THE OUTCAST

By the time that Megan reached home, lunch was being served in the dining room. She had no appetite not the mood to face any kind of humiliation or insults from the family it was better to just hide in her bedroom.

Mother Elizabeth was seated at the head of the table as she had taken over as the head of the family now that the patriarch had fallen. Rich was seated at her right with Liana by his side. Cindy, Rich's younger sister was seated on her mother's left hand with her uncle and cousin who had come to live with them after the passing of Father Wayne. The only seat left was next to Liana and there was no way that Megan was going to degrade herself to seat there.

“Mother may I be excused? I am not feeling well so I will not be having lunch.” She did with her head bowed.

“Will you stop being such a drama queen? Father is no longer here to see your acting” her sister-in-law admonished her. She had never liked Megan and did not understand why her father had to face her brother I to marrying her.

“Cindy, that is no way to talk to your elder,” Liana said, getting up from her chair and taking Megan by the hand. “Please dont mind her, she is still in mourning and is not thinking straight.” She played the devil’s advocate.

“Just let her be if her high and mighty does not feel the need to join the family for lunch” this coming from Beth. She was so sick and tired of her daughter-in-law and could not wait for her son and divorce her and marry the beautiful Liana.

Rich was the least bothered by her presence and was busy deboning a price of fish and placing it on Liana's plate. Megan bowed slightly and excused herself rushing to her room.

Luckily she had told her son to wait for her in their bedroom to avoid seeing her humiliated by the family. She found Benny fast asleep and o placed the plate of food that she had brought from him on the table. He has had a restless night and the funeral service had taken a toll on him.

Grandpa was one of his favorite people and even thought he was young, be I’m knew that the great of his family did not like him or his mother.

Megan removed her shoes and lay next to her son, holding him close as she soon drifted off to sleep thinking about her father-in-law. How she wished that she could pack up and go back to her home with her son but thinking about the repercussions of violating the contract, she would not be able to bear it. Leaving in her husband's house as an outcast was the lowest and meanest form of degradation.

Back in the dining room.

"Sister now that brother-in-law has passed and you are the head of the family why don't you ask Richard to give Aaron a position at the company? They are cousins after all and I am sure that they can help each other to run the company." Buckley said like he was offering a great sacrifice to his older sister.

Rich raised his head to look at his uncle. His cousin was one of the most irresponsible people in the world who liked to ride on other peoples back and hated any kind of work. Bringing him into the company was something that his father had always been much against and he knew that doing so now would inky bring disaster or maybe even the downfall of the company.

"Uncle, we have just buried Dad so let us not talk about work or the company right now. You will must end up burdening mother and she needs to rest" he said before his mother could reply.

Roger looked at his cousin and knew exactly what he was trying to do. He did not want Aunt Beth to to give a positive opinion regarding this matter.

"Dad let us not talk about business right now. I am sure that my cousin is very capaof giving me an appropriate position in the company once fthings settle down." He said wanting to put Rich in a tight spot.

Rich was never to back down and his strong headedness had seen him through some really tough predicaments so he looked at his cousin straight in the eye "We will see about that" he said then turned to his girlfriend.

Beth had promised her husband that she was not going to interfere with the running of the business so she just held her peace and Buckley seeing that his sister was not going to intervene, left the issue for another day.

He had moved in with his sister after his divorce ten years back so Roger was practically a son of the family.as he had been raised by Beth and Henry. He had tried in vain to get his son a position at the company but since he was also just an employee with no say at all, he had to find a way to coax his sister to agree to his demands.

After lunch, Rich and Liana left the house to stroll in the gardens. They walked hand in hand like a newlywed couple that were in their honeymoon phase. Liana would gaze into Rich's eyes with a dreamy look that held promises of a lifetime of pleasure as Rich held her deliberately in his arms, stealing kisses and wishing for nothing more than to lock her up in his room take her.

"I am so glad that we can finally be together again without having to hide our love" he said as he carressed her nape.

"Don't say that honey. I know that father did not like me but we still have to respect him even though he is gone" she said, pressing herself on her man to let him know how she was feeling.

"You are the perfect daughter in law for this family. I never understood why he never liked you." Rich knew that Liana was the only woman for him and as soon as he divorced his wife, he was going to marry her.

Megan who had just woken up from slumber was standing by the window that was facing the garden when she saw her husband holding his lover in his arms.

"He is probably wishing that I was also dead so that he can live a happy life with her" she thought feeling rejected. She should not have been feeling heart broken seeing them together but as a woman, it still hurt to see another woman receiving affection from her husband when he was always cruel to her.