Bad Desire: New Beginnings - Fast Forward

Part 17 - he trusted you

...Lloyd family dinner continued...

...

"Now I really wanted to do this dinner so we could all be together, thank you for coming." Alissa began as though she was about to give some kind of formal speech. "I love you all so much and I know you live such busy lives so it's nice when we can all come together."

The whole family had managed to show up from Matt, Juliet and their kids, to Elliot and his family too. Even James was here with Ellie and Tyler.

"You're welcome mum, we love doing this too." Juliet added, wanting her to know that they appreciated it just as much as she did.

She knew things had been tough since her dad had passed away so she never wanted her mum to feel like a burden.

"There was a reason why I wanted to do this though..." Alissa began and Elliot immediately looked over to Juliet with a 'told you so' look across his face, causing Juliet to roll her eyes back at him.

No matter how much older these two got, the sibling competition and need to rile each other up was still very much there.

"...I wanted to do something in respect of your dad."

Silence suddenly filled the room at the turn this conversation had taken. The mention of Dale was enough to capture everyone's full attention, causing every small sound in the room to appear so much louder.

"Now you all know your father's business always meant so much to him." Alissa smiled to herself as she thought of all the hard work he had put into it. "...and I know he was more than happy to leave it in good hands. Elliot, Juliet... you're both doing amazingly."

"We'd always keep it going, no matter what." Elliot reassured, having taken on that responsibility with just as much passion as his dad had.

"He'd be so happy."

While Elliot had taken a bigger role in running the business, Juliet still added her own touches and inputted where she could. Dale had left it to the both of them to do whatever they wanted however, they knew he'd be happy to know that they hadn't made too many changes from what he had created.

"I have spent a lot of time thinking over these past few months and it's really given me a chance to reflect on the past 20 years or so." Alissa continued before turning her attention over to Matt and it was clear that he hadn't expected the sudden attention. "Matt, I was never easy on you, I was actually quite the opposite."

"It's..." Matt began, ready to reassure Alissa that he hadn't expected anything else however, she was quick to stop him.

"No, I was really hard on you. I never gave you chance to prove yourself, I just made assumptions because of what you did."

Alissa and Matt had never seen eye to eye, she hadn't hidden her dislike for him from the get go. It didn't matter how much Juliet had tried to convince her mum that he wasn't the awful being she viewed him as, Alissa wouldn't listen.

Matt was a gang member in her eyes; a gang member not worth her daughter's time. She had chose to ignore how happy he had truly made her and instead only highlighted everything bad that he had done.

"Because of what happened with Rebecca Gibson, I didn't ever want Juliet being dragged back into that lifestyle again. Therefore, when she met you it felt like the end of the world."

"I understand that, if I was in your position I would have assumed the same." Matt added, knowing that Alissa had just expected him to be exactly like the Rebecca and Jonathan Gibson, when that was so far from the truth.

"But I want you to know that I don't see you that way anymore. I trust that you make my daughter happy; you've given her everything she's always wanted... her own happy family."

Alissa's comment caused Matt to look over at Juliet with a smile across his face and Juliet was mimicking the exact same. Not only was she smiling because it was true, she was smiling because it was coming out of her mum's mouth. She had never thought that would happen in a million years.

"So I wanted to do something, that is a little crazy but I know it's what Dale would have done." 

All eyes were back on Alissa in curiosity to what she was building up here. She looked so serious yet at the same time you could see the pure love in her eyes. This woman was well and truly opening up her heart for a man who she had only ever seen the bad in before.

"I want you to take this." Alissa said as she held out an envelope in Matt's direction. 

Taking it from her hand, Matt held a frown across in his face, slight confusion to what it was.

"Like I said, the business meant so much to Dale and he chose to leave it in good hands. I happened to be the other third part he left it to but I want to give my part to you." Alissa continued as the room was silenced at what was currently happening. "I want you to own the other third of the Lloyd business alongside Juliet and Elliot."

Looking down to the piece of paper in his hand, Matt couldn't quite believe what Alissa had handed over to him. To some, this wasn't a big deal but to this family, it was a great honour.

Matt was a man Alissa had never trusted yet now here she was handing out what had been her husband's absolute pride and joy. That made the biggest statement possible for this family.

"Alissa, I can't take this..." Matt stumbled on his words, feeling utterly gobsmacked by this whole thing.

"Yes, you can. Dale would have wanted this and I know for a fact if he was here, he'd have loved to be the one to do it. He believed in you like I should have done."

There was so much Matt wanted to say in this moment to express his appreciation but his words were all jumbling into one in his head.  He couldn't quite believe what was happening.

"Wow... I, I don't know what to say. Alissa, thank you."

"You're more than welcome." She replied with a calm to her voice which was so unusual.

Juliet suddenly had tears in her eyes as she had not expected this yet it felt like the happiest moment in her life. She finally felt like this family was moving forward, as though they were finally accepting Matt as their own, when it had taken so long to get to this point.

"This is a huge deal, are you sure this is what you want?" Matt continued, still in utter shock and instead of Alissa providing the reassurance this time, Elliot was the one to speak up.

He had also been quite tough on Matt from the start and struggled to see eye to eye with him. Therefore, hearing these words from Elliot meant a lot too.

"My dad was the only one who didn't think you were a complete waste of space. He trusted you, so he would have wanted this and I think you deserve it too."

Nothing could have replaced the feeling within Matt in that moment. He was experiencing something he wasn't quite used to or ever thought would happen. He was finally feeling accepted and apart of his wife's family after all of these years.

He'd always had the gang to call his own and of course he had Juliet and the kids, but to be accepted by the Lloyds was a whole other achievement and he couldn't be more grateful.

**

:))