The table was awfully quiet.

No one said a word, it was almost as if everyone was so busy trying to enjoy their desert more than anything else. Anna tried so hard to go with the controlling atmosphere. What was it with rich people and always being so quiet anyway?

Just go with it Anna
She told herself.

All she had to do was try to fit in till desert was over. The last thing she needed was getting Juliana to notice her presence one more time.
God she was so nervous.

No one was even paying any attention to her but why was she so nervous? This was definitely not her first lunch with the family but something about this one was different. Was it just because for the first time she was starting to care what the mother of the man she loved thought about her? Or Was it because for the first time, she was actually eating with the family because she wanted to and not because it was all in her scheme to be a part of the Trusk family.

She was awfully quiet. She couldn't eat either.

Sophie's words kept playing in her head. She could not help but worry how bad the choice she made might affect her people.

"Hey,"

She felt Angelo's warm hands reach for hers from beneath the table. He squeezed it. She slowly turned to look at him.

"What's wrong? You've not touched your food." he said almost in a whisper, concern laced in his eyes.

Everyone else couldn't help but notice, everyone including Juliana.

"You've been awfully quiet all day Anna," Stefan added. "Are you sure you're fine?"

Anna took a deep breath. She couldn't let anyone worry about her, not like that. She was starting to cause a lot of attention and it was getting really uncomfortable.

"I'm fine." She forced a smile on her face, trying to sound convincing as she slowly turned to Angelo.

"I'm just full that's all."

Angelo exhaled. He wasn't sure if he believed her. She didn't look fine. He nodded slowly.

"Mum,"

Sophie made one attempt to take everyone's attention away from Anna. She could imagine how uncomfortable it was getting for her to even be in that room. Sophie reached for a tiny box that lay beside her. She gave it to the maid so she could give it to Juliana. The maid did so slowly.

What is this?

Everyone watched Juliana take the box gently. She wasn't anxious one bit, she wasn't surprised either. She slowly undid the ribbon on it, taking her time.

"Stefan and I got that for you on our visit to the Caribbean. It was supposed to be an early birthday gift but we decided that it'd probably mean a lot if we gave it to you ourselves while we were still home."

Everyone watched Juliana stare into the tiny box unmoved. The look on her face didn't faulter, looking at the shiny diamond necklace in the box didn't impress her at all.

"Wow." micheal said trying to take a closer look. "I almost forgot how good you are  at noticing unique items, Sophie."

He turned to Sophie with a smile on his face. Sophie laughed softlt.

"When I was younger, I promised to get you a necklace just like that mum, do you remember?"

Juliana looked at her.

"Stefan and I also have an announcement to make."

Sophie turned to stephan, she reached for his hand just as her face brightened.

"Go ahead baby." She told him.

He looked around. Unlike Anna, Stefan was confident. He tried so hard to hide how nervous he was being on that table and he was doing extremely well at it.

"uh,"

He cleared his throat, trying to smile a little.

"As you all know, Sophie and I are expecting our first child in a few months,"

He squeezed Sophie's hands, looking into her eyes while she smiled back at him. He slowly turned back to the rest.

"And we just thought since we are all here together as a family, it'd be nice to share the gender of our child with everyone."

Sophie turned back to them too.

"It's a boy."

She chuckled. She was so excited. Everyone on the table was.

"Oh my goodness, Sophie, that's so beautiful." Anna said. "I'm so happy for you."

"Thank you so much Anna,"

"Have you found a name yet?"
Angelo asked with a huge smile on his face.

"No," Sophie said almost in tears, "We haven't really thought of one."

"You should name him Michael, sister, you know all Michaels are usually handsome and smart." Michael added.

Sophie scoffed.

"Actually, We were thinking it'd be better if mum named him." Juliana threw  the box on the table and sat straight, not bothering to turn to them. "It would be the greatest honor."

