From his peripheral, Kai spotted Stan charging towards Victoria and Myla brought her hand back to strike her mother in retaliation. Grabbing Victoria harshly, he pulled her by her shoulder, nearly dislocating it in the process and turned her around, pulling her away, his face was filled with heated rage that suddenly had Grace crying on the spot. Jack, spearing his body weight through the doors of the hotel, came running towards her like Usain Bolt whilst Kai just stood rooted to the spot, wide-eyed, open-mouthed and in a state of complete shock.
Jack came to a stumble at Grace’s feet, “What’s going on, munchkin? Are you okay?” He asked through pants of breath, clambering to his feet, he clasped Grace’s face in his palms. Her bottom lip quivered as the well of tears continued to spill down her cheeks, “No, Jack. Myla is ruining everything,” she whimpered. He pulled her into a loving embrace and kissed her forehead. “Come on, let’s get you back inside and get a drink inside you, we have guests waiting,” he replied quietly.
“I can’t Jack. I need to stay here, my family …”
Remorse worked its way through Kai’s body while he listened in on their conversation. It’s their wedding day, they should be celebrating. Walking towards them, Kai placed his arm gently on Grace’s shoulder. She flinched at his touch and her red and puffy eyes flew up to meet his sorrowful ones. “I’m so sorry this had to come out on your wedding day. I’d hoped this would have come out after we had left to go home, but you need to understand there is more to this than just …”
“More? Like what?” Snapped Grace, rudely cutting him off.
“It’s not my place to say, Grace, it should come from Myla, when she is ready,” he replied quietly.
Grace stood glaring at him, confusion swimming in her eyes, “I have to go, guests, wedding …” She replied raggedly. Cutting him a dirty look, she grabbed Jack’s hand and headed back towards the hotel, ignoring Myla as she went.
“How dare you strike our daughter like that, Victoria.” roared Stan, his chubby face now awash with the glistening of perspiration and his large build shook uncontrollably.
“Father,” Grace growled at Stan a
s he stood with his palm raised, the other hand held firm on Victoria’s arm, tormented whether he should back hand her or not. Grace’s snarl brought him from his thoughts and he moved his gaze from Victoria to look at his daughter.
Slowly lowering his hand and letting his grip on Victoria go, he rushed towards Grace, “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. Please go inside with Jack, I need to speak to your mother,” he muttered, enveloping her in his arms.
“Don’t be long,” she whispered and pulled away. Turning, and without word to anyone else, she allowed Jack to steer her back to the reception.
“Myla,” Kai said, as he watched her still stalking towards the rear of her mother. She came to a sudden halt, but when she didn’t respond verbally, Kai headed towards her and planted himself in front of her. “Look at me,” he ordered. He placed his finger under her chin and forcefully moved her head to look at him. “What are you doing?”
“What?” She mumbled through a broken gasp.
“I’m begging you, Myla, don’t bring this out between you and your mother here, not right now.”
“Why not? Isn’t this what you wanted?” She snapped pulling her chin away from his finger.
“Not like this, no. In case you had forgotten, in your inebriated state, it’s Grace’s wedding day,” he replied feeling irked at her sudden attitude with him.
She laughed and threw her hands in the air, “How could I forget? She is my sister.”
“Why are you snapping at me? What have I done?” He snapped back with anger pouring through his tone.
“Nothing. I’m sorry, I just need to get out of here. Can we go?” She sighed.
He took a step closer to her and slipped his hands in hers, “If that’s what you want to do, we can go. We can always lounge around the airport if you want out of here.” He smiled as he brought his mouth closer and grazed his lips against hers.
“I’d like that,” she whispered.
“Come on, let’s go,” he replied. Putting his arm around her shoulders they started to walk across the grass where a wooden fence leading to the gravel car park lay up ahead.
“Myla,” echoed the boom of Stan’s voice around the air, “where are you going?”
She came to a standstill and turned to face him, he continued heading towards her. “Look, I’ve had enough, I want to go home, I want to go back to my life in London,” she replied. “I’ll call you.”
“There you go again, running away,” Victoria interjected as she walked towards them.
“Not now, Victoria,” snarled Stan swinging around to face her.
“This is you all over isn’t it, Stan? Burying your head in the sand. Maybe if you opened your bloody eyes occasionally, you’d be able to see everything,” she griped.
His chubby jaw dropped in shock and his eyes became pinched as he glared at her. “What the hell does that mean?”
“All those years you were off travelling, leaving me to raise the girls and hold down a job, single-handedly. When you used to roll home for the weekend, you had no interest in what was going on in your own home, with your wife, your children,” she replied with contempt.