Part 8



I look nice and elegant in the yellow dress Mrs Wells helped me find and my hair is tied up perfectly. I also put on a few exclusive silver bracelets and a long designed diamond necklace I had made for my 21st birthday. The only thing that keeps me from being a copy of my famous self is my now quite large stomach. I still look dazzling, I admire myself in the mirror. Matt had spent the whole morning cleaning the house and preparing the dinner with my help. Matt refuse to buy catering or cleaning service. He is quite proud of taking care of himself and I don’t mind it either. The less people are snooping around the better. Auntie always involved me in the household chores when I grew up, she didn’t even let me escape from it when I got famous.

Matt is looking good in a green shirt and a grey costume.

”Hey handsome, I have a confession to make.” I tell him.

”What is it sweetheart? Did you already change your mind?” he says obviously not worried about what I was going to say.

”No, did you change your mind?” I ask him back with a frown.

”So what is it?” he wants to know and gives me a hug.

”I feel so ashamed you know. I thought… I sadly didn’t trust you to keep my secret. I thought you would tell your whole family about me just to make it easier for us to be together. I realised how wrong I was when you told me you knew all along. You kept my secret and my fame to yourself. So I’m really sorry and I love you.”

”Don’t worry about it Molly. Just relax and don’t listen to anything that my mother will say. You look stunning by the way and even a dead dog would recognize you as Darlene today, but not my mother, she is too stuck up to see anything else than what she already made her mind up to be.”

”A plain whale then?”

Matt laughs at my joke and I kiss him lovingly. I am still nervous. I never planned to get involved with the Gregory family but that is just the irony of life, things never turn out like they are supposed to. At least I found love and I am grateful for that.

Matt’s parents arrives first and they dressed up really strict, both in navy blue. They greet me coldly but hugs Matt very dearly. It looks ridiculous, but I have other things to worry about like surviving a whole dinner with Mrs Gregory in the same room. It is not easy to like someone who already decided to hate me forever. She even acts like I smell bad which I know I don’t. I had Darlene’s Sunset perfume on me today, the most exclusive one on the market. Do I have to point out how popular it is?

Matt had already prepared welcome drinks to the guests with vodka and orange juice. His parents gladly accepts it like they need to get drunk in order to accept their sons choice of wife. Accept is perhaps the wrong word, maybe I should say tolerate. My drink is plain juice but I wish we were celebrating with champagne. I will drink champagne the second after my baby is born. Wow I sound like an alcoholic thinking like this. The whole idea of getting married is quite scary overall, I am in my best years and have barely grown up yet. I refuse to think about the divorce rate either. This must work out and I can’t imagine that my feelings for Matt will fade.

My family arrives before we could start talking about the weather and I happily welcome them at the door. First my sister Anne hugs me, she is nineteen and has curly gold locks and a cute red dress with white big dots, inspired from the sixties. She is a sweet sister and don’t see her often enough though she is a brat just like my brother Martin who is twenty-one. He has sand coloured hair and green eyes and is spending his days chasing girls at college. Not to mention the fact that he is texting on his phone every two minutes. My dad hugs me, he is looking forward to become a granddad. He is still good looking and his girlfriend Bree looks like a Barbie doll with screaming fake red hair and a short baby pink silk dress. Not to mention the deadly high heels she barely can walk in and some obviously remade body parts. My dad deserves better than her but he doesn’t care.

”Welcome to my home,” I smile at them.

”Oh my gosh!” Bree screams and waves her arms stupidly. ”That necklace is amazing!”

”Thank you,” I answer and smile at her excitement. ”Come with me to the living room so I can hand you a drink.”

Finally the two last guest arrives, it is Matt’s older sister Joan and her nine year old daughter Katrina who wants to be called Katie. I never had a chance to meet them before. Joan married her high school sweetheart when she was twenty-two but they divorced last year due to her husbands change of sexual orientation. Matt said he couldn’t stop laughing when he heard the news.

”I like you!” Katie yells and gives me a hug. ”You look pretty. When can I play with my cousin?”

”I’m sorry,” Joan interrupts her daughter. ”Katie has been excited ever since I told her about your baby.”

”It is alright.” I ensure her. ”It is very nice to meet you Katie, you look pretty too. You have to wait a few months, I am afraid your cousin isn’t ready to come out yet.”

”Will you tell me when she does?”

”Of course I will. Don’t be sad if it is a boy though, I don’t know what gender it will be yet. Do you want a drink? I have some orange juice for you.”

”I like apple juice!” Katie answers me.

”I’m afraid I don’t have that.”

”Then I guess orange is fine. Just like a boy is fine but I hope it is a girl.”

I lead them to the living room. They look quite cute dressed in a mother-daughter outfit, a purple dress with a black thin jacket over and low heeled shoes. I can see that they tried their best to dress up for this dinner.

The tension in the room disappeared as soon as my family mixed with Matt’s and I sigh with relief. Maybe the dinner won’t be that bad after all.

Mrs Gregory immediately found liking in my sister of course because she is raised the right way. She wanted to sit next to Anne at the table so they could talk about all the things that girls between high school and college do.

”College is the best experience in your life!” Mrs Gregory says loudly so everyone will listen to her. ”You will not regret it. You will make friends and contacts for life, besides the social side of it.”

”Yes, I am really looking forward going there! I found a really interesting course too and my two best friends are joining me.”

”That is wonderful dear, I’m happy to hear your friends are responsible enough to get an education. I wouldn’t want any of my kids to go unemployed and forced to work at 7-eleven, that is just embarrassing.” She gives me a hard look and everyone around the table feels the daggers being thrown at me.