"And Why would I do that?" The table webs quiet as the rest turned to her. They watched her pick up her knife and fork to cut a tiny piece of her cake.

Everyone held their breaths. Sophie wasn't sure how to answer that question. She wasn't even sure if she was supposed to answer it.

"Mother," Stefan cut in. "Sophie and I had always wanted our first child to be named by his grandparents, as a symbol of our gratitude and respect for-"

Juliana scoffed as she dropped her fork quickly,

"Gratitude?" she asked glaring at him. "so you think getting me some diamond necklace and asking me to name your child is going to get me to accept you into my family? To forgive you for taking my daughter away from me?"

"Mother." Sophie said almost in a whisper.

"I know I hurt -" Stefan paused for a while. He took a deep breath and then exhaled. "I know the actions my wife and I took in the past hurt you a lot mother, but I'm ready to spend the rest of my life making up for it. I'm ready to show you that I am good enough for her. I'm ready to prove to you that I only care about making Sophie happy forever, she's a part of my life mother, her and our baby. I'd do anything for them, I'd give up my life if I have to. "

"Your mere life is not enough. " Juliana snapped. "What's the life of a gardener's son compared to the life of my daughter, one you took away from me."

"He didn't take me away from you mother, I wanted to leave, I chose to go with him." Sophie glared at Juliana.

"Because he deceived you to!" Juliana glared back at her. "You were young Sophie, and he made you think you were in love with him, he took advantage of your timid heart with so much empty promises and made you run away with him, he made you turn your back on your family."

"God." Sophie exhaled raising her hands to rub her throbbing forehead. She was getting really irritated.

"The Sophie I knew, the Sophie I gave birth to would have chosen her family first, she would never have abandoned her mother just so she could be with some low life."

"But i tried mother." Sophie had tears in her eyes. "I tried to tell you so many times in the past, I tried to make you and dad listen but you never did. All my life, all I ever did was try to please you, I just needed you to trust I was good enough to make some decisions on my own."

"And this was it? This was the decision you're so proud of?"

"I came to you mother," Sophie raised her voice a little bit"I asked for your blessing, we asked for your blessing -" her voice broke. "all I ever wanted was for you to accept him, for you to accept us."

"Accept you?"

Juliana scoffed.

"Sophie, you wanted me and your father to accept the joke you tried to make out of our family, by getting involved with the son of our gardner? He took you away from me, I missed so many years with you, I missed watching you grow because of him, look at you, he destroyed your life."

"Destroyed my life?"

"I would have given you the world Sophie, your father and I had so much dreams for you. But what did you do? you gave that all away for him."

"Yeah, I'm very sure you and Dad had so many dreams for me, and I'm sure one of them was spending the better part of my life trying to take back the company Dad left to a someone that isn't even a part of my family, no offense Anna."

Anna exhaled. Of course she wasn't offended.

"Everything isn't about you Mother. "
Sophie added.

Juliana hit the table hard.

"Everything is about me!" she raised her voice till Sophie became quiet. "I am your mother, I have looked over this family, over all of you for years,"

Juliana took a deep breath.

"Mother," Micheal tried to reach for her arm, "Mother, you have to be careful so you don't upset your blood pressure."

"Mother," Angelo leaned closer to Juliana. "Mother, a lot of years have gone by. I'm sure by now you can at least try to put whatever it was that has happened to our family in the past behind you. Stefan has proven that he can take good care of the trust we have in him to look after Sophie. Why don't we just let them be happy. "

Juliana turned to Angelo. She scoffed.

"Of course you'll take their side. "

"I'm not taking anyone's side mother, I'm just saying -"

"You'd take her side because out of everyone here on this table, you're the only one that can relate with having a wretched history."

Angelo exhaled.

"I know you encouraged this joke of a man in the past Angelo, but today isn't about you," she turned back to Stefan. "the mistake I ever made was letting your dirty family into my home. I should have gotten rid of every one of you when I still had the chance."

