CHAPTER 20: A Family Affair
Within ten minutes of Mitchum and Shira scurrying off, Honor, Josh and their two kids had arrived.
Honor was delighted to meet Elle and even more delighted to realise that she's an auntie. However, she did declare just how offended she was that she had never known.
... She and Logan both.
After Honor's excitement of being an instant-auntie begins to wear off, she introduced Elle to children.
Pascal wasn't overly impressed by Elle, but then again, not much held the two year old's attention for longer than a minute. Six-year-old Indigo, on the other hand, was fascinated by Elle, excited to have another cousin in her life seeing as all of her cousins on Josh's side of the family were boys.
Elle and Indy talked together and played well, giving their parents the opportunity to talk until all nine of them are summoned into the lounge room for dinner...
Mitchum and Shira are already seated at either end of the table; the Huntzberger patriarch and matriarch taking the heads of the table. After Logan's grandfather had died five years back, the seats on opposite sides of the enormous table had become the couples chosen seats; perhaps the distance between them is symbolic.
Logan and Rory take a seat either side of Elle on the left-hand side of the table, while Josh holds Pas as he, Honor and Indy take their seats on the other side of the table.
"Isn't it lovely having all of the family together at once?" Shira exclaims with a contended sigh as she looks across the table to where everyone is seated. "Even the illegitimate among us..."
Logan gives his mother a long, unhappy glares silently before he and Rory glance at each other uncomfortably. Elle takes notice of this and makes a mental note to look 'illegitimate' up in the dictionary when she gets home. She has a fair idea and she has a fair idea that the word applies to her, but she wants to know for sure.
To break away from the awkward silence that comes upon the room after Shira's dig that no one called her out on, Mitchum speaks up, directing his interest and focus to Elle.
"So, Elle, do you know what you want to do when you're older? Do you know what you want to be?"
Rory watches the interaction carefully and closely. There's one point of interest that she takes a note of; a factor that she can't help but frown at, just a little. Watching the man she once interned for as he communicates with her daughter, she notes that he looks genuinely interested in his granddaughter.
Surely not.
Surely he just wants to suss out if the Huntzberger Heiress is interested in taking a role in the family business...
"Um... I don't really know yet. I'm not like my mom who always wanted to be a journalist. I kind of like the idea of being a librarian, a pastry chef or a publisher. My Uncle Jess says he'd give me a job."
"That's quite a diverse range of interests you have there... You know, I'm pretty sure that you could get a job at a couple of other publishing places too, Elle" Mitchum says with a well-meaning smirk forming.
Once she finally has a new subtle, little insult ready for the current topic of conversation, Shira pipes up once again with her next passive-aggressive comment.
"They sound like nice careers, Elle... Have you ever looked into something more, well, achievable? Cleaning or customer service, perhaps? After all, they always need people to clean up after other people..."
Rory sighs at the latest remark, while Logan leans over in his seat, leaning over to Elleigh to whisper a reminder in her ear.
"Remember what I said to you before we came inside, Elle..."
Elle nods at her father, giving him a little smile as she uses her fork to gently toss her salad on her plate.
"So, how long have you two known about each other?" Honor asks, speaking up to try and divert the conversation from the Shira-induced awkward silence once again.
"About a month... I saw the girls at Rory's grandfather's funeral. Then Nancy Drew over here clued it out before I did."
The father and daughter share and reciprocate a little smile with each other.
"I find it curious that Rory neglected to tell you for, what nine, ten, years... After all, if she really is a part of the family, then wouldn't the father know about it?"
"What are you implying, mother?" Logan asks through gritted teeth.
Shira shrugs, lightly as the sickly, fake sweetness is toned down a notch as she stares at her nails, gently pressing at her cuticle.
"Well, it's just convenient how you and Rory suddenly see each other after all this time and then you're suddenly told that you're a father to her child. It would seem almost like a coincidence, seeing as she found someone to palm child support onto. Not to mention, someone that is far more capable of financial child support than many, many other men in the world are."
"Mom... Don't you dare" Logan says, trailing off warningly.
