Angus took a seat at the table and had breakfast with the others. Marcus brought him a fresh cup of coffee since Angus didn't have two hands to carry a plate and a mug both. Angus thanked him and tucked into his breakfast. He honestly was just listening to the conversation and not particularly thinking of anything except this moment with his family. This was likely to be the easiest moment of his day. The tension was going to go up from here for most of the day until perhaps once they got home.
There had been a brief moment in his thinking somewhere over the last couple days when he had wondered if he would actually survive the funeral, if his extended family would insure that he would not survive the funeral of those he'd killed. He didn't fear that now. He was sure now that he was going to take a commanding stance today. These people who had hated him for no bloody good reason did not have the right to take from him the life that he had come to love with the little handful of people that loved him as much as he loved them. These blood relatives that hated him his entire life didn't even have the gonads to tell him why they hated him, the cowards. He was no longer sorry he'd solved the problems with Basil and Gloria once and for all. They'd both had choices to step away from the conflict before it all went off the rails and they'd chosen badly. That was not his fault. That was theirs. Their last and greatest mistake. It had taken him a day or so to resolve that in his thinking but he wasn't sorry about it any longer.
When he finished eating breakfast, he excused himself quietly, and he got up and went up to his room, and Marcus followed him. Marcus helped him change into a black suit. Angus wanted to do away with the brace on his shoulder, but Marcus wasn't having it. He was not going to let him jar the bones out of place. He did have a much less restrictive sling for him that was just a single belt-like strap. It was much less bulky and much less binding. Marcus helped him put on the suit jacket, and then Marcus did some small but important tailoring enchantments to make sure that it was absolutely perfect. He found the platinum and diamond bracelet, along with the family crest cufflinks and the Donohue diamond signet ring. He made sure Angus had his wand holster and his wand in place, even though, Marcus and Jessie were a pair of much more powerful and accurate weapons than Angus's wand was.
Angus had had one goal with the suit he had chosen. He wanted Edward to be leading this family for decades to come, but he also wanted the family to know for certain that, God forbid, if anything happened to Edward even today, that Angus was ready and able and was a force they would have to reckon with. He was hoping to look intimidating enough that they would know he was clearly Edward's choice.
While he was dressing, Edward and Simone had dressed. And the girls had gone upstairs to their room and changed into their black dresses and they had added the jewelry that Ruby and Angus had bought for them. They were nervous. It was the first time they had worn dresses and the first time they had gone to a formal occasion outside the pack. It hadn't taken them anywhere near the same amount of time to dress that it had taken Angus to dress. They had gone up, changed, and come back down before Angus had gotten finished.
Angus knew Ruby would need to dress, and he didn't want to take any more time in the bedroom than necessary so she would have time here. He and Marcus went downstairs. Edward was standing at the bottom of the stairs, and he looked at Angus and nodded.
"Will it do?" Angus asked him.
"It ought to scare the shit out of them," Edward laughed. "Well done, my boy."
"I'm going to ask you just one more time. What do they have against me?"
"And I'm going to answer you one more time. I don't know. Honest to God, I don't know. It isn't like I haven't asked them, demanded of them to tell me, threatened them. And they won't say," he said.
"Is it possible that I'm not really a Donohue at all?"
"No," Edward asked. "I considered that when you were just a wee tot, and your grandmother and I had that tested so we could put that to rest once and for all. You honestly are the firstborn child of Benjamin and Eileen. You're as much a Donohue as I am."
"Then I don't get it."
"Neither do I."
"Did I ever do anything that was disgraceful or unforgivable that maybe I don't remember?"
"No. Never. Son, they really aren't worth your energies. Nor can you make them like you. You can, however, set your position in this family once and for all, just exactly like you're going to do, and I'll be beside you every step of the way." Angus nodded once. He had to take this stand. He now had sons and daughters and Ruby, and they were going to not only be his immediate family, but they were also going to be heirs to the entire Donohue fortune through him. He wasn't going to let them be scorned like he had been. This had to be done, and today was as good a time as any.
by 
