Dinner at the Tan's
The clinking of cutlery filled the air as we ate in relative silence. This was the first time in a while that Ava had agreed to come have dinner at the family penthouse in New York city.
My father's demeanor was cold and reserved, and so was my mother's. Ava herself didn't even want to be here. Ever since she and I got married, my parents have always been disapproving of our relationship, probably even worse than they were with Olivia.
Michael took a sip of his drink and then spoke. "Tan corps is at an all-time low, what are you doing to fix that Aiden?"
It was true that the company was experiencing some problems, we've been failing to get big construction deals and it's been making us run at a loss.
What's worse is that all this began happening shortly after my father handed over the company to me, making me the CEO.
At first he was reluctant, and didn't want to hand over the company unless I had a son. But then, age wasn't exactly on his side and he was tired of going to the office every morning, so he wanted to retire. So begrudgingly, he made me CEO
"I just got a deal with Titan properties, to raise a luxury apartments complex here in New York."
He scoffed. "Can you listen to yourself? You're chasing apartment complex projects… what happened to airport renovations, major road construction, mega structures?"
I exhaled, "I'm working on those too, but this project also has lots of opportunities -"
"Our competitors are on top and as a matter of fact even startups are competing with us now, You're ruining this company."
"I'm doing my best."
"Your best is simply not enough, my father owned this construction company. He started from scratch, grew it and passed it on to me, I expanded it and passed on to you and then what do you do? You're trying to bring it to the ground."
I held back myself to avoid saying something that we would both regret in the future. "The economic situation of the country is not my fault, it's not my fault that the company was already in debt when I became CEO."
He paused and turned to face me. "So are you trying to blame me?"
"I'm not blaming you for anything, all I'm saying is that stop making you look like I'm intentionally trying to sabotage the company when I'm working my ass off to make sure that it stays afloat."
"Watch your language on the dining table," mother warned, dabbing her cheeks with a napkin.
"Don't think that I can't remove you from the CEO position, I'm still the founder."
"That's unfair, I dedicated my whole life to this-"
"Enough, I don't want to hear it, you've pissed me off tonight." He got up and left the dining table, Monica tried to call him back but he paid her no attention.
Due to our inability to have an heir, my parents have always been extra irritable when it came to matters like this.
I brought my wife here, thinking that since they had not met face to face for so many years, that by now they would have buried the hatchet.
Boy was I horribly wrong.
"Are you happy now Aiden? You've made your father angry and you know it's not good for his health."
"It's not his fault Michael is so unappreciative." Ava snorted, twisting the ramen with her fork.
"Ava!" I cautioned. Unlike Olivia, Ava always had her ways with words, she wasn't going to hold back if she had something to say.
"Look at you eating all our food, yet she's so useless," Monica remarked under her breath.
Ava immediately banged the table, shaking all the glassware on it. This took everyone by surprise, and Monica adjusted her glasses to look at her.
"Aiden, I told you this would happen if I came here for dinner and you assured me that they weren't going to pick on me," Ava said.
"Ava calm down, mom that was completely uncalled for," I defended.
Monica's eyes widened, "uncalled for? You know what's uncalled for? It's this barren piece of shit you call a wife speaking about my husband in such a manner."
"Mother!"
"What?!" She yelled back, getting on her feet to look me in the eyes.
"I'm done here, this was a mistake and I'm never doing this again." Ava grabbed her purse and cat walked out.
I looked between her and my mother completely confused, I didn't even know who to address.
"I don't even know what you saw in these women that made you to marry two barren sisters."
Tired of my parents playing blame games, I stood up abruptly, pushing the chair behind me. "If you and dad want children so badly then you two should have considered making more than one."
Her jaw dropped and I walked away without giving her room to reply.
Ava was already seated on the passengers seat with her arms folded against her chest and a scowl on her face as she waited.
I entered the car and exhaled, she turned and I could tell she wanted to say something. "Ava don't, please." I was not in the mood for any form of arguement or complain, all I wanted to do was go home and sleep.
Our drive back home was filled with silence. Ever since we got married it has always been like this. There was never a moment when we all coexisted as a happy family.
When we arrived at the mansion, we simply went our separate ways, she went to the master bedroom while I went to my home office.
I opened my laptop to go through some files and possibly distract myself from what was going on, these past six year have been extremely difficult for me, and work has been one of the few things I've managed to be able to use to maintain my sanity.
As I was still staring at my laptop screen, there was a small knock on the door. I raised my head to see Ava standing there.
"I'm not here to complain or anything, I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
My shoulders slumped, "come in."
She gently made her way inside and then closed the door behind her. "I'm also sorry for my mother said."
Ava sat down opposite me, "honestly you don't have to apologize for that, she's the one that is supposed to apologize, not you."
"She can just be difficult, they've always wanted a grandchild for the longest time now and we both know that's impossible."
I rested my head against my palms, lost in thoughts. After the second year of our marriage, Ava and I agreed that there could be a possibility something was wrong.
We went to the hospital to carry out a test, and the doctor told me that I was impotent and unable to impregnate her.
The problem was with me, I was the problem, not Ava. I never really had the guts to tell my parents, and Ava had been taking the blame for the longest time.
She got up and went around the table until she was behind me. "Look Aiden, I'll always be by your side no matter what, nothing is going to change that."
Her hands massaged my shoulders, loosening the knots that had formed there due to so much pent up stress. Ava always knew how to calm me down.
She leaned into me and hug me then planted a kiss on my cheeks. "I love you Aiden and I'm here for you, always."
"Thank you," I replied and then kissed the back of her hand.
Within the time that we had spent together, Ava started her own fashion brand became one of the top fashion brands in the country.
Everyone wanted to wear what Ava's signature was selling. I was so proud of the progress she'd made. She tapped my shoulder lightly, "I'll be upstairs if you need me, I need to go start my beauty routine."
I chuckled, her night routine was one thing she never missed, she believed that if she took care of her skin well enough when she was young, it would still look very fresh when she was old.
"Sure thing, I'll just go through my emails and then get some sleep."
She eyed me suspiciously, as though she didn't believe a word I was saying. "Just please, get some rest."
When she left my home office I continued with my work. That was when I saw an email from Titan properties.
There wasn't much in there, they were just informing me that someone was coming from France and she wouldn't be the project manager, apparently she was also the one in charge of sales and marketing of the complex my company was contracted with building and maintaining.
I scrolled down to see some details, since it was obvious I'd be working with her. There wasn't much to see, except for her full name, Bianca Black.