Eventually Yours

85 ✽

Cartagena, Colombia

~Brie

“How is he?”

I sighed and carefully stepped out of the bedroom.

“Still asleep... which is unlike him because he's always up very early” I chewed on my lip, “Rissa I think they broke him” I whispered, tears threatening to spill.

“Breanna, listen to me. I know this is hard for all of us, but I'm begging you. Don't cry. If Aiden sees you breaking down... I don't know what he'll...”

Now she was breaking down.

I cupped a hand over my mouth and let some of the tears fall.

“Breanna we can't let him see us like this” Iris sniffed after a while.

I nodded, wiping my face with the back of my hand.

“You're right. I'm not going to cry” I told her, willing myself.

“Has he been asleep for long?”

“He hadn't slept much since we got here. And after the meeting with Gabriella well... I'll say he has earned this amount of sleep. But the bigger part of me is saying... for the first time in ten years, he's going to wake up holding no hope of finding his child because there was no child in the first place...”

“And so he'd rather not wake up” Iris sighed.

I nodded.

“Rissa, how could they deceive him this much? And for all this time.”

“I don't know Brie” I sniffed, “But I want them to pay. For everything. For the torture they're putting my brother through right now.”

I shrugged.

“I don't know if Aiden even wants that. He barely said a word on the way to the hotel and he went straight into the bedroom when we got here. It's been quiet since” I said. “Rissa I don't even know what to say to him. What do you say to a person who's just been told the child he was made to believe he had for ten years doesn't even exist to begin with?”

“I don't know Brie, I seriously don't. But I do know that they have to pay. They must pay Breanna.”

I sniffed.

“How are you doing? Aside from all this of course.”

“I won a case yesterday. But it's hard to celebrate when you hear the nephew or niece you've had for ten years never existed.”

“And Manny? How is he?”

“Waiting for the two of you to get back so he can give Aiden a big hug and take away his sadness.”

My heart clenched.

“He said that?”

“Yeah. His first reaction when I told him was, “Is Aiden okay?” He was devastated. He made 'Welcome Home' signs and everything. Juanita helped him take down the banners this morning and he's outside right now. Asking the new gardener what plants take away sadness.”

I rubbed my chest.

My poor boy.

“Cyril must be wondering where the question is coming from.”

“Oh no it's a new gardener. Cyril just... disappeared” Iris explained.

I furrowed my brows.

“Disappeared? What do you mean disappeared?”