About the Montgomery’s

Derek woke up early Sunday morning to the sound of his cell phone ringing. He rolled over and answered the phone without bothering to check the caller ID.

"What?" His voice was groggy and clearly annoyed that someone had disturbed his sleep.

"Is that anyway to answer a phone call from your one and only father?"

"It is when that phone call is at 5 am on a Sunday."

"Hahaha! Sorry about that. You know how I am. Anyway, I've got some bad news."

"Don't say it."

"They've decided when to have the family reunion banquet."

"I said don't say it."

"It's tonight! Surprise!" An entire minute passed in silence. "Derek? Hello?" Derek sighed. He could already feel his head starting to hurt.

"What time?"

"5 pm. They want you to bring your new wife and the others too."

"...Damn it! Fine. Anything else?"

"Nope. That's it. See you there!" With that, the phone call ended and Derek's entire day was ruined before it began. Knowing that there was no way he'd be able to fall back asleep, he reluctantly got out of bed to take a shower. He knew they only told his father last minute just to make things difficult. Now he had a lot of things to do and not a lot of time to do it.

A few minutes later, he got out of the shower, got dressed, and left his room. The Mongomery family held an annual family banquet every year without fail. These events were formal affairs where all members of the family were required to attend. However, other than his father and older brother, Derek didn't get along with any of them.

Most of the Montgomery family was nothing but snobby rich people who cared about nothing but getting richer. His grandfather wasn't quite as bad but he was an old and stubborn man who wouldn't permit anything to besmirch the family name. All in all, they were an annoying group to deal with.

Derek first went to Aiden's room and knocked on the door. He heard a faint noise from inside the room and then the door opened. Aiden stood in the open doorway rubbing his eyes.

"What's wrong?" His sleepy voice and tired eyes made Derek feel bad for waking him up but he didn't have a choice.

"I'm sorry for waking you up so early but something's come up."

"It's fine. What is it? Do you want to come in?" Aiden stepped aside and opened the door further. Derek hesitated for a moment but in the end decided it would be a good idea to explain things properly. At least to Aiden.

"Alright. It might take a bit to explain." He walked into the room and heard Aiden close the door behind him. Then, Aiden walked past him and climbed onto the bed. He patted the mattress next to him, indicating that Derek should sit there.

"What's up?"

"There's a banquet tonight that's being held by my grandparents and the entire Montgomery family has to attend." Derek sighed and sat down on the bed next to Aiden. "I was just informed this morning and I was told to bring you all along as well."

"Talk about last minute."

"Yeah. That was most likely intentional." Derek saw the questioning look on Aiden's face. "Where should I start?" After that, Derek began explaining all about his family and how it related to him marrying Lyla.

The Montgomery family had been growing their wealth and power for several generations. They owned hotels, hospitals, factories, real estate, casinos, and more. Basically, if it made money, they were involved in it in one way or another. Marriages were always arranged with other powerful families and Derek's father, Silas, was no different.

The patriarch of the family at the time had arranged Silas's marriage with the daughter of one of the family's business partners. The two were married and eventually Derek's older brother, Cameron, was born. Unfortunately, just because they were married and had a child, didn't mean either of them were happy. So, they mutually agreed to see other people and only keep up with appearances for their respective families. It worked for a while but all good things come to an end.

With so much money being made, it wasn't strange for people to become greedy and power struggles were common. A younger cousin of Silas learned the truth and used it to his advantage. Needless to say, the fallout was brutal. It turned out that the person Silas had been seeing was Derek's mother and she was already eight months pregnant when the Montgomery's found out.

Derek wasn't sure of the exact events that followed but the results changed everything. Both Cameron's and Derek's mother's died, Silas's cousin was disowned, and all of the family businesses that Silas was running were taken back as punishment for refusing to give Derek up for adoption.

From then on, the relationship between Silas and his father was severely strained. Derek was also treated as an outsider or worse by everyone in the family. Things turned even more hostile when Silas's grandfather, the one who decided his marriage, passed away years later.

