can sponsor the lives of twenty children from start to end and still be rich.

"This is about your unchecked disdain for me. I don't know what I did, and I honestly don't care at this point. I have been patient. I have allowed you to try growing out of your behaviour, but I have limits. You have reached them. Your opinions on my marriage are just that, your opinions, and unless you learn to respectfully communicate them, I appreciate you don't share them in my presence. Kali, get up."

He had strung the words together so long she didn't recognize at first that he directed the last part at her.

As she scrambled for her purse, he looked to Timothy, who watched the entire exchange in the same shocked silence as the rest of the table.

"I am sorry, dad. I can't stand this a second more."

"It's okay. Thank you for coming to dinner."

"Have a good evening, everyone." Kali waved meekly, giving her hand to Samuel when he passed behind her.