Just over an hour later, Cole moved to the microphone on the podium, and checked that it was on before calmly saying "Mr President, ladies and gentleman. If I could have your attention for a few minutes."
Everyone hearing Cole speak, quickly moved back to the tables and sat down, turning to ensure that they could see him.
Cole carefully looked around and found Abigail across the far side of the room smiling at her briefly, and turning to look at Adam, Chelsea and Sara, without as big of a smile as he had looking at Abigail.
"I know that a lot has been said tonight, including thanking every one of you for attending. Those of you present who knew my wife, knew she wanted to ensure that her jewellery stayed within the family and made me promise to ensure that our granddaughter on her eighteenth birthday. Tonight, may seem like the ideal time for me to hand them over."
"These items were special for my wife in many ways, and she wanted them to stay as they were. Sara, I know that you were thinking that tonight you would receive that jewellery, but I am not going to give it to you. You have hinted to me that you want to remake the jewellery to fit what you want, and that is not what my wife wanted for it. She wanted it to remain how it was."
"However, Sara with help, I have purchased you jewellery that I know will be more to your taste."
Abigail sitting in the crowd observed the scowl come go across Sara's face, which she hid as quickly as possible.
Cole, on the stage however was oblivious to Sara's reaction, and said "The other tradition from my wife's family is that a gift of land is given to every child when they turn eighteen. Until the law was such that females, after marriage retained ownership to the land, a trusted male from the family held that land to benefit the woman throughout her life."
Cole paused, motioned to Sara to come forward. Once she did, Cole, reached into the right hand side of his jacket and pulled out an envelope handing it to Sara saying "This fulfills that tradition."
Sara just before she dropped her head, turned and looked directly at Abigail with a smug look, as if she was saying "See I am the granddaughter, not you."
Cole, paused and looked directly at Abigail and smiled, before saying "Sara told you about the unique circumstances around her birth and Abigail. Abigail, could you please come here."
Abigail looked at Rebecca, who lent over and whispered "Go. Do not lest Sara get at you. It is your grandfather asking you to go up."
Abigail stood up and walked up to the stage. She could see the looks in Adam, Chelsea and Sara's eyes, and if she was playing her normal self in front of them, she would have turned around and left quickly. Rebecca had been right, and tonight she was not going to let them ruin the rest of the night for her. As she stepped into the stage and started to walk across to Cole, Sara stuck out her foot in an attempt to trip her.
Abigail, seeing that slightly adjusted her steps to ensure that as she put the heel on her shoe down, is pressed on the big toe on the open shoes that Sara was wearing, causing her to firstly scream in pain and screaming "You b*tch."
Sara, as she screamed out, pushed Abigail hard, causing her to stumble and fall off the stage, causing Cole to scream out "Abigail…"
Daniel, who was sitting on the table at the bottom of the stage, just where Abigail started to fall off, moved quickly and grabbed at her to prevent her hitting the ground. The force of Abigail's movement caused Daniel to tumble backwards and as he hit the ground Abigail landed on top of him.
With the help of others at the table, Abigail was helped to her feet, and Daniel scrambled up, quietly saying to Abigail "Are you alright?"
Abigail nodded and quietly responded, with her eyes dropped "With thanks to you."
Cole on the stage watched the incident, his heart in his mouth, not believing what Sara had tried to do. Without even bothering to switch off the microphone, he turned and took three paces to where Sara, Adam and Chelsea were standing, before angrily stating "That is it. I told you no games, otherwise all bets were off and I would tell the truth about Sara and Abigail's birth."
"You would not dare…"
"I will tell everyone that you, my ungrateful son and daughter-in-law raised and prize an ungrateful brat over a beautiful sole that rightfully deserves everything that I will do everything to ensure she has."
Louder Cole said "Forget it, you can never reason with ungrateful people. While I will give you money to last you a lifetime, if you are careful, you can forget about receiving the company. Someone who deserves it will receive it. And that love child your mistress is pregnant with, will have a trust fund to raise them until they are eighteen and pay for their university. I wash my hands of you."