Essentially raising four kids on your own was right. Your ex-spouse ran off after revealing they had been in an affair. So, you had to do it all on your own.

Your oldest, Damien, had to step up at just ten years old, helped with Serena, Lena, and Noah because you worked so damn hard.

And that rift, the way they grew up with everything always seeming rough, it caused tension amongst your kids.

Even when you eventually made enough money to send each of them to college, watch them build their own lives, hell you were even a grandparent now, but your kids still fought and bickered.

And when you found out that you had terminal cancer? You knew it wouldn’t be easy to tell them…you were getting old now, but still…it was a big shock, crippling news.

All you wanted was to have your kids together, to tell them, to prepare for the inevitable, and you thought you had achieved that as Damian, Serena, Lena, and Noah were all at the dinner table, the same one you’ve had since they were kids in the same house you still owned.

But they weren’t even paying attention to you during dinner, the fighting beginning as Lena, the rebel had swatted Damien’s hand away from the rolls so she could grab one first, and Damien responded harshly as he always did.

“Still a damn brat, I see. Even in your thirties now. Real mature, Lena.”

“Guys, not now…” Serena, the calm one, tried to end the issue, Noah nervously nodding agreement:

“Yeah…please, just listen to Serena.”

But…it was never that easy, Lena rolling her eyes and groaning.

“I was just playing around! Maybe if Damien wasn’t such a hard ass all the time!”