The timing could not be more perfect for Honor and Josh's son to begin crying inconsolably. Even a two-year-old can sense the air of discomfort riddling the room.
Knowing her son's cry, Honor knows that Pas won't be calming down anytime soon.
"Sorry guys, I have to take Pas out. He's really upset. He won't calm down anytime soon in here."
As his wife scoops their son up in her arms, Josh jumps at the chance to leave the awkward room as well, bringing Indy out with him too.
After the family of four quickly flee from the room, it just leaves the senior Huntzberger's all with Logan who is chewing at the bit, Rory who is nothing short of feeling completely humiliated and Elle who feels like the elephant in the room.
"Well, if my insinuation infuriates you so much, Logan, then go on. Show me the paperwork to prove me wrong. Go on and show me the documentation that gives you such confidence that she's yours."
"We haven't done that. We haven't had to... I haven't had to. There is absolutely no need."
A smirk erupts over Shira's face as Logan gives her the exact answer that she had been expecting from her only son, before it sours to a look of infuriation.
"Well, then, she's not a Huntzberger. I refuse to sit around and play happy families with strangers that have no place in his home."
Perhaps if Shira was out in public and perhaps if Shira felt as though she had more of a facade to maintain beyond her husband, son and two guests, she would have worked a little harder to keep her saccharine-sweetened mask on for a little longer.
After her latest comment, there's a long silence in the room. So much so, that you can hear the quiet ticking of Mitchum's Rolex watch as loudly as though it is being sounded out through a loudspeaker.
Then, after a good thirty seconds silence, the first person to speak up is the last person that anyone would have expected to.
"Wow... You're mean" Elle says succinctly, calling her grandmother out on her nastiness.
Shira lets out a loud gasp at the comment, clutching her chest dramatically.
The gasp commences an onslaught of commotion... Rory immediately tells Elle to apologise; Logan quickly jumps in and tells her not to, Shira exclaims how rude Elle is, while Mitchum, for once, has nothing to say at his wife being put in her place, simply laughing at the fiasco.
"No, Ace, don't make Elle apologise. She only stated the obvious. Elle's the only one in this room who had enough courage to call my mother out on her rudeness. She should be the one apologising."
Logan's remark only elicits another gasp from Shira.
"You have sat there and bullied an innocent nine-year-old and her mother all night. Damn straight you should be the one to apologise!" Logan says to his mother firmly.
"Rory's using you, Logan! She's using you just like she did in the past. Do you think getting an internship with your father was just a perk of being with you?! She's using you and sucking you in to be a father to her little brat, scoring herself years of back pay in child support from you! Open your eyes, boy!"
Logan is irate. He can barely control himself enough to turn to his daughter, squeeze her arm reassuringly and encouragingly.
"Sweetie... How about you go and join Indy? She should be in the next room with her mom and dad."
Elle nods, obediently getting up from her seat. She notices her mother's look of concern as Rory just mouths 'It's okay' to her sincerely.
The second that the door has clasped shut from Elle leaving the room, Logan is up and out of his seat, standing indignantly as he points at his mother.
"Don't you dare speak to, or speak about, my daughter like that ever again!"
"Your 'daughter', Logan? How could you possibly know that she's your daughter without a DNA test?! I refuse to accept that she's your daughter without one."
Logan is seeing red. The more his mother speaks, the more she refuses, the madder and madder he grows.
"I know she is my daughter. I trust Rory. We were together for three years. If she says she's my daughter, I know she's my daughter. But, if you're looking for evidence, Elle was born seven months after we broke up. Not to mention, as if looking at her isn't enough of a clue. Then again, family doesn't mean a heck of a lot to this one, anyway!"
"Well if it's taken her so many years to tell you, she clearly trusts you" Shira simply responds, complete with a snide smirk in her son's direction, attempting to undermine his trust in Rory now; using a different tactic and plan of attack.
Rory sighs at the dig towards her. She reaches out to grab Logan's shoulder, trying to calm his growing fury and catch his attention all at the same time.
"Maybe we should listen to her... If it's going to make everything easier here on out maybe it's worth it to just get a paternity test and prove it."