So what I didn’t go to college! It is not like I had time for any of that when I had my career to think about.

”And then when you get children and a family to care for you won’t have the time to study for a good job,” Mrs Gregory continues. ”You’ll get stuck depending on your husband to support you, like a parasite.”

Anne shifts in her seat, slightly uncomfortable.

”Don’t sound so harsh, mother,” Matt says firmly. ”If you are trying to offend Molly with that speech, then don’t bother. You promised me to give her a chance.”

”What are you on about?” Mrs Gregory denies. ”I never mentioned Molly’s name once though I understand why a home schooled girl would prefer to not go to college. I guess her aunt never bothered to learn her the importance of a good education. I bet she told her any job was okay as long as you had one.”

The room is dead silent and I can feel Matt fuming beside me. Not even once did I feel the need to defend myself with the truth. I just smile sweetly towards Matt's mother.

”Mrs Gregory the only thing my aunt told me was that whatever your dream is you can succeed it if you really want to. Whatever you think, it was never my meaning to get pregnant and catch a rich man to take care of me. My moms last wish was for me to follow my dreams and that is what I’m doing. Anything that involves it is none of your business. I invited you to my home and I expect you to behave here or else you know where the door is.”

Mrs Gregory swallows a few times before turning deep red with anger.

”You dare talk to me like that in my sons home! Matt tell her where her place is! She’s not even worth a rotten tomato and to think she is a part of the Williams family!”

Matt stood up from his seat and hit the table hard so everyone jumped.

”Are you aware that you talk to my fiancee?” he tells her angrily. ”If you want anything to do with your grandchild then you better treat her with respect. I don’t care about your personal opinion and I honestly don’t want to hear it! Dinner is about to be served and you must behave the rest of the evening.”

”Are you picking her over your own family?” his mother adds hysterically.

”Look at her. Molly is my family now and I couldn’t ask for anyone else. It is her I want to spend the rest of my life with. Do you want to ruin the whole evening and make a fool of yourself in front of Molly’s family even more?”

She presses her lips together, defeated and betrayed by her own son she thought she had control over. I squeeze Matt’s arm thankfully. I made him brave enough to speak up against his parents and I can’t be prouder of him.

Suddenly my father starts to clap his hands and everyone gives him a surprised look.

”Now that is something every father wants to hear from his new son in law when their first daughter is getting married. I don’t know about you but I am hungry now so what about we dig into the food before it gets cold?”

No one disagrees and the rest of the evening is better, though Mrs Gregory refused to speak a word and left directly after the dinner though her husband stayed not at all embarrassed over his wife’s behaviour.

”I don’t understand where your wife gets the idea of Molly as uneducated.” my father says directly to Matt’s father. ”I did spend a fortune to give Molly the best private tutors so she didn’t have to go to college.”

”It was just a sweep reason for her to attack Molly,” Mr Gregory finally admits. ”I don’t have anything against your daughter Trey, she seems like a good girl.”

”She is.”

”I am right here.” I tell them

”We know you are, sweetheart,” My dad smiles and I smile back.

-

”Mom is a bit protective over Matt for some stupid reason,” Joan tells me in the kitchen when she is helping me clean up after dinner. ”No girl is ever good enough for him.”

”I hope she will reconsider her behaviour. I never met a more rude person in my life.”

”I don’t think she will change, maybe you should have though about that before you started to date my brother.”

”I didn’t know he was a Gregory.”

”Are you serious?”

”I know, we never bothered with details, we were too in love to think straight with our busy lives besides that.”

”I don’t mind to have you as a sister in law, Molly. Both me and Katie like you a lot.”

”Thank you, it means a lot.”

”I am happy Matt found someone he can stand up for. It was smart of him to make you pregnant before you met my mom.”

”Yeah it kind of took us by surprise.”

”Oh, so you weren’t careful in your craziness?”

”No, I only had two boyfriends before I met Matt and I never had any one night stands. I am quite careful actually.”

”A good girl,” Joan smiles.

”Did you start dating yet after your divorce?”

”Well I met a few of course. Nothing serious because Katie is the most important in my life at the moment.”

”I’m sure you will find a nice guy, just enjoy being single while you wait.”

”I will.”

-

Matt and I are cleaning up the last things before going to bed. He is doing the dishes and I am drying it. I put the dessert bowls and coffee cups in the cupboard and admire Matt where he is standing.

”When are you going to tell them?” Matt finally breaks the silence.

”Not before our baby is born at least.” I answer him but can’t help to feel guilty.

”I am just afraid that I will slip up one day.”

”I’m sorry, it is causing us trouble and making you angry.”

”It is not your fault, honey,” He kisses my forehead lightly and give me the last cup. ”If I had a normal mom, you would be fine with any secret you wanted.”

”I will tell my dad when I am ready. He is the reason I kept it a secret though.” I put the cup with the rest. ”I like your sister and her daughter.”

”Yes, I’m glad you bonded with her.”

”I usually don’t have problem with people, your mom is one of the first. It feels weird. It is true what she said, I lived in a protected world.”

”And I told you not to listen to her. Time for bed, you must be tired after all this.”

”I am just pregnant and I had worse days in my life.”

”I’m sure you had.”

”I hope your mom behaves better at our engagement party.”

”She will, don’t worry. She would never harm her reputation in public.”

”I don’t mind to ruin mine if she starts.”

”I’m sure Rick would kill you if you did.”

”Rick can bother someone else.”

I fell asleep quite fast. I already knew his mom hates me so I refuse to worry about that anymore.

Maybe I should have worried.