Chapter 15

Alison's POV

We had been in the car for about 20 minutes and we still didn't know where we were going. Brianna and I were sat in the back with my parents up the front.

I looked over to Brianna and placed my hand on her knee because she looked worried.

She looked up to meet my eyes and she gave me a soft smile. I smiled back and moved my thumb across her knee. It didn't take much longer before we arrived at a very fancy restaurant in the city.

"Lucky I wore my nice dress" Brianna mumbled from beside me. I laughed and looked over to her "you'd look great in anything" I smiled.

"Great, next time I'll remember to my gym pants and crop top" she winked getting out of the car. I smirked and got out of the car too then waited for Brianna to come around.

When she came around I smiled and she came closer to link her arm through mine. "Ready?" I asked looking into the nice building. "As I'll ever be" she smiled back at me and started to walk into the restaurant.

My parents were already standing at the entrance waiting for us before going in. "Ahh The Fords, wonderful to see you all again. Right this way" Dante, the manager of the restaurant said as he grabbed some menus and walked us to our table.

"Thank you Dante, my father should be here soon" Mama said giving him a kind smile. He placed the menus down then walked off to wait another table.

The restaurant was fairly quite tonight which was nice. It was usually full with no seats left to spare. Though it was quite well spread out it got a bit more crowded with so many people.

We all spoke for a little while, mostly on how my parents trip was. They said it was good but refused us the details.

This happened almost every time they came home from a trip like this. They would say it went well but told me nothing about what they were doing or why they actually had to go in the first place.

I know they had their reasons but it was kind of annoying being stuck home and not even knowing what they were doing. Not that I cared much this time around with Brianna here.

"Oh good you are all here" Grandad said snapping me out of my thoughts. Everyone was staring at me but I hadn't noticed until he got there.

"Hello father" Mama said standing up to hug him followed by Mum and myself. One by one I all said hello and hugged him. I squeezed him tight to which he did the same back.

"Brianna dear, why are you not standing up with them" Grandad said with a cheeky smile. Brianna laughed and stood up too, she slowly walked to grandad and he pulled her into a hug.

I could see him whispering something which made Brianna laugh. As they pulled away from each other I raised my eyebrow at them. They both laughed and went to their seats.

Grandad sat at the end of the table because everyone else was with their pairs. "I have something to tell you all..." Grandad started. We all gave him a confused look but nodded.

"I'm seeing someone" he said as confident as ever. I could see Mum tense up a little bit. Obviously it didn't bother her, I think she was more worried about what Mama was going to say.

1

BRIANNA'S POV

I have to admit, I hadn't known this man for long but I could tell he was happy when he said that. I could see Katlyn tense up opposite me which was a little confusing because I thought Jade was his daughter.

None the less I stayed silent with the rest of the table hoping someone would speak soon. "Jade, darling, please say something" Henry said with a pleading tone.

After a little bit longer Jade spoke up, "I'm not sure what to say Father, don't get me wrong I'm so happy you've moved on but we have barely even spoken about my real mother, Christ I'm not even sure what her real name was."

Henry's mouth opened and closed many time obviously not knowing how to respond. "What do you want to know?" He finally said.

The three girls around me all looked up and had a shocked look. "Seriously?" Jade asked "Yes darling, what would you like to know?"

"Anything, please" Jade said with a sad emotional look. "Her name was Mary, we met when we were 19. I had just started working and she was the receptionist at the workshop. She was beautiful, every guy there wanted her." Henry took a pause and looked down to his water.

"When I first stated at the workshop I didn't know that it was a mafia business behind the scenes. So I couldn't just back out of the job now. I had already met my boss at the time and he drew me in" he continued.

"Wait you started at the very bottom of the chain?" Alison asked full of curiosity. She smiled and nodded.

"I sure did but I worked my way up and I took Mary with me, after about a year of getting to know each other we finally started going out together. We dated for two years until I proposed. Then she fell pregnant with you" he said looking to Jade.

