MEL POV
The next day was a quiet morning making insurance calls and arrangement for Aria, while Ronda and Aria were designing her room. Mel decided to take the bull by the horns and deal with her family because she wants to introduce Aria to her family. She loaded Aria into her car, after stopping at the local coffee shop for some drinks and snacks; she headed over at her parents’ house.
Knocking lightly on the front door, she pushed in open and stepped in, calling out as she entered. “Mum? Dad? Gran?”
Her grandmother appeared in the doorway. “Mel, what on earth are you doing here? Is that a child that you’re carrying?” she asked.
“Came to talk and yes this is your great granddaughter,” Mel responded, kissing her on the cheek. “Is it a bad time?”
“Oh Lord no, I was just settling in for some stupid afternoon show that always makes me infuriated at the low depths to which our society has shrunk. And please put that child in your old room because she is asleep.”
“Okay Gran,” she said as she made her way down the hall into her old bedroom.
“What her name?” asked Gran.
“Her name is Aria, and she is my daughter.”
“How is she adjusting to her new environment. And where’s your husband?”
“Well, Harry is in London on a business function. And Aria now has a new school that she would be attending on Monday, her name is under my insurances policies and she is happy being at home.”
“But you’re not,” her grandmother said, looking closely at her.
“Not what?” Mel asked.
“Happy.”
She sighed. “Not particularly, no.”
“Well come and sit with me, and tell me ever thing. Is it that man, your husband?” she asked with a frown.
Mel shook her head. “Harry? Not really. That’s pretty much going exactly as I expected it would, and now Aria. But no, I’m more unhappy with how things are with us,” she explained as she plopped down on the couch next to her grandmother. “I miss my family.”
“Well you should have thought of that before you married a man behind our backs,” her grandmother sniffed.
Mel looked over at her grandmother. “Oh stop it,” she said firmly. “If that was Lilli, you’d all thrown a party. I had my reasons, which by the way none of you considered. So enough with this crap, you either love me or trust me enough to know that I did what I did for a good reason, or you boot me out on my butt. What’s it gonna be Granny?” she challenged with a grin.
“Do not call me Granny? Her grandmother groused. But then she sighed. “You’re probably right.”
“We expected the white wedding dress and the party and bouquets tossing for you. It just something we need to work through, I guess for the fact that you didn’t include us in any of this, I guess we felt left out, we didn’t even know that you were dating, for God’s sake.”
Mel leaned back in her chair, of all her family members; she was closest to her grandmother. She had gotten her love for cooking from her. Maybe it time to confide in her.
“Well I wasn’t,” she said at last.
“Wasn’t what?”
“Dating, I just met him two days before I married him.”
Her grandmother looked over at her, then over at her well stocked bar. “Do I need a martini for this conversation?”
Mel gave a half laugh and said, “Maybe.”
“No. I’ll wait. Go ahead and explain.”
Mel told her the story, about Lilli and about the contract. She told her about the quick marriage, the social events and meeting his aunty. She also told her about his reaction to Aria and how they were slowly building up a friendship. She even told her about the night before Harry left for London. And through it all her grandmother held her hands and listened.
“We’ve been giving you hell when you didn’t deserve it, sound like you’ve been living through a hell of you own,” she said.
For the first since this whole drama began, Mel broken down in tears and sob her heart out to her grandmother.
“So let figure this out between us two, first I won’t say a word to your parents, but I would do my best to make sure that everything goes back to normal. And you should bring Harry over, so that we can meet him because that would help your parents to trust him and your decisions and I know that you’re trying to Lillian behaviour quite. But it seems to me that you have a few things to deal with, first Aria and your own feelings for your husband.”
“My feelings for him are unsure at least, Gran,” Mel admitted. “I’m attracted to him but I really don’t know.”
“You could sleep with him, or you would probably fall in love with him and now you have a daughter to help build that relationship between the both of you.”
“So no sleeping with the husband check, and he doesn’t want children.”
“No need to be grumpy, young lady, but Harry would come around and from the look of it that child in there would bring the both of you together,” her grandmother said.
“Thanks Gran, for listening and understanding.”
“Listen to your heart, Mel. And bring that husband of your so that I could get to know him because I am worried about you.”
“He’s safe and honestly he won’t hurt me, Gran.”
“No physically but emotionally, Mel. But I’m worried about your heart.”
While her grandmother was baking cookies from stretched, Aria was awake. The joy of seeing Aria and her grandmother mixing ingredients together bring joy into her heart. And for the first time she felt confident in rising Aria wasn’t a terrible idea but a blessing.

Notes

Enjoy :)