Chapter 49: Chapter 49

We park up in the front of a magnificent three-storey mansion and Keenan help me out of the car and we walk into the house and once inside we are greeted by an elderly woman with an Italian accent. Her smile is illuminating and her cheerfulness is heartening.

"Good evening, Mr Hilton and Ms.-"

"Snowfall. Taylor Snowfall." I instantly add up, meeting her smile with mine.

"Come. Everyone's waiting, yes?"

Keenan's hand wraps around mine and we walk into the dining room where there are about seven people seated around the table to eat. Their eyes dart out to us when we walk and immediately a beautiful, middle-aged woman with golden hair and an aged man about his late sixties gets up to meet us, the woman greets Keenan with a kiss on his forehead and then she looks at me.

"Finally, Patrick." She says in an American-Italian accent and takes my hand in a friendly gesture. "He brings home a girl! Not a whore."

"Mom!" Comes Keenan exclamation.

"Well, I'm not lying." She says in a defensive tone. "Honey you look adorable by the way. I'm Catherine."

I chuckle and Keenan playfully glares at his Mom. "I'm Taylor Snowfall and thank you."

"Nice to meet you dear; this is my husband, Patrick Hilton. Come." She takes my hand and we walk toward the dining table.

"Hi Nathaniel, Seth and Max," Keenan says, going over to the kids that are seated around the table. "How are my little buddies today."

"Hi, uncle Keenan, we are okay." Giggle the boys back to their uncle.

"Hi, Bethany." He says to a young lady in her late twenties or early thirties with the same ginger-coloured hair, but a little darker than Keenan's and I figured she must be his sister.

"Hi. Lil bro." She hugs him and he sits down as well as he. "See, your date tonight looks presentable." She says with a teasing look.

"And you too see?" Keenan winks at her.

"Yes. Betty told me your last dinner visit was with a whore." The man sitting at the other end of the table with blonde hair, looking in his mid or late thirties. He whistles in wolfish style. "I've always known you as the wild rider, but most times I seem to forget just how wild you can be." Then he looks at me. "She's your girlfriend or another one nightstand? Maybe we should just get you married."

Keenan gives him a not so friendly smile. "Hi, John. I'm seeing you present unlike before, guess you finally chose a decent dinner with family over strip clubs and cheap whore." Everyone gasp around the table and John glares at him and I can tell there's bad blood going on between the two. "It's not a pleasure to see you again."

"Hey, Keenan, same here." John seethes and everyone can feel/see the heat exchange between them.

"Oh, since we are all here, why don't we eat?" Comes Catherine's sharp voice, breaking the silence as well as heat.

I take the remaining seat which is between John and Keenan and after Patrick say the blessing, and we begin to eat our food which I figured is an Italian traditional recipe. That doesn't have to stop me from enjoying the good meal that's before me. I curl the spaghetti around my fork and I push it into my mouth, a little too greedily.

"Watch it, darling," John warns carefully, but his tone is anything but caring. "You might choke on the pasta, but that won't be the first time you've choked on something offered by Keenan will it? Didn't Keenan teach you how to behave when you're not in the bedroom?"

I don't think I've been this humiliated before and my cheeks heat up and I try not to show the wrong reaction or snap in front of the nice family.

Keenan drops his utensils and his hands ball into a fist. My hand moves to touch his gently and his eyes meet mine, I give him a crooked smile and mouthed 'he's not worth it' to him. He nods and unclenches his teeth and releases his fist.

"Taylor, Darling, tell us how you met my son?" Catherine suggest and a low growl erupts from Keenan's mouth and he lowers his head.

"Yes tell us." Comes the annoying voice of John which I'm greatly beginning to hate.

"We met at a coffee shop," I reply with a smile, ignoring how ordinary the picture of our first meeting is. "He mistakenly spilt his coffee on me while I was returning from work."

"Aww. How romantic!" Catherine blurts out in glee and Keenan rolls his eyes. "When was that?"

"Two weeks ago." This lie rolls off my tongue easily because we have rehearsed it on our way here.

"So, Taylor. Are you in the through with your studies?" Patrick asks and I almost bite my tongue.

This is not part of the questions I expected.

"Not really," I answer not so straightforwardly.

"You're through or still in school?" He curiously demands.

"I dropped out." I bite down on my lips awkwardly.

"Is this your best brother-in-law? An unfit undergraduate? A dropout? Where did you pick her from? The side work or the streets and dressed her up? I thought your taste was better with women." John mocks and his words were harsh and cruel, but I decided to rise above them. "This is pathetic, a clear display of indecency and lack of self-preservation. Are you sure she's your girlfriend and not whore you picked up?!"

"That's it!" Keenan surges up and lunches towards John with a swift painful throw of his fist to John, he breaks his nose. John curses and groans in pain and asks for help, but no one seems ready to help.

"You have no right to disrespect her the way you just did." Keenan thunders on the man whom he had damaged his nose a few moments ago. "When people talk about decency and self-preservation, you should keep quiet because you don't have either. How many illegitimate children do you have now? Seven? 'Cause the last time I checked, there were about four, but if ever the news of you having other children comes up, I won't be surprised because your second home is the bar and strip club. Makes me wonder why you even got married because a man like you doesn't understand what marriage is so they do whatever they please because they know they are loved undeniably and blindly by their spouses." A look of pain appears on Bethany's face, but like he read her mind, he says. "No offence to you, sis," He focuses on John again. "and just because we keep quiet does not mean we don't notice your wanton lifestyle. You should be lucky we are here to have a peaceful dinner."

