“That’s okay Papa and Mama. You both are going to make me go emotional” Ava Leon complained in a choked voice. Her tears gave way again despite trying hard not to let it drop.
Her parents are her life and she loves them so much. She wants to love her mother-in-law and her father in-law the same way, but they don’t understand the language of love.
So it doesn’t matter if she speaks love, acts love, shows love and does everything in love. They won’t understand it because they don’t understand the language of love.
Happily Ava Leon served the dishes. Her father couldn’t eat the regular meal but was placed on a special diet. Inwardly she sobbed, seeing what ill health had subjected her Papa to.
Midway through the meal, Sam Leon asked “How’s Adrian?” With his eyes fixed on his daughter. He knows it when a woman is happy in a marriage, but it doesn’t seem that his daughter is happy.
She’s happy and smiled. But beneath those actions, he could see an unhappy woman there. Sometimes her excessive laughter comes from the pain that lies beneath.
“He is fine, Papa and sends his greetings too” Ava lied. Was Adrian insane to send his greetings to her parents? He’d rather die than say a word of courtesy to her parents.
“Mm.. mm” Sam Leon grunted and kept eating. Ava understood her father so much and knew that the grunting meant he didn’t believe her. And he is right not to believe her lies.
Ava ate to her fill. Thank goodness that she didn’t join the Lester’s for breakfast. She knew that once she steps into her parents home, she cannot go starving.
They may not be able to afford varieties of meals and drinks at a time but whatever they have, they prepare and eat it in love. That’s how a family should be, a place where a child is eager and happy to return to.
After they finished, Ava cleared the table and took them to the kitchen to wash. She washed the dishes, cleaned the cutleries and returned to her parents who have now sat in the sitting room.
“Why did you lie about the outbreak of scandal about Adrian and his mistress?” Sam Leon asked, without giving Ava a chance of defence.
His old wrinkled face looked aggrieved as he gazed at Ava. Even Clara sniffled silently. They both knew that their daughter was lying to them about Adrian sending his regards to them.
Ava Leon was going to take the sofa next to her mom when her dad asked the question. She froze and for a few seconds, couldn’t get herself composed.
Then she forced a smile and said “No Papa, why are you saying that? Adrian my husband loves me…” she was saying when Clara interrupted her sharply.
“Have I now trained a liar for a daughter? Did I spend 18 years raising my own daughter to look into my face and lie?” she seethed, her eyes reddened and tears streaming down her cheeks.
Ava’s heart got broken and she couldn’t put up with the pretence. They know. She tried to hide it but they still know that she lied to them. That mistake of a husband she was married to, is a womaniser.
“How many pains have you been enduring in that family that you tried to hide away from us, Ava? Why wouldn’t you open up to your own parents? We love you more than our own lives and you deal with us with deceit?
Is this how you’re going to pay us for all the years we raised you? You’re going to make us keep living in a fool’s paradise thinking our daughter is happy? Why did you do this to us, Ava?” Sam Leon asked.
Ava couldn’t hold up anymore. She bursted into tears. Her parents think she was being deceitful by not telling them she was living in hell. She doesn’t want them to get worried unnecessarily and have it affect her Papa the most.
“You know that you could always tell us your worries and what you’re going through. So why is Adrian hurting you on the day that was supposed to be your second wedding anniversary?” Sam Leon asked with pain in his heart.
The Lester family owned him and his wife big time and their only obligation was to take their daughter as part of their family as the daughter in-law. Is that anything to be compared to the favour they showed them in the past?
Ava sniffled. Her eyes reddened. She swallowed hard and said “Adrian Lester is in love with someone else. He loves the other woman not me and for that reason, he hates me, because I came into his life to ruin his happiness”
“It wasn’t a choice for him but a compulsion for him to marry you because it’s a promise his grandfather made to us. We kept our side of the promise and we expected them to do too.
Has he been treating you harshly because of that? Was he having affairs and feels no remorse about it to the extent of having it a public thing with his mistress?” Clara declared.
Everyone was quiet except for the occasional sniffing coming from Ava. Sam bowed his head and shook his head. How soon men forget their promises. This is pathetic.
Seeing both of her parents were quiet. She knew they were thinking deep about the whole thing and she doesn’t want them to do that, especially her dad, she said “But we’re working on something about it”
Sam Leon raised his head, glanced at his wife and then at his daughter “What are you working on?” Is she going to say what he was thinking?
“Adrian and I have decided to get a divorce since we couldn’t stay happy with each other” she blurted, afraid to raise her head to glance at her parents.
A genuine smile crept on Sam Leon’s face and his eyes lit up with excitement.