ILE

iage

ai

he butter knife conveniently lying beside my fist. But I kept up a

o her parents and invite them he

hospital, so, her parents flying out all the way

arrangements," Mamma went on. Her pale peach-color

nded interestingly lukewarm on the

ldom talked to me in the last couple of years. Mainly because my Pappa thought I was just a disappointment to the family. But I would doubt it once in

was as status-conscious and power-hungry as the world's most elite. An undergrad son who simply

icotta pie garnished with fresh berries should be the star at the moment, but, Mamma really knew how to stir drama out of nothing. "You th

would come out of pretending and telling them Mykaela and I were

t dining table. "You're both the right age, anyway. Just talk to her about it," sh

d out from the cellar. Pretty good stuff. Probably worth more than a hundred bucks. I just hoped it

nd out you've already rushed her to the delivery room. I mean, you kids these days..." My Mamma El

rhaps I should just keep to myself for the rest of the night.

staying in for the weekend. It was an heirloom. Ricchar, unusually quiet a

" my mother compromised. "You can't live in the same house

waiting for me to settle t

wed in apparent indignation, before she turned to her husband sitting at the corner of the table filled wi

" I sn

30. It's time you think of the family first and step out of your comfort

able," I

our son he has t

d be enough to sway me and my viewpoint. At her not-so-multifarious imag

ine glass to his lips after sparing hi

t me staring down at my fist. Like always, they were telling me what to do, what I

ally having a hard time pretending it didn't make my blood boil with frustration─the kind that w

ous tone, my mother said the words

of my father's phone cut through the tension. "Scusi.

frown and stiff shoulders as he walked away from his chair. It

ty seat Mykaela sat in during dinner be

on, Maxim," Mamma went o

," I mumbled. My mother just wou

hy

cks about the subject. The only concern I had at the moment was the likelihood

ligated to break the tension when the dining area fell silent again. "I was chatting to her about Cloe and m

mily throughout dinner, considering her quite glu

char shifted into his big-brother tone, his Ital

priate remark, but I opted to feign calmness and indif

a sighed after staring at me with he