Logan looks between Rory and his mother. His gaze goes back and forth a few times.
On one hand, what Rory's saying makes sense. Then, on the other hand, it's a matter of principle. It means accepting defeat and it means succumbing when it's only to silence his family.
"Alright... I'll do it" Logan announces with a sigh, running a hand through his blonde hair. "If it makes the difference between Elle being accepted and being treated well or not then fine, I'll do it. We'll get a test to prove it to you once and for all."
"Don't."
Three head's turn to face one direction as the Huntzberger patriarch speaks up for the first time in a while amongst the arguing.
"Don't do it. It's unnecessary. I trust Rory; I always have. She has integrity. If she says that Elle is Logan's daughter, then Elle is Logan's daughter. I always have believed that Rory was with Logan for the Logan part of him... Not the Huntzberger part of him."
"Mitchum, we talked about this..."
"Shira, you talked about this. You are the one who is adamantly against it. Don't put words into my mouth."
As his parent's begin to argue, Logan quickly turns to Rory. "Grab your bag, Ace. I'll go and get Elle. We're leaving."
With Mitchum miraculously defending Rory and Logan, now is the perfect time to leave before his standing changes; quit while they're ahead and quit before they or their daughter are attacked further.
"Thanks for dinner" Logan says routinely, a total lie as he and Rory leave the dining room together.
After grabbing Elle from where she'd playing games on Honor's phone with Indy, the three of them are almost out the door and away from the hostile Huntzberger home before their attention is caught by Logan's name being bellowed out.
Briskly rushing down the hallway is Mitchum, hoping to grab the trio before they left.
"Oh, good" Mitchum says as he catches up to the three by the front door of the manor. "You haven't left yet."
"Thank you for what you said in there. Thank you for standing up for me" Rory says quickly, before Mitchum has a chance to catch his breath.
Mitchum just nods simply.
"I say what I believe, Rory. I know we may have had differences of opinion regarding your career and what I believed in the past. However, despite that, I have always liked and respected you, Rory. And, I have always believed that you brought out the best in my son."
Rory thanks Mitchum once again, Logan fights the urge to roll his eyes and Elle looks up at the adults as they speak. The youngest in the group absorbs the snippet of insight that she's just been given into her parent's past. She likes the sound of the fact that her mother brought out the best of her father...
"So, what did you want?"
After remembering that his father had approached them, Logan asks the question with a sigh, his voice impatient. He has a low tolerance for anything regarding his parents currently.
With his hands clasped within one another, the eldest Huntzberger in the hallway looks to his granddaughter and then to his son.
"I'd like to have contact with Elle, if you'd let me" Mitchum announces, before looking down to the blonde little girl. "And, if you'd like to..."
Rory and Logan look to each other, wordlessly reading each others thoughts on the issue before their gaze falls to their daughter who very quickly speaks up in answer to the question.
"Okay. I'd like that."
A smile spreads across the media magnate's face. "Great! I'm glad to hear it. I'll be in contact with your parents soon. It really has been a pleasure to meet you tonight, Elleigh."
After shaking hands with each of them, Mitchum walks off as the trio continue to leave.
Elle races ahead to Logan's sports-car as her parent's trail behind, giving Rory the opportunity to whisper to Logan.
"Well... Who would have thought that Mitchum Huntzberger turns into a big ol' softy from a nine-year-old?"
Man, that was a fun chapter to write. I have seen the Huntzberger's written so many different ways, but this was just how I perceived a dinner going down. I always saw Shira as the insecure bag egg, but I feel like deep down Mitchum has a heart. He might have terribly neglected his kids for his career, but I have this feeling that grandfather-Mitchum would see the error of his ways and try to make up for that with his grand-kids. But, that's just me.
Also, an enormous thank you to everyone who read & reviewed the last chapter. There was some fantastic feedback left on the last one. I really hope the rest of the Huntzberger dinner met your expectations!
Next chapter: Logan & Elle have a daddy-daughter date and then the past meets the present in a small way for Rory & Logan.