Melanie Gomez
CADEN
I’m lying in bed at about seven in the morning, and I start to feel movement. I slowly open one eye to see Nate staring straight at me.
“Morning, buddy. Wanna go make some breakfast?”
His eyes light up, and I slowly get out of bed and throw on some pants. I turn around and he stands up and jumps up toward me. I catch him midair and tell him to keep quiet so we don’t wake up his mom.
We sneak out the bedroom door and head downstairs to the kitchen. When we enter the kitchen, I set him on the counter and turn to look at him. “Okay, what sounds good?”
“Pancakes!”
“You got it, but you gotta help!”
I get all the ingredients together, and he starts mixing. Then I start pouring and flipping. We get them all made, and I start getting his plate together. I run to the fridge to get out some strawberries and whipped cream.
I shoot some whipped cream in my mouth, then point to Nate. He throws his head back and opens his mouth wide. I’m filling his mouth with whipped cream when we hear a giggle from the door.
We both look over and see Eva standing there smiling, leaning against the door jamb. She walks in and stands next to me, kissing Nate on the head as I wrap my arm around her and kiss her head.
“I hope you’re hungry. Gotta have a lot of energy for today!”
We take plates to the table to sit. The moment I sit down, Nate climbs in my lap, scooting his plate in front of him. Eva looks at me, and I just shake my head to tell her not to worry about it.
I help Nate cut his food and can see Eva staring at me from the corner of my eye. I wink at her and see her start to blush. She looks down at her food and starts to eat when I start to sneak in my food.
I make sure Nate and I keep hitting the whipped cream, which gets squeals from him and looks from Eva.
While we are enjoying our food, my boys all file in, dressed sharp. They sit down, grab some food, and start eating.
“Frankie, I need you to get info on the trash downstairs. Eva, what is your last name?”
“Wright, but I was adopted as a baby. My adoptive parents said it was to keep me safe. I only learned what my birth name was a couple years ago after my adoptive parents died.”
“What last name was that?”
“Romano.”
We all simultaneously choke on our food and slowly turn to her.
“Are you fucking shitting me?” Frankie exclaimed.
“Hey, there’s a kid here. Watch the language!”
“Sorry, boss, it’s just… I… ” He quickly gets up and walks away.
“What’s wrong with Frankie?”
“Eva, do you have any paperwork that shows that name?”
“Yeah, I have a copy of my original birth certificate. It’s in my purse. I’ll go get it.”
As Eva leaves, Frankie comes walking back over.
“Boss, what if she’s…you know…”
“I know, Frankie, I know. I have known you forever, and I know about your little sister. But we don’t know yet, so let’s wait and see.”
Eva comes running back down with the paper and hands it to me. As I quickly scan it, the color drains from my face, and I look at Frankie.
“Frankie, my man, her mother is Gracie Romano and her father is Fernando Romano and they did keep her first name.”
Eva stares at me, then at Frankie as he breaks down and pulls out his phone, sliding it to me.
Eva tries to talk but is confused about what is going on.
“What does that mean? Why is Frankie crying?”
“Eva, baby, sit down, and I will explain it. When Frankie was younger, his parents had just had another child, a little girl. Except their lives were in danger at the time, so they had to get the kids out quickly and hide them.
“It was only supposed to be a temporary thing. After less than a year, they found Frankie, but they never found their daughter.
“They did find out that she had been adopted but were not allowed to know where she went. Now, your adoptive parents would have had no clue about any of this. So don’t be mad at them, please.”
As she sits back absorbing this info, Frankie stands up and walks over, grabbing the birth certificate and looking at it. He then drops it and leans over, hugging Eva.
“So that means Frankie is my big brother? This is all too much right now!”
“It appears so, and now that we have found you, let’s call your parents at the mansion.”
She slowly nods her head, and I pick up Frankie’s phone to dial his parents. I place it on speaker. The phone rings a couple times before his mom picks up.
“Frankie, are you okay? I just saw you a couple hours ago.”
“Hey, Mrs. Romano, it’s Caden. Frankie is fine. He’s just a little emotional right now. You may want to put me on speaker, though, and get Mr. Romano next to you.”
“I’m here. What’s going on?”
“What happened? Is everything okay?”
“You two, everything is fine. It’s actually better than fine. We found her! We found Eva.”
All we heard was screaming and crying from Gracie.
“Caden, I swear to God, if you are screwing with us…”
“Mr. Romano, we are looking at a copy of her original birth certificate in front of us. It has your names on it. We found her. We found Eva.”
“My boy, how did you find her? It’s a miracle! Gracie, baby, they found our Eva! We have to go there now!”
“I understand your anxiousness, but she needs some time to decompress and process everything. We will be at the mansion this weekend, and you will get to meet her and her five-year-old son. Say hi, Nate!”
“Hi, Grandma and Grandpa!”
“She has a son! I have another grandson! Oh, my boys, we will see you next weekend. We love you, Eva! We never stopped loving you! Let me talk to Frankie.”
I hand Frankie the phone, and he takes them off speaker and starts talking to them.
“Eva, I will let Frankie stay here today so you guys can catch up. I have to go to work downstairs so Tank and Tony will come with me. There is plenty up here to keep busy.
“If you decide to come downstairs, Frankie or Nico can bring you down to my office. Okay? Hey, Nate, I gotta get up and get ready for work, but maybe I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Okay.”
I stand up and place my dishes in the sink, then I run up the stairs and quickly shower and change into my suit. I get my gun holsters on, because shit can go down even when I’m in my office.
I walk back downstairs and everyone is at the table talking and laughing. Although, it seems to be mostly at Frankie’s expense.
“Sharing stories from when Frankie was a kid, huh? Try to only talk about the G-rated ones, okay?”
I stroll over and kiss Eva on her head and then Nate on his. I wave goodbye as I head to the elevator to go down to my office. When I walk in and hit the twenty-eight, I can’t help but think how the last forty-eight hours have been.
Man, this shit is crazy. I go from slut bag to goddess and son to her being Frankie’s lost sister. The elevator dings and as I walk down the hallway, I pass by Connie’s desk, but she’s not here yet.
I know I’m early so I don’t care too much. When I enter my office, I throw my phone on the charger. For some odd reason, during the night it died.
I’m sitting, with coffee brewing, when my phone lights up and starts going haywire… I stare at it as notifications, missed calls, and texts are all coming through from Natalia.
I just can’t get rid of her. I swear, she is like a fucking disease. I scroll through, and she says she has a box of my shit to drop off. I won’t miss the stuff so fucking keep it. I’m clearing my phone when it starts ringing, and I know who it is. I roll my eyes and answer.
“What the fuck do you want, Natalia? I told you not to contact me.”
“I know, I know. I just have this box of stuff to give back. That’s it, I swear!”
“Fine. Bring it in a few days and leave it with Connie.”
Then I quickly hang up the phone. I just want this to be over and for her to be out of my life.