The Dinner - Her Husband!- 4

Aubrianne Ivanov

It was an extremely difficult pill to swallow, especially when that particular chair warmer never once heard him speak that way about his boys.

Completely forgetting that the boys have never done anything worthy of such praise, ever!

Maybe as a child, when they were kids, growing up and learning to creep and take their first steps, Theo was right there cheering on.

Since they became young men and started making decisions for themselves, it has been difficult. He could not recall ever seeing a report card from school with good grades or even semi-good grades.

How can he praise them for that? It has always been one disappointment after another. He never beat them or anything like that, so he had often wondered if that could be a part of it.

Sparing the rod and spoiling the child type of thing!

He knew for sure it was his lousy parenting, spoiling them every step of the way instead of letting them earn it with some ground rules, and worse yet, he had no real parenting help from his wife other than her desperate attempts to get his attention.

Though Theo can admit, they were living a quiet and happy life until he met Aubrianne a year ago, and all sorts of memories and feelings he had fought so hard to bury came rushing back to the surface.

Athalia!

Nevertheless, he thought instilling values in them at a young age was the right way to go. However, he did not understand how things got this bad. Where did it go wrong?

All they do is cost him dearly and make him gain gray hair faster than any wolf should.

"And here she is, everyone, my baby girl." Theo finished with a flourishing gesture towards Aubrianne, and his nose crunched teasingly because he had still used 'baby girl.'

Aubrianne's heart rate briefly increased, but she got it under control with Leia's help. Then she calmed her nerves before she got up and greeted everyone.

Then she said, "Guys, I would love to talk about my father and speak a bit about my experience with him, but would you mind if we eat while I do that? I am starving!"

There was a round of laughter.

Theo had taken well over forty-five minutes with his speech about her, and she realized if she were to begin talking about her experience with him, she would not be able to make it through.

Not before eating, that's for sure.

There was simply no way. So she decided to eat and talk. She did not care if it was considered bad manners. Besides, people do it all the time, so it should be fine, right?

However, she still asked them.

Before anyone else could utter a word, "Of course you can, Bri," Theo said with a smile. Simply testing names out at this point, baby girl would not be for when they were in front of company, but he enjoys teasing her in the meantime.

Aubrianne's eyes widened, then his eyes narrowed, and eyebrows furrowed, in response, "What?" He asked, curious to know what was going on with her.

"My mom, she used to call me Bri," Aubrianne answered before a tender smile graced her features, and her eyes teared up as she, in that second, for the first time, wondered now that she found her father, well, her father found her, what it would have been like if her mother was still here to witness this.

Well, firstly, she would have had a lot of explaining to do, Aubrianne randomly thought, and it brought her back to the people in front of her.

She missed when Theo had moved to stand beside her, and he hugged her, comforting his pup.

"Oh, Aubrianne, I am so sorry," Theo rushed on, thinking he had somehow caused her a sad moment, remembering her mother was not there with us when Aubrianne raised her head to look at him, almost knocking his chin in the process as he hovered lowly.

She says hurriedly, "No, no, it is fine. I prefer Bri to baby girl."

She smiled up at him sheepishly after playfully giving a stern look.

There was light laughter again as all eyes were still on the pair, "Now, everyone, let us dig in while my daughter tells us her experience, and buckle up because I can assure you it would be a good story."

Theo smiled warmly at Bri, and then they took their seats.

Dinner was well on the way now. Finally, most had thought, because of hunger, while seat warmer number one thought it was high time they got on with their food, even though they may be unable to keep it down if this farce continues.

Why wasn't he like that with them? This particular seat warmer thought, what did he have to do to get the praise and attention his father was giving to this b!tch who fell from the flipping sky?

While the other seat warmer had honestly had enough and felt like if this continued, they would storm out! It was simply too much!

To Theo's right was his wife, Christen, who had to sit through dinner with her husband and his daughter, whose mother was his ex.

Making Aubrianne their love child.

Yes, the same ex to whom he had practically built a shrine.

A dead woman! After over twenty-one years! She was there, competing with a dead woman for Theo's attention.

HER HUSBAND!

Not only does she have to deal with the fact that she is the third person in her marriage, while Aubrianne's mother is the second.

Christen now had to look at their 'love' child every day, moving forward, and Aubrianne looked like her mother, with her father's brown eyes.

She had surmised that was all she took from Theo, but her mother, oh, that woman! That woman plagued her marriage, plain and simple.

At first, when she first met Theo, it took him years to move on, and like when he was finally starting to make a little effort, then bam, smack!

Aubrianne is now in their lives. A permanent reminder of her parents' love. Ha, what did she do to deserve this?

Goddess, she tried so hard not to make this about her, but d@mn it, she is drowning; how was she to feel about all this, really and truly?

However, Christen did not mean to give any bad vibes or attitude. At least she did not plan to. It just happened earlier. She honestly tried hard, but she couldn't help it.

When she laid eyes on Aubrianne, she saw Athalia. Christen had never met her before, but she had found thousands of pictures of Athalia on her husband's phone.

There were even more pictures of her and HIM. Nevertheless, that face took her to a dark place quicker than expected. But she believed she acted poised and warm enough to come off unbothered.

Christen was already struggling enough as it was. She did not need constant reminders of the woman her husband was in love with.

And then, at that moment, Aubrianne mentioned her mother. You could have sworn the woman was in the room the way Theo's face had lit up like f*cking Christmas lights.

She couldn't. It was too much!

Moving along, there was a groveling Timothy because Aubrianne now sat in his chair at the left of their father. He had a set scowl as he kept flicking his portion of nuts in the fancy glass bite-size bowl.

Any spilled, he picked it up with an even uglier scowl, then tossed it back in the bowl.

He had done that throughout the speech. And what pissed him off was seeing how his father was with his potcake dog of a sister.

And more heartbreakingly, no one had even noticed his fowl mood to comment on it, as they were all goo-goo ga-ga over Aubrianne and his father.

After Timothy was Tobias, who constantly glanced at Aubrianne in awe and would look away shyly if caught. Next, was Mr. Grey, whose eyes kept sliding towards Jada too frequently to come off as a mild curiosity.

Goddess, she was breathtaking.

By the end of the speech, it was coming off as 'Let's escape this dinner and lock ourselves away for a week straight!'

Then there was Kirrah and her husband, eagerly waiting to be correctly introduced so this 'pretend' could end, and they could protect Aubrianne the right way, by her side.

"Finally," the pretend couple had said in unison when Theo had finally introduced them before his speech, and Kirrah had playfully nudged her 'pretend' husband, saying, "Get off of me, you jerk."

While he had playfully shoved her back and said, "Gladly!" Then he feigned hurt. There was light laughter at and between the pair, and Aubrianne gave a nervous half a smile, like, heyyy, what did you say to my father?