"Cecilia, honestly, I am severely disappointed in you" said Ernest with a sad look on his face as he shook his head, he honestly could not take this, it was just too much for him.
Lia on the other hand could not take Ernest's awfully honest scolding, she felt more than belittled, she felt worthless, she felt insulted by what he had said, but unfortunately it was true and that was what made her feel even worse, she just could not stop crying.
"Not only did you betray your friends, but you betrayed everyone else as well Cecilia" said Ernest as her eyes were overwhelmed with tears.
"What you did is unforgivable, I would have never expected such a thing from you of all people, I sincerely held you in high regard, so for me to hear all this that you have been keeping inside, it really breaks my heart" said Ernest honestly, seeing her cry made him want to cry as well.
Maybe it was because he was older now and he was getting softer, but he could feel her pain, he could feel her low self-esteem, he could feel her insecurities and worries that she had been suffering from for ages, he just felt bad that instead of opening up and talking to someone she let all those negative feelings grow into what they had matured into, which was hate that pushed her to do the unthinkable.
"You have broken my trust Cecilia, and I am not sure if I can ever trust you again" said Ernest sadly, he felt as if he was rejecting one of his own grandchildren, after all to him, she was just like his own granddaughter.
"But for the sake of peace you should hope that Natasha finds a place in her heart to forgive you
"said Ernest as Lia cried.
"My dear, I only regret that I did not take note of how you truly felt for all these years, you should have talked to someone instead of boiling in all these negative feelings all these years" said Ernest as he shook his head in pity, he really wanted to help her, he really did, but he could not do that until Lia wanted to get help for herself.
"You were never fair Grandfather never fair…"said Lia as she sniffed and stopped crying.
"And you don't have to speak in parables, I understand that I am no longer welcome here, it's fine, I should have never come here in the first place" said Lia as she stood up, trying to get a hold of herself but she started crying again as she ran out of his office and out the front door.
Ernest sighed as he shook his head, he did not mean that at all… in all honesty, he doubted that he could stay angry with her for long, he just wished for her to see the true error of her ways and genuinely try to make amends from her own heart.
Ernest sighed once more as he leaned back further into his armchair, thinking deeply.
"Grandfather I'm back I got you some brownies and leftover-"said Lulu as she walked into his office but she stopped talking when she smelt the way too familiar stench of fresh roses and vanilla wafering in Ernest's office.
"Ahh thank you my dear, but you took too long so I resorted to eating the oatmeal" said Ernest with a smile as Lulu looked at him and frowned, she knew this scent, there was only one person that used such a strong fragrance like this.
"Grandfather… was Lia here?" asked Lulu as she narrowed her eyes at Ernest as he saw no use in lying.
"Yes Lulu she was, I needed to see her" said Ernest as Lulu sighed, she knew it, she knew that something was up when Ernest just wanted her to leave.
"Of course you did" said Lulu in annoyance as she shook her head, she should have known better.
"Lulu where are you going?" asked Ernest in worry as Lulu suddenly turned around to leave.
"Nowhere Grandfather, I will be back soon" replied Lulu as she turned around to smile at him briefly before she left the room and Ernest knew that she was up to nothing good considering the circumstances.
Lulu closed the front door behind her as her face was full of rage as she stormed across the street only to see her car from the corner of her eye, making her remember that Benjamin had drove her here and he was still in the car and it had been more than an hour.
"Lulu are you alright?" asked Benjamin as he popped his head out the open window of the car.
"I'm not fine that's for sure" she said as she sighed, feeling bad that he had been waiting here for so long for her.
"I'm sorry Ben, I should have known that this would take a while, and you've been sitting out here all day and it's really sunny out" said Lulu apologetically.
"It's fine, I get that something really big is going on" replied Benjamin he had been sitting in the car all day, he was worried when he saw all members of the family walking together across the street to Ernest's house, and he was even more worried when they walked back down the street to Margret's house, he didn't need to be a genius to know that whatever was going on was very serious.
"More than big Ben, you don't know half of it, you know what give me a moment, I will be right back" said Lulu as she felt before Benjamin could even reply to her.
…
Lia sobbed as she entered into her room and dropped on her bed crying, she just felt so horrible right now, too horrible, she didn't think that she could take this anymore.
Lulu knocked on the door of Lia's house and when she received no reply, she wasted no time at all as she opened the door, let herself in and walked up the stairs, she knew where she was going, straight to Lia's room.
