Chapter 8 Family.

Emily.

"How was your first day at work, darling," Mom said as I stepped inside the house.

"Well, nothing too exciting, just a normal random day at work." I said dropping my bag on the couch.

I could perceive a nice scent all over the house, Mom was cooking something different. It wasn't the normal food aroma you'd always perceive in my house.

"Is there some sort of celebration today, Mom? I'm starving." I asked her as I poked my head inside the kitchen. I saw her move happier than usual. My heart melted seeing my mom be happy.

"You know, God really used Zach for us, the 10 grand he gave us was going to cover something from Bryan's surgery bills, but I decided to cook something special to celebrate that."

I knew that was what was making Mom so excited. We all had been so lost on how to save up my brother's surgery expenses and that made us hardly cook anything special at home.

"You know what Mom?" I said to her, "Bryan's going to be fine, I promise you."

I saw her face beam up with a smile, stress had taken over her and was making her look older than her age.

"But when am I going to meet him?" She asked.

"Or aren't you going to bring him here?"

"I would, Mom, it's just that he's really busy attending meetings here and there." I told her and turned out of the kitchen and was about heading towards my room. "When he's free, I'll be sure to bring him."

I walked out of the kitchen and went to my room.

"Mom told me your fiance just got back from London." Elizabeth said as I walked past her.

"And I also heard he's rich." She said teasing me.

"Will he pay for Bryan..."

"Will you let your sister rest?" Elizabeth speech was cut short by Mom as she stepped into the living room where she was.

"Don't be so inquisitive, and besides, we aren't going to put our family burden on her fiance just because he's wealthy."

"But..."

"No buts, Liz." Mom gave out her final order to Elizabeth.

"Hey, who's home?" I heard a familiar voice that made a surge of excitement rush in me.

"Lucas!!!" Elizabeth was the first to rush to the door and jump on Lucas.

Lucas was Clara's elder brother and they had both been my best friends since we were very young. They had lost both their parents at a young age and since then, my parent had taken them under our roof.

"Hey, little miss, don't trip me" he said as he gave Liz a big hug.

Clara walked in after him, sniffing the air trying to figure out what Mom was cooking.

"Clara!" Liz was so excited to see them both. She let go of Lucas who was walking towards me already. He was giving off a mischievous smile on his face as he stepped closer to me with each step.

Once he was behind me, I already suspected what he was up to, before the next seconds, his fingers were in my sides, tickling the hell out of me.

"Stop Lucas," I said laughing hard and trying to escape from his tickles, "you should be older than this already!" I said giving off a loud laugh and wriggling to break free, I shook the table Mon was arranging and Mom snapped.

"Y'all better behave yourselves or no Lunch for anyone." She shouted at us all.

"You shouldn't get so agitated, Mag, you missed us, didn't you? Lucas said while giving Mom a big hug from behind.

Lucas was the only one who addressed my Mom by her name. Clara on the other only did so once in a blue moon, she was used to calling her ''Mom'.

"I'm starving, Mom." Clara called out from the kitchen.

Everyone had showed up due to mom's call. She told them there was a special family meeting.

"So what's the occasion?" Lucas asked after finally taking a seat.

"It's a toast to Emily," Mom said.

"Ohhh," Clara exclaimed, drumming the dining table with her hands. "She finally found a guy?" Clara was very good at guessing things, she won't be surprised if she was right.

"Yeah," Elizabeth answered immediately.

"That's great news!!!" Clara squeaked in joy.

"So that's it, that's why the grand feast from our little savings for Bryan." Dean has taken the role of Dad whenever he's around, although he is playful at times, he still doesn't get carried away, he'll always make sure things are done right.

Mom looked at him and shook her head, "It wasn't from that, in fact, we got extra top ups." She said to Dean.

"He gave us ten grand." Elizabeth spoke even before mom could answer Dean.

"10 what?!!" Dean and Clara's eyes shone with disbelief.

"It was hard for me to believe also," Mom said to both of them.

"What a gentleman you've gotten for yourself, babe." Clara turned to me and laughed hard.

She looked at me and winked.

I bent my head, lost in thought, if only they knew, it wasn't something I was happy to do. If they knew I wasn't happy with it, no matter the money involved, they'd cut off whatever agreement I had with Zach.

"Hey babe," I called Clara, "I'll need your help picking a nice dress, I'm going to meet Zach's parents this evening."

"What?!" Her eyes shone like it would gouge out from its socket.

"You're going to see his parents today, and you've not even picked a dress yet?" She banged her hand on the table and walked towards my seat.

"Get up." I stood up, it was pointless arguing with Clara, she had enough energy for arguments. She went towards my room, and I followed suit.

We were just almost selecting outfits when we heard the doorbell ring. I looked at my watch, it was still about an hour and 30 minutes before Zach came to pick me, so I wondered who it would be.

I went to the living room with Clara and saw that a package had arrived for me, with Zach's name as the sender. I was surprised. I opened it and to all our surprise, it was a bright red dress, with flower designs on it, and some other packages. I looked at the address the package was coming from, to my utmost shock, it was delivered from Italy.

Italy!!!

How did he order a dress from Italy in such a short period of time? Clara couldn't believe her eyes, Elizabeth could only stare into the dress, while Mom and Dean stood there, dumbfounded.

Clara picked up a letter inside the package that read, "I'll pick you in 30 minutes."

30 minutes??!!! What's with this his character of arranging time and schedule the way it pleases only hin.

Screw him. I thought I had about an hour to even get a nap.

I had no choice, once Zach had decided something, he wouldn't change his mind on it.

I needed to get ready, I had a multi-millionaire family to meet.

In the next 20 minutes, I was done dressing, the dress really looked pretty on me, everyone's eyes were fixated on the dress, Dean sat down at the end of the dining room and smiled genuinely at me, I wished I didn't have to lie to them about the contract, they were the only family I had.

It wasn't long when my phone rang, I looked at it, and forced myself to give everyone a bright smile.

"He's here." I said and picked up my purse and walked out of the door.