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Chapter 699  Family Breakfast

"I would like to address everyone since we are gathered here right now. I wouldn\'t want to disturb everyone by calling you out to talk later," Lucy explained, but no one bothered to eat as they waited for her to speak.

"First of all, I\'d like to start by expressing my deepest sympathies. I may not have known Lawrence so well, but I knew you all loved him. Please accept my condolence," Lucy said and they all nodded but kept staring at her with varying degrees of curiosity.

"Now to the main reason I wanted to address everyone. I\'m sorry for all the problems that my being Tom\'s girlfriend may have caused the family…."

"Lucy, don\'t.…"

Lucy placed a hand over Tom\'s hand to stop him from interrupting her. She had thought long and hard about her conversation with Evelyn after Tom had slept off, and she had decided that she was going to say her piece before Evelyn addressed the whole family.

She knew that if Evelyn addressed everyone she wouldn\'t be able to say anything the same way it had happened last night, and she wanted to say what was on her mind in front of everyone since speaking with Evelyn in private had not worked last night.

"I understand that we are from different backgrounds and might not always agree on certain things. And I can also see how my decision to not get married to Tom might have led to Evelyn and Lawrence trying to help Tom, the result being the prank and the conflict that followed…"

"The prank and the conflict that followed had nothing to do with you. It was all my wife\'s fault," Desmond cut in, and Evelyn frowned.

"Desmond…"

"Let\'s let Lucy finish," Jade cut in before Evelyn could start arguing with her husband.

"Thanks, Jade," Lucy said before she continued, "Well, last night I got thinking that maybe if I did not get involved and so harshly ask Lawrence to confess to you, all of that misunderstanding wouldn\'t have happened," Lucy said and Sonia shook her head.

"I don\'t agree. Maybe all that was meant to happen," Sonia said, surprising everyone.

"What?" Evelyn asked with a frown.

"Yes. I think all of that needed to happen so that everyone would learn from it. I\'m not okay with Lucy trying to take the blame for all of this when the truth is…"

"Babe," Bryan called, trying to stop her. The last thing he wanted was for her to get involved in all the mess and end up having a fight with his mother.

"What? You don\'t want me to say anything? So, if the situation was reversed you\'d want me to sit there and take the blame like Lucy is doing? Jade, would you have let even Harry\'s dad do something like that to Harry and you?" Sonia asked, looking from Bryan to Jade.

"Neither of us supported our mom or grandfather. We all agree that it wasn\'t Lucy\'s fault. So, maybe we should all move past that now," Jade said as she took a bite from her bread roll.

"So, what are you all trying to say? That I don\'t have a right to worry about my son?" Evelyn asked, looking directly at Sonia.

"No one is saying that, mom," Bryan said in Sonia\'s defense.

"You do have a right to be worried. But I\'m saying that it was wrong of you to blame Lucy for all of this. Lucy wasn\'t the reason for all that happened. Everything happened because instead of simply communicating with Tom, you decided that you needed something to be done. You could have easily talked to Tom and shared your concern with him before discussing with Lawrence. Lawrence could also have easily talked to Tom. Why did you both feel you had to do something?" Sonia asked and Evelyn raised her chin.

"Because Tom is my son," Evelyn said and before Sonia could respond Lucy spoke.

"He is also a full grown man. Why let him be CEO then? Why are you not running his company on his behalf if you find him so incapable of making his own decisions?" Lucy asked before Sonia could respond.

"I thought we were done with this and we reached an agreement?" Evelyn asked Lucy with a frown.

"You said your piece and I agreed. But I didn\'t say mine, and I want to say it now since it involves the entire family. I understand that you all like to look out for each other, but Tom is…" Lucy stopped talking when Tom rose.

"I think it\'s best I excuse myself if you\'re all going to keep talking about me as though I\'m not present here," Tom said when they all looked at him.

"Sit down," Desmond ordered calmly.

"Dad…"

"Sit down. This is all happening because you failed to handle things as you should. You can either listen to them talk about you and make decisions that involve you like you\'re not present, or you can man up and make a decision for yourself. So, sit down," Desmond said sternly, and Tom took his seat once again.

Seeing that Tom was offended, neither Lucy nor Evelyn said another word and an awkward silence fell in the room as they all sat there quietly.

Desmond cleared his throat, "Lucy, I\'m going to commend you for not letting Tom sweep everything under the rug. What you did had "I don\'t need to be in good terms with my father to determine what is right and wrong. If he wanted to be treated with respect, he to be done and I\'m glad you did it…"

"You wouldn\'t be saying that if you were in good terms with Lawrence. It was disrespectful…"

"I don\'t need to be in good terms with my father to determine what is right and wrong. If he wanted to be treated with respect, he shouldn\'t have done such a thing. What did he expect? That everyone would laugh and tap him on the back for coming up with such a stupid prank?" Desmond asked, and Evelyn pressed her lips together.