Lulu did not even bother knocking as she opened the door and began shouting.
"You are such a horrible person Lia!" said Lulu in nothing but rage as her voice startled the crying Lis who raised her head from her bed to look up at who had suddenly barged into her room.
Lia took one look at Lulu's angry face and she knew that this their sudden confrontation would be far from pleasant.
"Oh Lulu, please not you too" said Lia as she cried and looked at Lulu who scoffed, obviously not buying what she believed was a fake, innocent look of crying that was begging for pity.
"Oh no don't you dare call me Lulu it's Miss White to you!" said Lulu as Lia stood up.
"You are such a horrible woman, a horrible person, you would betray your friends just for what??" asked Lulu.
"Lulu you don't understand" said Lia as she sniffed.
"Don't play that card on me Lia, I understand perfectly well that your little infatuation with my brother caused you to ruin his marriage with your best friend!!" said Lulu.
"I know that you feel angry right now Lulu, but please don't shout at me, I'm sorry, really sorry for all of this really…"said Lia as she cried and Lulu scoffed.
"You're not sorry enough, not sorry at all!" said Lulu.
"How could you betray your friends? How could you lie to all of us and take us all as fools??!" asked Lulu.
"Did you really think for a second that you would be able to get away with this??!" asked Lulu as she took a step forward.
"I know what I did was wrong Lulu, and I own up to it, and I'm sorry" said Lia.
"You shouldn't be apologizing to me, you should be apologizing to Natasha, you hurt her so much! I doubt that she would ever be able to forgive you, and I don't ever want to forgive you, you don't deserve anyone's forgiveness" said Lulu as Lia cried at her hurtful words that only made Lulu feel even more enraged.
She was sure that Lia was acting under pretence, she didn't really feel sorry at all, she was just trying to garner pity in this moment and that set Lulu even more off the edge.
"Stop pretending as if you're so sombre and sorry when you're not!" said Lulu.
"I'm not pretending Lulu" said Lia in a hurt tone as Lulu felt more enraged as she raised her hand to slap Lia but she got a hold of herself when she realized that if Lia went tattling she would get in trouble for laying a finger on her.
Lulu groaned in anger as she turned around and tried to calm herself down.
"You know what, I don't even know why I am wasting my time talking to you" said Lulu with a scoff.
"You will always get what you give I'm sure of that, and you better be clear on the fact that you are no longer welcome anywhere near us at all, I really hope that you suffer for what you did" said Lulu.
"What am I even saying, you're going to be alone for the rest of your life, that's already suffering" said Lulu as she chuckled coldly before turning around to leave as Lia fell back down on her bed and started crying again, that was it, she was hated by everyone she actually cared about and it made her feel nothing but extreme sadness.
Lulu groaned in anger as she slammed the front door of Lia's house and stormed back down the street only to see Benjamin watching her from the car window as she remembered that he was still here and she walked over to him.
"Are you alright?" he asked noticing that she looked enraged.
"Not yet I'm not" she replied with a scoff.
"You know what, just come inside, you've been out here for far too long" said Lulu as she took a deep breath to calm herself down.
"No, If you want to stay here I can drive your car back home" said Benjamin.
"Look Ben, no one is going home today" said Lulu.
"Why did something happen?" asked Benjamin.
"Ben you're my friend, so I'm just going to tell you, the woman responsible for ruining Natasha and Dom's marriage just confessed" said Lulu.
"Really?" asked Benjamin in surprise as Lulu nodded.
"Yes, so believe me when I tell you that going back home is not a good idea, Natasha and Dom need to talk this whole thing out, and the best thing for us to do is stay out of it" said Lulu.
"So get out of the car and follow me inside, it's way too hot out here" said Lulu as she shook her head and walked away as Benjamin didn't need to be told twice, he didn't like the idea of being stuck in the car all day.
Lulu looked back to see Benjamin following after her and that made her smile, for once he listened to her.
"You're going to enjoy my mom's brownies" she said as she smiled and turned to look at him as he said nothing.
"Why do you look so grim?" asked Lulu.
"How long do you think this whole serious issue is going to last?" asked Benjamin.
"I don't know for sure, but not too long, you know what just relax and enjoy your complimentary day off" said Lulu as she smiled and Benjamin did not know what to feel about that.