Letters to Isabella

seven.

Ross' POV

"Where are we going?" Adeline asked me in a giggly voice as Rocky, Laura, Isabella, Bailey and I all walked towards Rydel and Ratliff's home with Adeline on my arm.

"You'll see." Rocky grinned back at her, running towards the gate leading up to the front door. He pounded his fist heavily against the glass plated windows and smirked as Rydel rushed to open it. "Hey little sister! I haven't seen you in forever!"

Rydel raised an eyebrow quizzically at the six of us and chuckled awkwardly to herself. "Is this the Lynch family reunion or something?"

I clicked my tongue and glanced at Adeline who stared at me nervously. "Something like that."

"Hey Auntie Delly!" Isabella greeted, wrapping her arms warmly around Rydel's waist. She was pretty short in comparison to everyone in the family, myself and Laura included so she was only able to hug people from the waist down.

Rydel gasped when Isabella pulled away from their hug and held her hands on either side of Isabella's shoulders. "Bella? There's no way that's you! You look so grown up and beautiful!"

Isabella giggled and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, it's me!"

Laura joined beside her with Bailey underneath her arm and smiled. "Hey Del, it's been awhile. I've missed you."

They wrapped their arms around one another and quickly pulled away once Rydel realised that Bailey was with us too. "No way... Bailey?"

Laura grinned and ran her hands through Bailey's brown hair. "Yeah... you haven't seen him since he was a toddler, right?"

My older sister grimaced. "Pretty much."

I knew that she felt guilty for basically disappearing from our lives but it wasn't her fault completely. I mean honestly none of us had really made any effort, we all had a part to play in our dysfunctional family; some of us more than others.

"Who's this?" Rydel asked, her voice suddenly more alert and attentive to what was actually going on. Adeline was stood behind me, cowering slightly. It was strange because I saw so much of her in Rydel but none of Rydel in her. "Oh my god Ross you don't have some secret kid do you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Delly, please. If she was my child I would have been a kid when someone gave birth to her."

Rydel furrowed her eyebrows slightly and then her face softened again. "Oh... yeah! That makes sense!" She then turned to Adeline and held her hand out for her with a smile. "So... if you aren't Ross' secret love child then who are you?"

Rocky, Laura and I all exchanged worried glances and after what felt like a few moments of painful silence Adeline awkwardly pushed her short blonde bangs out of her eyes and cleared her throat. "I'm..." she turned her head to look at the three of us. I nodded my head encouragingly. "I'm Adeline and I'm your sister..." she gulped. "well, your half sister."

Rydel let out a confused chuckle and turned her head in our direction, waving her arm about and gesturing to Adeline. "You guys! It's not even October yet! You should have pulled this prank on me next month I mean how stupid do you -"

"Rydel!" Rocky exclaimed, joining Adeline on the porch. He wrapped his arm around our sister and sighed gently. "I know this is a lot to take in but Adeline really is our sister -"