"My boss at the time let me have a bit of time off to talk care of your mother. She was so excited to finally be having a child but she also couldn't get wait to go back to work" by this point Jade and Henry were in tears.

"Right after she gave birth and got discharged from the hospital she went back to work. I told her I would take you home and get you settled in while she went back for a while. A while turned into hours though, soon one of my mates from work were at my door. They told me there had been a shoot out at work and not many people made it out alive... including your mother." Everyone went silent but we were all in tears.

I hadn't know this man long but I could feel his pain and it was killing me. "Mary..." Jade said softly. "She sounds like she was a badass" Alison smiled while wiping a tear from her face. Everyone at the table let out a giggle before it went silent again.

"So who are you seeing now?" Jade mumble looking up to him. "Sue, her name is Sue. I met her through one of the boys that work for me." Henry said quietly. Sue, that name sounded awfully familiar.1

"When do we meet her?" Katlyn finally spoke up. "Whenever you all would like" Henry replied.

"Well, since we haven't ordered maybe she could come out to dinner now?" Jade said while a half smile.

I had still said nothing because I wasn't sure what to say. Alison had looked at me a few times but has also stayed relatively quiet until her Grandfather walked out to call Sue.

"This is awkward" she mumbled loud enough for everyone at the table to hear. "Alison come on it's not that bad" Katlyn said with a soft look.

"No no she's right" Jade said with a sigh looking up around to everyone. "But we are going to meet her and we are going to be nice" she finished.

We all nodded and sat quietly for a few more minutes before Henry walked in and stood at the end of the table. I hadn't looked up yet but Katlyn and Jade had both stood up.

"Everyone this is Sue. Sue this is my daughter Jade, her wife Katlyn, my granddaughter Alison and her partner Brianna" Henry introduced.

I had just looked up and met eyes with Sue. The second I realised who she was my mouth dropped, as did hers. Sarah's Mother...

We stared at each other for a while but Alison placed her hand on my leg to get my attention. I looked at her then back to Sarah's Mum. "Sue" I greeted nodding at my head. "Brianna, good to see you" she nodded back.

"Uhh do you know one another?" Henry asked looking between us. "Yeah, I guess you could say that" I smiled before looking back to Alison.

She gave me a confused look then looked to her grandfather. "Hmm?" She questioned. "This is Sarah's mother" I said quietly to Alison.

"She's who?!" Alison asked loudly to which everyone shushed. "Are you serious??" She asked a bit quieter. I nodded and looked back to Sue, she had a sorry look on her face and she sighed. "Would you mind if we spoke Brianna?" Sue asked.

I nodded and stood up to walk outside. We stepped outside and she smiled. "Brianna darling, I'm not sure what to say other then I'm sorry. Sorry about the way my daughter treated you. You deserved nothing of the sort" she said with a sigh.

"Sue, it's truly okay. You're not responsible for your daughters actions, okay?" I said giving her a soft look. She smiled and pulled me into a tight hug "I'm still sorry" she whispered.

"Let go back inside shall we, you can tell me more stories like you used to" I smiled turning to the door.

"That sounds wonderful" she said while we walked inside. We sat back at the table and Alison gave me a worried looked but stopped after I placed my hand on her knee.

"So Brianna, Alison how did you two meet?" Sue asked looking between us. I hesitated for a second but said "I met her at work". She nodded but didn't press anymore on the topic.

A second later a waitress walked up to our table and smiled "Are you all ready to order?" She asked looking around the table.

One by one we went around the table saying what we would like for dinner and what we would like to drink.

We all spoke for a while about random little topics and all completely avoided the topic of Alison's school at least while Sue was there.

Sue was there for me while not many people were. Even while her daughter was being horrible, she stuck by me.

Soon enough or dinner came out and we all laughed and spoke quietly. I enjoyed being around all these people, they made me feel safe and comfortable.

I could definitely get used to being around these people.