In his will, he expressed regret for the way things happened. Contrary to what everyone originally thought after the incident, Silas was not removed from the will and Derek had been added instead of just Cameron. That action made a lot of people very unhappy but there was a condition to his inheritance. He had to be married before he was thirty five. Ever since then they've been scheming against Derek and his father. Derek's marriage was one of the ways they were trying to take control of the situation.

If Derek managed to marry someone with any kind of ability and power, it would pose a risk to certain family members who didn't want him gaining any more influence. On the other hand, if they controlled the person he married, they could effectively put a leash around his neck and it wouldn't matter what he inherited because they'd control it in the end.

"So that's why you married Lyla," Aiden said after Derek stopped talking.

"Mhm."

"By the way, how old are you?" Aiden just realized that he didn't know. Derek winced and hesitated answering the question. "Come on, it can't be that bad."

"...I'm twenty nine."

"Twenty nine?"

"Mhm."

"Twenty nine?! You're so…" Derek quickly interrupted whatever Aiden was about to say.

"Don't you dare say old." Aiden covered his mouth with both hands. Derek narrowed his eyes. "You were going to say old, weren't you?"

"No! No, I was going to say…You're so…young looking!" Aiden paused for a moment, grinned, and continued. "For an old person." Aiden laughed and Derek reached across the bed and grabbed one of the pillows, throwing it at Aiden, which only caused him to laugh more.

For some reason, Derek was in a much better mood than he had been just minutes before. But when he thought about the banquet again, he looked back at Aiden and frowned.

"Aiden."

"You're frowning." Aiden leaned forward and poked the sides of Derek's mouth with his index fingers. "You'll get wrinkles. Then your looks might match your old age. What's wrong?"

"Maybe you shouldn't go tonight." Now it was Aiden's turn to frown. He backed away from Derek, bringing his hands down to his sides.

"...Why?"

"That's…" Derek let out a frustrated sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "My family, they're not very open minded and they're definitely not kind." Aiden knew exactly what Derek was getting at and narrowed his eyes.

"Meaning?"

"Come on, you know what I mean."

"I'm not sure I do so how about you spell it for me."

"They'll insult you. They'll taunt you in an attempt to get you to lash out so they have an excuse to say whatever they want."

"You mean because I'm gay. I'm gay and they won't like it so I should stay away. That's what you mean?"

"No! I'm not saying it like that!" Derek stood up and so did Aiden, their voices getting louder.

"Really? Cause that's exactly what it sounds like. Just because I'm gay doesn't mean you should treat me any differently."

"It's because they'll treat you differently!"

"Yeah but YOU shouldn't!!" Aiden took a deep breath before stepping right in front of Derek and continuing. "News flash, genius, your family won't like me anyway because of Lyla, because I'm an outsider, and because of you. They have no reason to like me but you weren't worried about any of those reasons. So why does me being gay make such a dramatic difference that you'd suggest hiding me away like some dirty little secret?"

"Don't say it like that! Shit! I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean for it to come across that way. I knew they wouldn't like any of you but with the way that you're always so unapologetically you, and don't misunderstand I'm not saying that's a bad thing but, it makes you an even bigger target." A playful smile spread across Aiden's face.

"So it's not the fact that I'm gay but it's the fact that I'd probably walk into the banquet in a sexy dress and heels, singing broadway show tunes, with a metaphorical flashing neon sign over my head reading: Homo!"

"Not exactly that but you get the idea." Derek looked at Aiden apologetically. "I didn't mean for it to sound like I was saying that you being gay was a problem. Just that it would draw their attention to you and that worries me." Then Aiden did something that Derek was not expecting. Aiden wrapped his arms around Derek and leaned his head against his chest, hugging him tightly.

"I get it now. I'm sorry for yelling. It's just a bit of a touchy subject." Aiden let go and took a step back. "To be fair though, you're not exactly great at communicating."

"...Yeah. I've been told."

"And I'm still going tonight."

"Alright." After that, they discussed the details of what would have to be done in preparation for the banquet.