"It is because Tom has always condoned your behaviour that it has gone on for this long, and I\'m glad that Lucy is not having that," Desmond said and Evelyn eyed him with displeasure but Desmond did not pay attention to her.

"As Sonia rightly said, this was meant to happen. I agree that some adjustments needs to be made in the family and it will be made now that we are all here together. Although, we raised you kids to look out for one another, but I expect that as adults you would all understand where to draw the line. Eve, there is nothing wrong with you worrying about the kids. But they don\'t need you to fix their lives. I\'ve always told you that. You can choose to talk with them but when you see they don\'t want to share their problem with you and they don\'t want you to get involved, you should leave it alone. Now all three of them have partners who come from different backgrounds and might not appreciate the meddling. You need to step back and let them be so you don\'t cause problems in their relationships," Desmond said and Jade nodded.

"I concur," Jade said in agreement.

"You are all asking me not to get involved in your lives?" Evelyn asked, looking from Jade to Bryan and then to Tom.

"We are asking you to let us do things our way. We are not kids anymore. We are capable of taking care of our business. Take for instance, I was supposed to take Sonia to the clinic for her first appointment but you insisted you go with her instead. I didn\'t like that, but I let you do it just for peace to reign…"

"Sonia didn\'t want you to go with her," Evelyn cut in defensively.

"I told her not to worry about it and would have taken her there myself had you not insisted on taking her yourself. I\'m just saying, you are a great mom but you should know when to step back and let us handle our stuff ourselves," Bryan said even though he was disturbed by the tears that were now shimmering in Evelyn\'s eyes.

"No one is trying to hurt your feelings, mom. We love you, and we appreciate all you do for us. But all we are asking is that you let us handle stuff ourselves. If we need your help we will let you know," Jade said as she reached out to place an arm around her mother.

"Tom?" Desmond called when Tom remained silent and Tom sighed.

"First of all, I have no idea why you think I\'ve always let her interfere in my private business. Mom can be too much some times but I\'ve always handled it and she can attest to that. This whole stuff happened only because we have all spent more time together under the same roof in recent times than we have done in years. There is no way mom would have known much about my relationship with Lucy had we all not lived together. I was going to let it slide only because I believed there was no way it would repeat itself, but on second thought I decided to let Lucy handle it because she was also affected by it," Tom said and then rubbed his temple.

"Mom, Lucy did nothing wrong. Had I been the one who asked grandfather to report himself, dad would have been mad at you regardless. None of this was about Lucy. It was about you. So you can stop hiding behind that excuse now and take full responsibility for all that happened," Tom said calmly and tears dropped from Evelyn\'s eyes.

"I was only trying to look out for you because I love you," she said tearfully.

"I understand that, and I appreciate it. But next time I expect you to talk to me and do as I ask instead of doing what you think is best for me. If you are truly doing all this to look out for us, then you should be able to listen to us and do it as we want," Tom said and Evelyn sobbed softly.

"I\'ve heard you all. I\'m sorry. I will stop interfering in your lives," Evelyn said as she rose and excused herself from the table.

She couldn\'t help feeling heartbroken that all her kids were asking her to stay out of their businesses. She had given her life to raising them and they were her world, yet they were all asking her to mind her business and let them be.

Desmond, Jade, and Lucy rose at the same time to follow her, but Lucy looked at Desmond and Jade, "Please let me talk with her," Lucy said, and they gave her a nod before she walked away.

Lucy caught up with Evelyn before she walked into the guest room, "Evelyn," Lucy called softly, feeling bad that Evelyn\'s feelings were hurt.

"I\'m sorry your feelings are hurt. It was not my intention to hurt your feeling," Lucy said when Evelyn stopped.

"I know. I just need a moment alone. You don\'t have to worry. I will be fine," Evelyn assured Lucy as she brushed off her tears.

"And I\'m sorry. I really did not mean to put the blame on you. I know it\'s not your fault. All I wanted was to be able look out for my kids like I couldn\'t do for my sister. I\'m sorry I need to be alone," Evelyn said and Lucy couldn\'t help feeling guilty as she watched Evelyn walk away.

Although she had brought up the discussion there because she hoped that Tom and Desmond would help her make Evelyn understand, now that they had done that she wasn\'t so sure anymore if she had done the right thing.

"You did the right thing," Desmond said from behind her as though he could read her mind and she turned to look at him.

"Don\'t worry about it. She will be fine," Desmond assured her.

He knew without a doubt that no matter how hurt Evelyn was, she would do her best to change now that she had heard directly from all her kids.