Chapter Eleven.

Mrs Sophia's voice was laced with a mixture of confusion and trepidation as she stared into the sky above her.

"That reminds me Melissa, where is the invitation card you were supposed to retrieve from Arnold Lucas?"

Her hands stretched out in expectancy.

"Mom, there was a little bit of a problem with the arrangement."

"What are you yapping about!"

"You had one job, Melissa, retrieve the invitation, deliver it to your grandmother and we can have our normal influential life back at the Stevens fort."

Mrs Sophia immediately lashed out at her daughter, her eyes glimpsing in fury.

"Mom, it was a setup, Lady Megan and Lord Dylan Stevens wanted Arnold Lucas to sleep with me before he could give me the invite."

"When I refused he threatened to forcefully do it, he and Alice connived and held Chloe hostage."

"It was Max's timely intervention that saved me from the hands of that scumbag."

Melissa Stevens went ahead to explain as her mom, Sophia Stevens stared at the whole thing in shock.

Her face was etched with a mixture of confusion and anxiety.

"Was that why your grandmother protested when I opted to send someone with you?"

Mrs Sophia Stevens stared at Melissa as she wondered what was really going on.

"So Max had to beat up the all-influential Lord George Lucas and his son just to save you and Chloe?!"

"Do you know what you have done?!"

"Melissa it would have been better that you allowed Arnold Lucas to have his way with you, now you have just ruined the only chance we have to ever rise from the ashes."

Mrs Sophia's voice was laced with a mixture of tears and anger, she loved her daughter but would have preferred if she did all within her power to make sure that she got that invitation to the grand general's wedding.

"Mom, are you really saying this?…are you suggesting that I should have allowed Arnold Lucas to rape me just so we could get an invitation for a family that threw us out of their villa and took dads company away from us?"

Sophia Stevens asked, her eyebrows furrowed in a mixture of confusion, bewilderment and disappointment as she stared at her mom.

"Yes! Melissa that's what he wanted, you could have given it to him and saved us this misery we call life."

Mrs Sophia yelled as she fell on the floor with tears in her eyes.

Ever since her husband, Walter Stevens died, Lady Megan Stevens had made her life a misery too hard for her and her daughter to bear.

The situation was intense and palpable.

Suddenly Mrs Sophia Stevens got up and landed Max a hot and embarrassing slap in front of his wife and child.

"It's you!"

"It's your fault we are going to be dead broke forever."

"And who told you to mess with the Lucas's, now that our family isn't under the protection of Lord Dylan Stevens, the Lucas family will totally obliterate us from existence."

Mrs Sophia's voice was vehement as she continued pacing around in anger as confusion reeked all over her.

Max Xanderson didn't react to the slap, he only shook his head as he was feeling a bit guilty for everything Mrs Sophia and his wife and daughter were going through.

Quickly the images of him squashing the balls of Arnold Lucas played through his head, he immediately snapped out of it as Melissa walked over to him and hugged him.

"Mrs Sophia…I will get you the invitation to the grand general's wedding."

Max Xanderson's voice broke through causing everyone to stare at him in bewilderment, even his little daughter was shocked to her bone marrow.

"How?"

"What are you even bluffing about Max Carlson?"

Max Xanderson had changed his surname to Carlson the year that Melissa Stevens saved him from the Blueberg River, he didn't want anyone identifying him as a member of the Xanderson's, the most influential family in the whole country and beyond.

"Don't you get the memo…no one has that invite, except for just two influential families, the Lucas's and the Xanderson's."

"That is why so many families are lobbying their way around to get an invitation, I even heard that Lord Mason had paid a whopping sum of 7 billion but was rejected."

"So tell me, are you more influential than Lord Mason or do you have 100 billion to try and lobby yourself in and get us an invitation?"

Max was silent as he stared askance at Mrs Sophia.

He wanted to tell his wife that she was just the bride of the wedding tomorrow. But he tried his best to hold it back. He wanted to keep the surprise for her. He wanted her to be the happiest bride tomorrow.

"I thought so."

Mrs Sophia's voice was barely above whispers as she shook her head and continued pacing around.

"Mrs Sophia, I know a friend that can get us the invitation to the grand general's wedding."

"Shut up loser!!!"

Mrs Sophia yelled as she dragged Melissa and Chloe to the Stevens fort.

Picking up his phone, Max immediately quickly dialed a number.

"C'mon pick up your phone…"