"Justin, it's about time you showed up," said Betty with a sigh. "Can you explain what's going on here?"

"Of course, mom," Justin replied with a gracious smile. "Dani is right. It's time we put things out in the open." He then looked at Fran, whose smile shifted between exhilaration and terror. He gave her hand a squeeze and pulled her before him, placing his hands on her shoulders as he presented her. "I hope you remember Franziska."

"Yes, your coworker from Germany," replied his mom with a fragile smile before she reached forward and took her hand. "I'm sorry, dear, that the party has taken a bit of a turn. I wish we could have shown you a better time, since you are new to the country and all."

"Oh, you'll have plenty of opportunities to lavish her with your generous hospitality, mom, considering Franziska is my real fiancee."

A collective gasp rose over the crowd. Until that point, the rest of Justin's immediate family had remained in silent shock somewhere in the mass of bodies. However, once Justin revealed the true identity of his beloved, Randall, Brendan, and Lucy pushed their way to the front.

"Wait, this really isn't a joke, then?" asked Lucy, who cast mournful eyes towards me.

"No, it's not," I said with a relieved smile. "I really wasn't his fiancee and Fran really has been his for a long time."

"How long?" asked Betty. "I don't understand why you had a stand in fiancee."

"We've known each other for about three years now," said Justin, wrapping his arm around Fran's shoulders and hugging her close. "We started dating maybe two and half years ago and we've been engaged for about a year."

"But why hide her?"

"The reason this is the first you've heard of her was because when I met her, she was a married woman."

Another gasp filled the room, but this time, with their shock now settling in, some of the family members found room to take pleasure in the twisted tale unfolding before them. They hid their intrigued smiles behind their hands, but the glitter of curiosity still sparkled in their eyes.

"Married?!" cried his mother. "You were having an affair?!"

"See," Justin laughed, "and you wonder why I said nothing."

"I thought I raised you better," she huffed, but before his mother could lay into him, Fran pulled out of his arms and stepped forward.

"Please, you must understand the marriage was in paper only." Her lips trembled and tears glazed her eyes. It knocked all the wind from Betty's sails. "I was stuck in a marriage that I couldn't get out of. He wouldn't let me. He cheated on me long before I met Justin. I was around purely for appearances, even though everyone knew I was dirt beneath his shoe. Justin helped me secure a home outside of my ex-husband's so that I could begin the separation process and eventually we provoked him into signing the divorce."

"I'm so sorry, my dear," said Betty, her tone soft as she pulled Fran in and accepted her completely with a motherly embrace. "I'm glad you are out of that toxic relationship and I... I guess I'm heartened to know it was my son that helped you get out of there. But..." She looked over Fran's shoulder to her second son, her brow lowering and her lips pinching. "But why didn't you say something?"

"Well, it's..." He looked at me, then he looked at Wes, and finally landed on the mass of family before him. "I invented fake girlfriends, some of which you have discovered were based on real people. I did it to keep you off my back about dating until I could get Franziska over here and start our relationship fresh."

"We would have accepted what you were doing," said Betty. "You didn't have to come up with this elaborate scheme."

"Well, it wasn't supposed to be that elaborate when I started out," he said, rubbing the back of his neck while Fran returned to his side. "But, anyway, I know I could have convinced you. It's them I was worried about."

"Them who?" asked his mother.

"The vultures behind us," answered Randall, nodding his head to the pack of slightly offended family members.

"What? Why?" asked Betty, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "Sure, some of them are a bit nosy, but really Justin. This is your family."

"Yeah, well, if they hadn't driven off Rita, then maybe I would have felt differently."

While gasps and murmurs filled the room, Justin simply shrugged, well aware that his part of the conversation was now done. He did, however, offer Wes an apologetic grin before Betty could turn her wrath upon her eldest son.

"What's this now?" she asked, looking in my direction as Wes stepped forward from behind me. "You said she got cold feet and wasn't ready to make a commitment."

"Well, she wasn't," he answered, his voice steady. "She wasn't ready to commit to this family. Not after being bullied for coming from a low income family and having her morals questioned because of it."

"Pardon?" A flare of anger brightened Betty's already flushed cheeks. I noticed a few members of the crowd shift uncomfortably, their eyes turning towards the bright green exit sign in the back of the room.

