Serendipity

.16.

"You know how Monica and I were friends since we were little kids." Mom started as she looked at Nick and I. "Well that is not the entire truth."

"Wait." Sophia intervened. "Before she proceeds with the story, I want both of you to remember that Monica was a great woman despite her past and some of her choices. Don't think any less of her." Sophia stated firmly.

We nodded as Nick took a seat on the couch next to me.

Mom nodded at Sophia and continued, "Monica's real name or rather her old name was Mia Rodriguez. She was the only daughter of the Italian businessman, Ivan Rodriguez. Monica's childhood was not the best, in terms of affection at least. She was raised to be a trophy wife of whichever man Ivan would have married her too. Perfect poise, could handle her liquor, splendid etiquettes and table manners. She even knew how to wield a gun. A perfect lady who could be turned into a weapon, if required. At first when she was a child, Monica thought it was how every girl was supposed to be raised like. But that all changed when we met."

Mom stopped for a second and let us process the information. She then leaned forward resting her chin on her clasped hands, "The first time we met was in Italy. I had gone there with my parents for vacation and it was pure luck that we met and somehow became friends. Throughout the entire trip we met a couple of more times and by the time I left, we had exchanged numbers and promises of seeing each other in future." Mom let out a sad smile, "Mona used to say that I opened her eyes to the real world. When she saw how my family treated me and compared it with her home life, she got pissed and in that surge of anger, she left her home."

"She ran away?!" Nick's eyes were as wide as mine as he proclaimed.

Mom quirked the corner of her mouth into a small smirk as she reminisced how big of a rebel Monica actually was. "Yeah she did. She ran away with enough money to travel all the way from Italy to the States."

"How old was she, again?" I asked.

"Fourteen year old." Dad replied, a small smirk playing on his lips as well.

Damn she was daring.

"She came to my home and dragged me to a park nearby. She then proceeded to tell me about her domestic life and asked me for a place to stay. And after knowing everything I couldn't say no to her." Mom said.

"So Cassie, instead of asking her parents to help, kept Mona in her room hidden away from the world. But Kelly and Jim were smart. When Cassie started eating in her room, took larger portions but didn't gain weight they got suspicious. So they confronted her and she told them the truth, begging them to help. And they did. They changed her name to Monica and gave her their surname, Keating. Mona changed her appearance a bit too. Her original brown had been dyed blonde and chopped to a bob cut in her early days to fit into the image created for her, so she let her hair return to the original colour and grew them way past her shoulders. She gained a bit of weight so that she stopped looking like a stick and instead looked like a fit girl. She made drastic changes in her cupboard too to look more like a teenager and less like a stuck up rich kid." said Tony.

Dad took over the story, "We met the girls in our college first year and by the end of second semester we all had gotten very close. And by the second year we knew about her past. Tony and Mona had fallen in love and she decided it was best if we knew all about her, including her actual identity."

Mom spoke up again, "All was well and good for the next few years. Then Demetrius Austers showed up. He was the man Mona had been promised to before she was even born. He caused quite a lot of trouble. Got into fist fights with both Will and Tony, threatened to take Tony out of the picture, got me arrested and even went to the extent of kidnapping her. But here's the surprising thing is, she returned the next day completely unharmed and Demetrius left the country soon after."