[ sept ] 

My mother's smile fell smack dab off her face and was replaced by a dejected look. Her eyes immediately were glazed with tears and her bottom lip quivered. She had been so close to meeting them--so close to having an actual family--and they didn't want to meet her. Marie didn't say it, but I knew their reasons. They were resentful of us. They were resentful of my grandmother for taking him from them, and they were resentful of my mother because she had been a product of their love.

Surely it was something difficult to accept, but I thought that people were generally good. I thought that as her siblings they would accept her with open arms. I thought that they would love her. Oh, how mistaken I was.

I had made the mistake of thinking that the world was good, and that happy endings did exist.

From her seat at the table, my grandmother heaved a sigh. Before she could even speak, I knew what she would say. I told you so...It was coming. She knew it. She was older than us, and therefore more experienced in life. She knew the way his family was, she had dealt with them before. But my mother and I, we had hope that the years had done enough to let them get over the pain they were feeling and the resentment they felt towards us. The words that left my grandmother's lips next were ones I expected. "Do you see, darling?" She looked to me, her eyes tired from the long journey, yet sad at seeing how much the news had affected her daughter. "They don't want to see us. Pardon for saying this," she looked to the Griezmann siblings for a moment, "But they aren't good people. At least not to us because their hearts have been blackened by resentment."

Marie shook her head, "No need to apologize. I see the way this resentment has been with them for years. I thought that by confronting it, they would feel better."

"Maybe we can give this one last try." Suggested Theo, who had barely spoken up.

Antoine was yet to speak.

"We'll take them to our home and maybe when dad, aunt, and grandmother see them, they will understand that it wasn't their fault. Grandfather lied about being married, but he did it out of love." The young man continued. "It wasn't right, but we can both agree that we were both his family and we both loved him."

Sniffling and wiping the stray tears from her face, my mother looked up. There was again a hopeful gleam in her eyes that I feared would be struck down again. But we needed to try. 

"Well, let's do this." I nodded my head.

Again, my mother was reluctant. But she went with us.

We followed the siblings to the train station where we got tickets to travel to their home town. In the pit of my stomach was a worry that was getting bigger as we got closer to our destination. Sometimes resentment was very difficult to let go of, and maybe our words would do nothing to convince them.

-

We arrived in Mâcon not long after and Antoine called in a ride for us to get to his parents' house. Marie had been on the phone with her aunt and grandmother the whole ride to the house, speaking in French to them, but her tone was friendly, which led me to believe she was tricking them into visiting so that we would all meet up there. 

We waited in the car for them to arrive first, and when they did, Marie went to greet them while Antoine and Theo stayed in the car with us. 

Soon they got a message from their sister and they led us into the house to meet everyone. From the moment we set foot into the house, their grandmother's face dropped into a look of shock that quickly turned into something stronger than anger. It was almost like hatred. She had never met us, but she recognized us. She looked to her grandchildren and then to us, shouting something at them in French.

Marie tried to calm her down, but soon her frantic yelling was joined by the scolding of their father. 

"We should just go." My grandmother tugged on my sleeve.

I nodded in agreement. It seemed that they were not taking the news very well. 

We all turned to leave when Marie's grandmother sneered at us, her voice coming out in a broken English. "You all have no right to be here." Looking to my grandmother with hatred, she added, "She took my husband, she gave him a bastard child, and still she has the nerve to come here and try to make peace with me? I will never accept it. He was my husband."

My grandmother paused in her step, turning back to face the older french woman. "He never told me he was married. I would have never been with him otherwise."

The woman laughed bitterly, not believing a single word from my grandmother. 

"Even so," My grandmother continued when his wife said nothing. "I wanted to come here to tell you that I'm sorry. He was going to stay in Vietnam with me and I have not been able to live with myself because of it. I'm so sorry."

His wife shook her head. "I don't accept."

My grandmother sighed while everyone in the room watched them in silence. "Offering my sincere apology is all I can do. You won in the end, you got everything that belonged to him. You even got the opportunity to give him a decent funeral and last goodbye. I'm sorry we bothered you. We'll be out of your house now."

With that, my grandmother led us back outside onto the sidewalk in front of the house that once belonged to her beloved.

-

havent updated in so long, but im trying to post updates to as many stories as i can. so i hope you all like it. i think there will be about two more updates and then i will finish this story. thank you so much for reading! and have an amazing week!

-clary xx