"She, uh..." Wes threw up his hands and tossed an annoyed glance to his sheepishly smirking brother before groaning. "She was teased," he started, his words hot on his tongue and flying from his mouth like fire, "and ostracized because she wouldn't join my female cousins on shopping trips or spa days, or because she wouldn't take part in their yoga classes or buy all that ridiculous crap they're trying to sell. And then some others speculated on her sexual history. They even started a rumor that Rita had an abortion because one person read an article about how Rita's high school had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the city."

A pin could have dropped, and it would have sounded like a boom of thunder.

"Who?" asked Betty through tight lips.

"See, this is why I didn't say anything. I didn't want to start trouble."

"Wesley Xavier Sanders, you tell me who made up that rumor right now. I've got an earful to share with you and your brother about hiding these things, but that can be saved for later. Right now, I want to know who started such a vicious rumor about someone who was supposed to be family."

"Aunt Lara," answered Wes with a clip of fear in his voice, the kind that can only be brought on by a mother's use of a child's full name.

"Lara!" demanded Betty, spinning around to look at the group, which parted like the Red Sea to reveal a cowering blonde woman, who I recognized as the leader of the pack of women who interrogated me during the Easter picnic. "You and me, outside, right now."

"This is a misunderstanding," mewled Lara, who, now exposed, straightened up and forced a smile. "I'm sure Rita just overheard us talking about something else..."

"Outside," commanded Betty, who was inches away from the snake.

"You can't tell me what to do," hissed Lara. "Just because you married my brother..."

"I don't expect you to go outside because I'm your sister-in-law. I expect you to go outside because you don't want to have the rest of them see me kick your ass. So I suggest you take your Louis Vuitton shoes and start marching out that door so we can handle this civilly."

For a moment Lara attempted to make a last stand, but her pinched lips eventually transformed into a childish pout and she turned on her heel and headed for the door with Betty following right behind her.

Gaping mouths and stunned silence remained in their wake, but soon Randall cleared his throat and all eyes fell on him.

"Since we're doing this," he said with a diplomatic timbre, "I'd like to add that I never wanted to take over the business. In fact, I'll be retiring at the end of the year so I can spend the rest of my life fishing and volunteering as an EMT."

"But who's going to take over?"

"It should be me! I've been wanting this for a long time."

"No, my daughter is far more familiar with the company. She should take control."

"We have less than a year to do the transition, if our stockholders find out..."

"Settle down all of you," commanded Randall, "your vacation homes are safe, just like they were when my father died. Now, first let me ask my eldest son, Wes." He looked to somewhere behind my shoulder before continuing. "Do you want to take over?"

My neck made a painful snap as I twisted around to assess just how Wes would react.

"No, I don't," he said with a soft, confident smile, "but thanks for asking."

Randall shrugged, though he didn't look surprised. "Well, we've got until I retire to figure it out."

A wave of discontent and frantic pleas rolled over the crowd, before another family member, a curvy woman with dark brown hair, took the chance to admit that she and her husband were actually in a polyamorous relationship and they wanted the family to accept their lover as a member of the family so she could receive some of the healthcare benefits before the company came tumbling down. Before anyone could react, a gangly man with wire-rimmed glasses admitted he wasn't concerned about the company since he'd recently begun a lucrative business making fetish gear and offered to hire anyone who was concerned about their job security. Then another stepped forward...

"I think it's time we head outside," said my mom, taking my hand and glancing towards a side door that led out to some stairs down to the parking lot.

"Maybe," I whispered, realizing it could be the last moment I had with the Sanders family and, most importantly, Wes.

"Let's leave them to sorting this out," added my father as we stepped away.

"I suppose."

I looked around, but found Wes was no longer standing nearby. Instead, he had joined the fray, talking to his father on the outskirts of the roaring crowd. With a leaden heart, I gave in, my eyes casting back towards our exit, when I caught sight of Mindy with a smile like that of the Cheshire cat.

"Wait," I told my parents, before running over to my roommate's side. "Mindy, we're going to head out."

"Go on ahead," she said, snagging another bacon puff from a nearby table. "I think I'll sit back with my popcorn and watch how this unfolds until they throw me out. You should catch up with your family. I'll see you when I get back tonight."

"All right," I said with a sigh.

Leaving her behind, we headed out the door, closing away the angry voices from within and stepping out into shocking silence.