Charli was heading back with Russell from dropping off the new, correct prints. She opened the door to reveal Magnus, Dixi and Mark all whisper arguing.
"Everything ok?" She asked, taking her safety gear off.
"Uh, yeh. No, not really," Dixi answered, knowing it was best to tell her the truth.
"What?" Charli asked, panicking. Anni and Alwyn weren't here, what had happened now.
"Uh, how do I say this. Mom and dad want to have dinner with us tonight. It wasn't an ask. It's an order. And," she said pausing, "they want you to break up with Anni and get back with Landon."
She finished the sentence quickly, cringing away from the wrath of Charli.
"What?" Charli yelled, "absolutely not. I'll tell them where they can go."
"Don't worry they told me I need to break up with Mark like yesterday because he's obviously a 'gold digger'," she fumed, making air quotes with her fingers.
"So they didn't even do 5 seconds of research into our partners? Why change now right?"
Magnus was listening carefully to his daughter-in-laws. He didn't like the sound of this next problem that had appeared.
"Well, how about we all go?" He said, leaning back in his chair.
"We don't want to drag you into our family drama," Dixi said, sighing.
"We've dragged you both into ours, so it's only fair you get your own back on us a wee bit," Mark said, taking Dixi's hand and kissing her knuckles.
She smiled slightly, "please don't like, try to fight me dad or anything?"
"No promises," he said, winking.
Charli slumped down on a chair, she put her head in her hands. This was going to be an absolute nightmare.
She always hoped one day her parents would stop caring about fame and money and start caring about her and Dixi but that was a childish fantasy.
She'd always tried to please them, done everything in her power to make them happy, but nothing ever pleased them. Nothing was ever enough.
They never wanted to know the real Charli, they were never interested in what she wanted, or liked, she was her mom's dress up doll and her dad's bank account.
Anni was leaning against the door with Alwyn beside her.
"No promises from me either," Charli looked up to be met with those beautiful blue eyes she'd fallen in love with.
She was tired, dreading what was coming tonight but so happy she was back next to her again.
"Hey, you don't have to come tonight if you don't want to, I would feel a lot better if you were there but I just, I know you hate social situations, and I know you've had a rough week, so I get it if you don't want to, I understand, I'll just see you later," she rambled.
"Charli, of course I'm gonna come tonight, I wouldn't be anywhere else. It's gonna be fine," Anni said pulling her in to a hug.
"So maybe we should make a plan? Just incase things go south," Dixi said, starting to worry about what her parents were going to do to Mark and Anni.
"Alright baby, what you got in mind?" Mark asked.
"I always had an escape strategy when I was younger, so that when they started their shit, I had a an exit," Dixi stated.
She'd never told anyone that. It had always been her dirty little secret that her parents weren't as nice as they were when the cameras were rolling.
"Yeh, I always had Dixi call me with 'an emergency' if shit started going south so I could leave the house. Then she'd climb out the window to meet me. Just to get away for 10 minutes," Charli said as Anni wrapped her arms around her shoulders.
