Grandmother’s Favorite Child

 He watched them as they slowly turned to him, making him rethink his whole decision.

"I should have kept my big mouth shut," he mumbled to himself as he wondered what they were going to do to him.

"Do you ever shut up?!" yelled Damien, squaring up his shoulders, face morphing into a scowl. "How dare you say that about me, you pathetic slave!"

"Hey, watch who you're calling slave, idiot," defended Petra, pushing her brother away as he advanced towards Greg. "He's my husband."

"And I don't doubt that. Do you even know what you're doing with him? Why can't you go for someone else? Look around, you blind sister, you've got suitors all around you waiting to get a jump at you."

"I'm already hitched!"

"That was grandfather's idea of a happy life for you, not yours. Look at who he gave to you. A torn up, broke, low life, wretched, loser. Is that who you see yourself married to for the rest of your life?"

Greg had been insulted before, but not like this. The words spoken by Damien showed that it was from a deep place filled with hatred for him.

He had not seen anyone call him so many negative words before and this was definitely a first.

"I'm not going to tell you that he's my husband again because he is," Petra sighed in low tone. "But you need to leave him out of whatever hatred you have and leave him for me. He's married to me and not you."

For the first time since he got married to his wife, Greg saw her in a different light. It was clear that she hated him but not as much as he had earlier thought.

Of course an arranged marriage was not the best for her and her grandfather had clearly made a mistake by picking him of all people to be her husband, but now, he could see that she was not that terrible.

She just like any other person on the planet had dreams and they had gotten cut because of her grandfather's plans, ruining her own plans. That was definitely the reason for her resentment towards him.

But watching her defend him in front of her brother was awe inspiring and wonderful if he was being honest.

It was clear that even when she hated him, he was still her husband and she did not like the fact that her brother was insulting him publicly.

He was clearly not the best spouse out there, but he was still a human being married to her who would one day become the father of her children. Damien had no right to be this cruel to a part of her.

Damien could hear the pain in her voice as she spoke and it reassured him that he was winning this fight.

Wanting to hit her where it hurt, he went ahead with his hurtful words.

"You're poor and you're married to this loser. That makes you a loser as well," he spat out as the crowd around started to gather at the entrance of the house, being invested in the fight going on.

Greg could see his wife's face as he saw her speechless. She didn't have the words to fight back all because she had gotten married to him and defended him when he had gotten verbally attacked.

"Your porcelain," Greg called out again. "It's a fake. Stop trying to change the subject and acknowledge that you got something that is trash as well."

That was all he had to say before, and moments later, he flinched as everyone gasped in shock.

"I know my gift does not compare to yours, but if you drop that in grandmother's room, she could get sick because of the toxic materials the fake porcelain is made from."

Everyone looked at Greg while he spoke, marveled at how he knew how to differentiate between a real and fake porcelain.

Some were in awe at how he was able to boldly call out Damien this way, a man powerful enough to order his death with the flick of his wrist.

"The porcelain has a coating which is composed of toxic materials," He went on to the horror of everyone. "Giving that to grandmother would make her sick."

"I got this porcelain for millions of dollars, you poor bastard!" yelled Damien in anger. "How dare you?!"

Wanting to prove Greg wrong, Damien began to lose his wrapped present.

The whole room watched in silence as Damien's heart sank when he unwrapped his present to find out that a patch of the paint was scraped off. Greg had been correct, but he was never going to admit that. 

Damien's initial thought was that since his grandmother got numerous gifts, he would easily get away with it by dropping it in the storage room, and that she wouldn't be able to know which gift was his and which wasn't.

His plans had clearly failed.

He thought he could buy a fake one with a low price and pocket the rest of the money given to him by his father and in turn buy a new car and give it to his girlfriend.

"You're lying, you don't know the first thing about an antique," Damien sneered. "You're just babbling."

Everyone took side with Damien as they started to talk down on Greg calling him a liar and a thief for trying to discredit Damien's hard work.

"You dare say that to grandmother's favorite child?!" yelled some of them ready to attack the young man.

Just as they got ready to attack him, Petra's grandmother showed up. She was now the head of the family since her husband was dead.

Everyone stepped down watching the old woman climb down the stairs with ease, trying not to fall off the stairs.

"Grandmother!" Petra called to the woman who smiled at her.

"What is all the ruckus about? What is it, child?" the old woman said, acknowledging her grandchild.

"Damien got you a gift and we all would want you to check the antique porcelain which has been bought for you."

"Why would I do that?" she laughed, settling into a couch. "It can stay with the other gifts."

"Yes but I would like you to check if the porcelain is real or not."

Damien held onto his porcelain with fear as he noticed that he had been made and was soon about to be publicly insulted by the woman as she knew what a real porcelain looked like.