Addiction

77 || A big happy family

"I missed you guys all so much." Ellie practically headlocks my ten year old cousin, Declan, who happens to be the unlucky one who had to sit next to her on the dinner table.

My grandparents from Long Island invited over my family, Ellie and uncle Tristan and his family, who flew yesterday from Switzerland, for dinner. With everything that went down the past month, Ellie's birthday tonight and mine coming up in a few days, my grandparents thought it was a good idea to spend some quality time as a family and most importantly, celebrate Ellie. Plus, I really love my grandparents' mansion, especially the garden we are currently having dinner at.

Of course, neither my grandparents nor my uncle's family know the depths of what happened, only that I got kidnapped for money and my hero of a boyfriend took a bullet for me.

"Aunt Ellie, you're suffocating me." Declan laughs while he is still trying to escape her lethal hug.

Declan is uncle Tristan's youngest kid, twelve years old Elliot is the middle child, and Aurora is the oldest, she is fifteen and a spit image of her mother, Madeleine. My uncle and Madeleine met when they were both med students at Columbia and after they graduated Madeleine, who is half Swiss and half British, moved back to Zurich and my uncle decided to follow her. Now, they own one of the best hospitals in the country.

"Ellie, keep going!" Elliot is laughing his ass off.

"Ellie, let my poor grandson breathe." My grandfather, Richard, says next.

"Fine." Ellie sighs, leaving him alone.

"So, who wants dessert? I think it's time we bring out Ellie's cake." My grandmother, Sophia, suggests, smiling.

"Oh yes! Cake!" Declan claps his hand excited.

"Caaaaaaake!" Nate's yelling practically bursts my eardrum.

"Shut up!" I slap his bicep.

"How do you deal with it all the time?" Aurora questions, looking at me sympathetically and Nate must have kicked her under the table because she ends up leaving a scream of pain, startling everyone.

All eyes turn on Nate "She called me an it!"

"It was a joke, you broke your favorite cousin's leg over a joke!" She gasps in pain dramatically. And it was fake.

"It was an ugly leg either way, Sleeping Beauty!" I know that he is joking but there's nothing ugly about my cousin, she is drop dead gorgeous. Dark blonde hair, the bluest of blue eyes, pretty freckles and long legs that could make her a model like her hottest cousin, also known as Audrey Rhode Hayden, if she hadn't decided her career path since she was five. She wants to be a neurosurgeon like her father.

"Yeah, okay, no one cares. Let's focus on my birthday and my cake!" Ellie yells over them.

So, we bring out the cake because Ellie acts like an impatient five year old when it comes to her birthday cake or her presents every year and no one dares to mess with that.

She blows out her candles and she is now officially thirty four. We all rush out to hug her and then everyone waits for a piece of cake. A red velvet three layered cake that I baked, I must say. Baking is one of my favorite hobbies and my love language.

The past ten days that I am out of the hospital, I have way too much free time in my hands because I am always home or at Miller's place until I make a full recovery. That's why I keep baking things, my house is like a bakery at this point.

We are in the middle of eating the cake, drinking champagne and having a real fun time when Ellie pushes her chair back and stands up, capturing everyone's attention "Now that you all have cakes in your mouths and can't really respond, I think it's the most appropriate time for a tiny little small announcement to make." She smiles innocently but no one buys it, we all turn suspicious.