Debt

45: Bonded

"Hey, mija," he greeted with a smile, getting up to hug her. "Brisa wants to throw you a baby shower."

"Yea? That's fine, Uncle Hector. Just have her call me."

"Okay. Hey, I wanted to talk to you, though."

Evan looked at Hector a moment, before he pulled Larielle into his arms, and lifted her chin. "I want to be the one to tell you what he wants to talk to you about," he told her.

Larielle was confused, and she looked to Hector, who said nothing, giving Evan the floor.

"Hector is my father," he told her.

That caught her by surprise and she moved to sit down, processing this information in her head. "You told me you didn't know your father, Evan. Why would you lie like that?"

"Baby, believe me, I didn't lie to you. I didn't know my father until you introduced me to him," Evan told her gently.

"Uncle Hector?"

Hector released a breath, and Evan decided to leave them alone. He just said his part and told her that he'd wait for her outside.

Larielle looked at Hector. "Did you not know about Evan, Uncle Hector?"

Hector sighed and held his temples. He wanted to talk to Larielle about this because he knew that she and Pedro were going to wound up talking and he didn't want her to be caught unawares when Pedro talked to her like his father knew he would.

"I knew about Evan eleven weeks into his existence."

"So Shayla didn't tell you she was pregnant?" Larielle asked.

"No, she was eleven weeks pregnant when she told me. And at the time, I was eighteen. I already had a son to take care of. I didn't want to have another child. I asked her to have an abortion and she told me she didn't want to do that. And I didn't stick around to find out. Shayla stayed down in Naples with her father, and I went back to my campus. As you know, I went to the University of Michigan and interned under your father. This part of the story you know. But I settled where I did in hopes of running into Shayla again. Because I love her."

"So you don't love Aunt Brisa?" Lari asked, her heart breaking for her aunt.

Hector let out another long breath. "I love Brisa, Larielle. Never doubt that for a moment. Brisa and I have been together for a very long time and we know anything there is to know about each other. I'm very comfortable with Brisa. But I'm not in love with her."

"Because you're in love with Shayla?"

"Yes."

Larielle didn't really know what to say. She just sat there, digesting this information. "Does Pedro know this?"

"No. Brisa and I are going to sit down with him tonight and talk to him. We're getting a divorce."

"So you can be with Shayla?"

"Well, that part is contingent upon Shayla, and I don't really think that's something that she wants right now. Given some time, I don't know. Hopefully."

Larielle held her head. This was a lot of information to digest.

"How long has Evan known that you're his father?"

"I'm assuming he asked his mother after the first time you brought him here."

"And did you know then, too, Uncle Hector?"

"I had a hunch," he admitted.

She didn't know what to say, she was so speechless. She put her head between her knees, feeling dizzy. Pulling in deep breaths, she let what she had just learned sink into her. The man she had known pretty much her whole life had a life she had never known about. She had known this man since she was four years old. And all this time, she had been dating his son. And she hadn't even known it. She could have grown up with Evan and seen him the same way she saw Pedro. But thank God she didn't because now she was having his child.