He returns and takes his seat like nothing just happened, ignoring the death glare that John is giving him.

"Why did you drop out, dear?" Comes Patrick deeply accented Italian voice making me realise that they are also present in the room watching this whole drama unfold before them.

"I had to support my family. My mom got critically ill and had to be admitted, while I was in my final year and her condition was severe and I also had three other brothers to look after so I dropped out and pick up a job at the restaurant to help keep the family together, I kept others until I got my present job as a personal assistant."

"Aww that's really a noble thing you did, dropping out to support your family in a hard time as that one, only a few would do it." Patrick commends with a smile and I can't help not smiling back.

"Thank you."

"You plan in further right? Yes?"

"Yes, I do." I nod confused at the point he's trying to make.

"I'd like to support you through the rest of you with your studies also with your master degree."

My eyes widen and a gasp escapes my mouth and I cover it up quickly. I look over to Keenan and Catherine to see them grinning. I can't certainly be hearing correctly can I?

I begin to say. "But, sir, I.." I'm not even Keenan's girlfriend, it's all a lie. You don't have to be nice to a liar like me now.

The man chuckles, "I know what you're thinking, but I'm not doing it because you're his girlfriend, I'm doing it because I see you as an ambitious girl and one who would do good and successfully if the right resources are in her possession. Yes?" He says, giving John who's now mending his broken nose a hard glance and John growls in return.

I feel sick.

"This even if the intention, are good it's too much, Sir."

"I think you've done a lot for your family which I'd hope to meet them in the future and you deserve to be rewarded. Do this, go and think about it, but I won't take no for an answer."

"Okay, sir, I won't say no."

"Good."

"So tell me, was your meeting a love at first sight, Keenan?" Catherine asks, ready to grab the next words of Keenan.

"No, it was not!" He replies, in dismay. "This is embarrassing! Can you stop the interrogation now, please? Thank you"

Catherine does not say anything further, but after we have finished eating, she takes me aside to talk to me.

She holds my hand tenderly and the genuine smile on her face makes guilt eat me up. "I hope you didn't let Keenan, or John, ruin your day because the two have never gotten along and it's sad that you got caught in the middle of it. But I'm glad that Keenan has got someone like you. He is a good boy that disguises himself as bad, but he's got a big heart and he'll rather suffer than let the one he cares about suffer."

"I'm not sure if he'll want to keep whatever it is we are up for long, you know how he is," I say, trying to clear the future I know she's already seeing for us from her head.

"I see the way he looks at you and the way he acts, you're different from the other girls and I to do appreciate that, and I know you two would be great together, but he would be a fool if he chooses not to love you, but that's why you are his girlfriend, you've got time to work things out."

"I'm sorry for the disastrous way the dinner turned out, if I'd known John would be around..."

I cut with a smile. "You're kidding? Today was amazing! You broke his nose, which was hilarious and your dad was really sweet. Is that how he normally is?"

"Yes, he's nice to those who are not trying to use or manipulate him." He opens his car and I enter.

"I don't know what answer I should give him," I murmur in honesty as he enters the car and closes the door.

"Give him a yes, dad never takes no for an answer."

"It feels wrong! We lied."

"Didn't you hear what he said? He's not doing it because you're my girlfriend, but because he sees you'll make good use of it."

He takes my hand in his and looks at me with a sincere look. "I'm sorry for what John said and I hope you didn't let what he said affect or get to you."

I give him a loosed smile."It's okay, I lived. I just don't get why you guys don't like each other."

He sighs heavily. "It's a long story." He starts the car and we drive off. "The only reason John married Bethany was because he thought Dad would give him a high rank in the hotel management, but Dad did contrary and instead of increasing his rank to MD, Dad put me in charge of all the affairs and running of the hotels and I'd be crazy to bring him close to running anything in the hotel. That's why we are who we are today."

"Sucks. Now I get the reason for the bad blood between the two of you and I'd be prepared from now on." I joke with a grin and he smiles making me realise I'm not a sucker at humour after all.

We arrived at my house and Keenan helped me out of the car.

"Again, thank you so much for coming with me." He says coming to meet me.

"It's a pleasure and thank you for defending my cause."

"Nah! It's okay. Take care then?" His hand raises and his fingers lightly stroke my cheek and I leaned into him like I'm being pulled by a magnetic force. I glance up at him seeing the yearning in his eyes and it stirs up something strange in me.

"I should go." He forces himself to say.

"Okay." I nod on recovery and I watch as he pulls away quickly and I know he is afraid of losing control if he was to stay longer.

I still don't know what the future holds for Keenan and me, but what we have is an understanding and I was mad at him for what he did to Rory, I still am, but I'm ready to see beyond that and be a friend to him because he seems to need that too. I did plan on distancing myself from him after the dinner, but Catherine's words still keep me down. Maybe Keenan is not as bad as he wants everyone to believe and it would be wrong to not hope for him.

Rory on the other hand has a lot of unsolved issues like myself and I would have loved to be part of his life if he doesn't always push me away, but like Keenan has said, he's been hurt and it'll take time and if I truly love him, I'll have to stand by him.

The engagement is tomorrow and though a part of me does not want to go because I do not want to meet or face Rory after what had happened between us, another part knows it's only right to, not only as an obligation to my work, but also to Paris. I just hope every decision I make, I make for the good of everyone.