She picked up the necklace box

"Your gifts can not wow me." She threw it on the ground. "And no matter how expensive you try to dress, no matter how you try to bathe yourself in expensive cologne, I'd still be able to smell your wretched stench because even after all these years, that's all you're ever going to be. Nothing but the low life pathetic son of a filthy Gardner that used to mow my lawn. "

Stefan shook his head slowly.

"Mother that's enough! " Sophie yelled. Now she couldn't stop the tears that hung in her eyes from dropping.

"God don't you ever get tired?" Sophie said admist all the tears that ran down her face. "Don't you ever get tired of trying to ruin the lives of all your children?"

Juliana scoffed.

"All these years and you've still not changed. You're still the same selfish woman I've always known."

"Hey," Stefan whispered to her, squeezing her hands. He had tears in his eyes too. He was trying so hard not to let it out. Seeing Sophie like that hurt him so much.

"You don't have to, it's fine."

"No Stefan," she turned to him. "if I don't do this now, she's probably not going to understand. You were right, coming back here was a bad idea, she is never going to change, she is never going to think of anyone except herself."

"You're right," Juliana said. "I am a selfish mum, but everything I have done, I did it for you and your brothers."

Sophie scoffed.

"I don't regret the choices I've made and I don't mind who I have to destroy to make sure this family and all we have built doesn't get dragged into the mud and that includes your leach of a husband," she slowly turned to Anna. "And you too."

"Come on Mum," Angelo said weakly.

"I have not forgotten what you did to to my son, I can not forget how you left him to die and I'd never forget how you manipulated my husband into giving you our family's legacy. Just because I don't always remind you doesn't mean that I have forgotten, very soon, I'd make you regret it. "

She turned to Stefan.

"The both of you. "

"There you go again," Sophie added. "Blaming everyone for everything except yourself. No wonder Dad got so tired of you."

"Sophie?!" Micheal yelled her name.

"It's the truth. He got tired of loving you just like we are all starting to. I kept blaming him for so long for ever breaking your trust but I'm beginning to think it wasn't his fault. You're a very terrible person mother, keep this up and maybe you'd just finally chase everyone away, everyone including your precious son Micheal."

"Don't talk to mother like that Sophie." Micheal told her." what has gotten into you?"

"Oh grow up Micheal or go fuck yourself."
Michael's jaw dropped.

She turned to Stefan.

"Come on baby." she got up. "let's leave this place. You were right, we should have ordered pizza instead."

She turned to the maid

"Get me my coat please."

Sophie said as she stormed out of the dining room while Stefan got up slowly. He turned to Juliana, she kept her eyes facing the wall, not bothering to move, trying to become the wall itself. It didn't matter how much of a front suit she put on, Sophie's words had already cut too deep into her.

He took a deep breath. He wanted to say something.

"Get out." She told him

Stefan exhaled as she slowly turned to look at him finally.

"Did I stutter?" Her frown deepened.

Stefan shrugged his shoulders. He slowly reached for his jacket. He picked it up, hung it on his arm and then walked away without saying anything else.

Juliana exhaled sharply. She turned to her desert.

"let's eat." She announced picking up her fork. Micheal grabbed his too,

"You know what mother,"

she paused so she could listen to Angelo.

"It's getting really late. Anna and I would like to go home now."

Angelo got up quickly and reached for his jacket. Anna exhaled in relief. She just sat still.

"Thank you for having us." he leaned closer to Anna. Juliana glared at her "Come on Anna," he whispered.

Anna cleared her throat as she rose to her feet slowly.

"Thank you so much for the meal mother."

She had to be as polite as she could. Juliana looked away like she could care less.

She kept on eating her cake, paying them no attention.
Anna took a deep breath as she let the maid lead them out of the dining room.

" Mother? "

Micheal lowly turned to Juliana. He had to make sure she was okay.

"I'm fine micheal. Just eat."

She told him. She hoped she did, she knew she had to be.