Have dinner with them.

"Aiden! Come here! Father is asking for you!" Aiden and Maya were talking with each other when Ethan called him. Aiden told Maya that he had some work to do, so they decided to talk later.

Aiden went to his father's room. He had been discharged from the hospital a few days ago. The doctor had advised them not to put too much pressure on their father as he was not doing well. It was not as if he could not recover, it was just that his health will take a very long time to get back to being stable.

"Yes father?" Aiden asked with concern visible in his tone.

"What were you doing this time when you had visited the Zed city? I had asked you to accompany your brother and understand how to work in business meetings" Mr. Smith took a pause and continued after he caught his breath, "I had heard from your friend that you left your brother alone to deal with the meeting and ran away! If you keep on doing this, how will you learn to address such important meetings? What was his name? That kid from the Moore family."

"Liam." Aiden replied. It seemed as if he really needed to tell Liam to keep his lips sealed in the future . How can he go around complaining about him and that too to his father!? But the next words from his father, calmed Aiden down and changed his perspective for his best friend.

"Don't start scolding him in your head!-" *Cough* As his father, Mr. Smith could very well understand what all was going inside his son's mind. He then spoke up for Liam and said, "Yes, that boy had come to visit me during my stay in the hospital. He assured me by informing that I do not have to worry about you bringing a 'son- in-law' for the Smith family." Mr. Smith finally completed his sentence with small coughs in between.

"Have some water dad." Aiden said as he handed him a glass of water. He was trying hard to control his smile.

"Hmm... Although I am aware that young people nowadays are very open about other stuff, you know..." Mr. Smith looked at his hand which had grown so old, it was so wrinkly.

He then continued, "I still feel better to know that you can have a full family of your own." *cough* "Riely will be delivering in just a few months, both of them will be great parents... I know it. Now only if you also settle down well, I can finally leave. Your mother might have been waiting for me since so long." Mr. Smith looked at his son, the resemblance of Aiden's mother who was his only wife was clearly seen in him.

All of a sudden the smile on Aiden's face turned into a frown, "Stop it father. Why do you want to talk about such things!? You should not say such inauspicious words! The doctor had told me, you will not be going anywhere anytime soon!"

He knew it. He had known it since a very long time, but it was just that he just didn't want to accept it.

It was almost a miracle when the Smith family got to know that Madam of the family had gotten pregnant again. He was the youngest one in the family. Aiden was more than ten years younger than his elder brother. His parents were very much older than him compared to what other people experienced.

"You should not say this... after all, don't you know, it is not good to keep a lady waiting for long! Anyways, tell me about the girl you-" *Cough- cough* Mr. Smith knew what his son was thinking and tried to change to topic, but suddenly he started coughing again and again. It got so serious that he even spat a bit of blood!

"Father!!" Aiden immediately supported him and called for help.

"What are you doing!! Get his medicines!" He yelled at the only servant who had arrived at the moment and was just standing there without doing anything with a panicked expression.

Aiden was shocked! The doctor had really told them clearly that his father's hemoptysis [1] was not that serious and was just a mild one. Then how could it get so severe?

And again, even though Mr. Smith was saying that it was not that important, and he could get fine with some rest at home, the brothers decided to take him to the hospital.

He was admitted in the ward which would be giving him the utmost importance for treatment. And since the hospital belonged to the Moore family, there was no doubt in it, both of the families had very good relations after all.

...

"Yeah... So... uncle, aunty-" Maya looked at them with an apologetic look, "This time, Lucas and I came here to tell you about something."

Mrs. Martin's smile stiffened up a bit. She looked at Lucas who was standing at the door. "What is it Maya?" She asked although she kind of had an idea of what Maya was going to tell them.

"Actually-" Before Maya could complete her sentence, Lucas came in and said, "I have prepared the dinner table, can all of us please come?"

Maya looked at her wristwatch and was surprised to know that it was already more than half past eight! Their flight had landed by six pm, and then now it was already about dinner time! It really took a lot of time to reach here from the airport. It seemed that most probably she won't be able to attend the gathering she had planned with Aiden and Liam.

"Well I did not plan to have dinner here." Maya still wanted to try reaching there, even if it was a bit late, so she tried to convince the Martin family to exclude her from their dinner plans.

"No you should also come and have dinner with us." Lucas's father said. Since it was him who said it this time, Maya felt it was a bit awkward to decline his invitation, so she reluctantly agreed.

"Umm.... Ok, you guys carry on, I will just use the toilet and come." Saying that, Maya left the trio and went to the washroom.

As she left, all three of them looked at each other as they sighed in relief.

...

[1]- hemoptysis: the coughing up of blood.