The Forgotten Child, The Found Child

Chapter 3

"Son, will you please help Nikki load her bags into the car?" Victor asked as he headed to the town car with the first load off the jet.

"Why?" Adam glared at his father then his step-mother.

"Victor, its fine I can handle it," Nikki spoke up not wanting to have yet another fight.

"No it's not fine...because it is the gentlemanly thing to do," Victor shot back at the boy.

"Fine!" Adam growled and jerked the bags from Nikki.

"Well at least he didn't call me Step-Monster as he walked by," Nikki told her husband as she walked towards him.

"At least he has only called you 'Step-Monster'...he has already called me worse," Victor rolled his eyes, "I'm sorry darling that Adam is acting out this way...I never expected him to be this bad-mannered and cross."

"Victor, don't apologize...the boy just lost his mother, the only family she allowed him to know...and he has been uprooted and forced to move to a new place with people who he has been taught to despise...and add on that he is a teenager, it is expected that he would have a lot of pent up anger and resentment...just give him time, he'll warm up to us and the kids and to being in a new place," Nikki tried to convince her husband things would get better as she reached out to hold his hand.

"I don't know if I'm as sure as you that this is all going to have such a happy ending...Adam is a very angry young man with 16 years of his mother feeding him full of lies about me, about us...I just don't know if we can break through that wall especially when we will be contradicting a dead woman, a woman he adored," Victor frowned but gave his wife's hand a good squeeze. As they continued to watch Adam finish loading the bags, it occurred to Victor, "Speaking of teenagers, how do you think Abby is going to handle this?"

"Now her I am not so sure about," Nikki grimaced, "Our youngest can be very kind and loving when she wants to, but she can also be very cold and distant when she wants to be too...and after all we didn't tell her about Adam for all these years and she has been an 'only' child since she began living with us...all the attention has been on her and for a young girl having that split in half all of the sudden, it can be very traumatizing."

"So basically we could be going home to either a group of kids trying to welcome their brother in or to World War III?" Victor cringed.

"Basically," Nikki shrugged.

"Great," Victor groaned as they began to walk to the vehicle.

"But either way we will get through this, we always do...and we will get Adam through this even if he doesn't want our help...he is going to push us away, and instead of pushing back we may have to be his human punching bags for a bit before making up any ground...and I know you don't handle that very well," Nikki pulled on his hand stopping him in his tracks, "So my love, you may have to go against your first instinct to fight back because if you don't you may lose the only chance you have ever had to have a relationship with your son."

Victor gazed deep into his wife's eyes and really thought about what she had just said to him. He wondered if he could do it; not fight back. It would be hard but he knew it would be worth it if it meant having his other son in his life, "I'll try darling, I'll try," he promised.

"That is all I'm asking," she gave him a small smile and kiss on the lips.

"So are we leaving sometime in this century or what?" Adam yelled from the car.

Victor gritted his teeth in a forced smile as he pulled his wife with him the rest of the way to the car, "Oh yeah this is going to be interesting." Nikki couldn't help but laugh at his husband already getting worked up.