generosity

noun

1. the action of renouncing or rejecting something

Back at the birthday dinner table, I watched as Jac-Jac fell asleep in his father's arms. His tufty-flufty angel hair was all fuzzy and he'd already started drooling on Wallace's arm where his little noggin lay. Mum and I sat back down in our seats, coffee and after dinner tea were being served along with a cheese board, not that any of us were eating after that full course meal.

"Open it." Wallace directed my attention to the formal envelope laying at my dinner setting. It was a high quality cream envelope with an embossed stylised OVM that was the Overmeyer Corporation logo. I looked up at Wallace, curious to what he was giving me. I really hoped it wasn't a house or something. I'd told Eyva in our argument earlier today that I'd received nothing from her father or the Overmeyer family. I don't want this to prove my words wrong. Remembering our confrontation, I refused to look at the grumpy girl sitting next to her Grandma. She hadn't said a thing since we'd arrived, but her Grandma had been murmuring words to her all night long.

"What is it?" I asked Wallace as others at the table began passing over gifts to add to the small pile before me. I opened Wallace's gift card and pulled out a formal letter of an offer to purchase my Antiques & Art App for ten million dollars... Ten Million!

"Is this for real?" I asked, not sure what this was. Was he playing a joke on me? Was he taking pity and using this to give me money? What did he mean by this?

"Yes, Lily. I can assure you that the offer is genuine. I spoke to quite a few players in that industry and they all agree that there is great potential with your app. Don't get me wrong, I plan on selling it as soon as you sign it over to us."

"But, ten?" I asked, still amazed at the amount. I mean, I was kinda only joking when I told him that is what I'd make off of the app, but I had no real idea if I could actually do that. But ten million? Crazy. It only sold for eight million in my last 'timeline'.

"What is it, honey?" Mum ask us both.

"An offer for Lily's new app. I'd like to buy it, but I plan on selling it again." He spoke to both his wife and his parents. He gave a little smile, like he knew he was planning on making a large profit by on-selling it, but you know what? I was OK with that.

"Let me talk to my lawyer and I'll get back to you." I murmured. I folded the letter up and placed it down on the table top, then picked it up again just to check it really said ten million. It did. I put it down again and began to go through the other gift boxes and envelopes that were piled up nearby.

Mum gave me a gift card for a high end make up brand called M.A.C by Estée Lauder Companies. The amount was large enough that I'd be able to keep myself in make up for a decade or two. Go mum!

The twins gave me a really cute red panda plushy toy that could hold my cell phone. Not really my thing but I could tell they gave it mostly as a joke. Along with the plushy, they gave me a handmade leather bound notebook. Real leather, really hand made. I was intrigued as to how someone could have created the whole thing by hand. It was made from cherry red dyed leather and had an attached leather tie that wrapped around the book a couple of times.

"The insert pages are actually small hand-bound mini notebooks that tuck into elastic bands to keep it in place. They are inter-changable. When you fill up one inner notebook, you can replace it with more." Teresa had really thought this gift through. I thanked them both and picked up other gifts to open.

Grant's gift was a medium sized box, about the size of a laptop along one side. He found a baby blue wrapping paper that had a fuzzy texture embossed on it. I didn't want to rip the paper, so I opened it carefully and folded it up for safe keeping. The box held two little antique jugs, a sugar bowl and a pedestal bowl. All of them were made from real silver and polished up beautifully. A stylised pear was engraved on the outer edge, like they were part of a set, even though you could tell they weren't originally.

"Did you polish these up and engrave them yourself, Grant?" I asked, surprised he would go to so much for a gift for me.

"Yes, and I have before photos if you want to see my hard work. Use them in your bathroom as accessory holders or makeup brushes, things like that."

"I love them!" I replied and thanked him again.

Dresses, books, vouchers and a necklace were the rest of the gifts given.

Once the last gift was unwrapped, I stood up and thanked them all.

"This is probably the best birthday party I've ever been given, since Lacy McCartney let the petting zoo animals loose at my fifth birthday party. We had to scoop out ducklings from our neighbours swimming pool, they were not impressed." I giggled, remembering that particular birthday party.

"Thank you all for being here. I begin university in two days time and I'm really looking forward to it. Now that I'm finally an adult I can also legally drink." I pick up a half empty Champaign glass. "Please raise your glasses and toast with me, my mother, who has put up with me for eighteen years now. To my mother!" I wave my glass at my mum and give her a big smile.

"To Brooke!" Everyone toasted my mum, who started crying again.

"Thank you mum for everything. And my late father, who tried to give me his world and succeeded until his last breath. To my Father!"

"To Umbre." Again everyone toasted. Then they thought I'd stop there.

"Thank you also, to Wallace, who has given my mother a fulfilling life, given me a wonderful little brother, and who has become someone important to me. Thank you Wallace, I really appreciate so much about you." I raise my wine glass again. "To Wallace."

"To Wallace!"

"That is all." I smile and sit down. Then a screech came from behind me, giving me a huge fright.

"TEN MILLION DOLLARS!?" We all turned to find Eyva holding the letter of offer that Wallace gave me. She obviously just stole it off the table while we weren't watching.

"You're giving HER ten million dollars? Daddy! You CAN't do that. I wont let you!" Her eyes stared tearing up and her face grew red. She was so upset and so angry.

"Eyva, hold your tongue!" Grandma Overmeyer scolded her granddaughter. It wasn't loud, but it was powerful enough that I could guess a little of where Wallace learn to develop his dragon aura from.

"No Grandma." She whined. Wallace passed a sleeping Jack to my mother and got up, walking to his older daughter with a stern face.

"I am not giving any one anything, and she is your little sister, Eyva."

"She is NOT my sister. She is a slut who spawned from a she devil."

SLAP! I don't know who was more shocked, Wallace for having raised a hand to his flesh and blood daughter, or Eyva. I think the pain took a moment to set in as she just stared at him.

"Do not speak about your family like that." Woah, Wallace was mad, like really furiously mad. I'd only ever seen him like this once before, when he did the same to me after Jack died in the house fire back 'before'. I shuddered, remembering what it felt like.

"I hate you, I hate you!" Eyva screamed and ran out of the room, hand over her slapped cheek. When Wallace went to go after her, Grandma Overmeyer stopped him.

"I'll go get her. You stay here and see everyone off." She followed Eyva out of the restaurant towards the lifts.

That was how my eighteenth birthday party came to a sudden halting end. But then it suddenly got worse.