His Proposal

His Proposal - 109

At 3 pm, there's a knock on the door and I walk over to it. I open the door and see a guy with light brown hair, hazel eyes, he's slightly taller than me.

He looks like Dad when he was younger.

I step aside. "Jai's in the living room." I show him to the living room and he shakes hands with Jai and Ace. I head to my room and pull Mom's diary out of the top draw. I unlock it and go through the pages.

A page catches my eyes and I begin to read it.

March 1987

Dear Diary,
             It's close to my due date and I should be excited about being a mother, but I'm not. I'm still too young to be a mother myself. I'm only sixteen and there are things that I want to do with life.

I have sat down with my parents and the father's parents and we have all agreed that the baby boy will be given up for adoption. I want my son to know who we are, but he won't be able to reach out to us until his 21st birthday.

If his adoptive parents don't want to tell him he's adopted that's their choice. Just like it's my choice to give him a better life than the one I could provide for him.

The father of my child is Logan James and he will be the father of all my children to come.

Is that guy in the living room my older brother?

He is three years older than me.

Taped at the bottom of the page is a letter for me and there's one behind that for my brother.

I open my letter and read it.

Chloe,
         If you're reading this letter, you're father and I died before we could meet our son. We would like for you to find him and when you do give him the letter I have attached under yours.

There's stuff that you're father and I have done and we want you to make things right. The first person for this is your brother.

When you find him let him into your life. I would love it if you could form a bond with him as you did with your brother and sister. You're older brother is your blood and you're going to need each other.

I'm trusting you to bring the family back together. Chloe, you're the only one to make the James and Callahan families come out of hiding.

There's more family alive?

I scrunch up the piece of paper and throw it on the ground.

The guy stops at the door. He looks at me. "Are you alright?"

I shake my head. "My parents have secrets that I'm slowly uncovering. I just found out something and it's making my head spin."

He enters the room. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," I look at my fingers. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," he moves over to the bed and sits next to me. "Just don't ask me out. If you did Jai would kill me."

I laugh. "Nice way to lighten the mood."

"What are your parents like?"

He runs a hand through his hair. "I'm adopted. I met my birth parents, but it was the same night they died. They died while I was in the same room as them."

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"I have three brothers and three sisters who are adopted. From my biological family, I have two sisters and a brother, but my sister recently died." He frowns. "Why are you asking all these questions."

I rise and give him the letter my parents wrote. "This is for you," I walk to the door and open it. "Don't expect too much from me right now. I can't keep being put on this roller coaster," I pause for a moment. "The safety of my unborn child and myself is what I need to worry about now." I walk out of the room and make my way to Jai.

Jai looks at me as I enter the room. "Where's Drex?"

"He's in our bedroom." I kiss his cheek. "I'm going to Nate's. Call me when he leaves." I walk out of the door and enter my brother's apartment.

Nate and Teresa are in the kitchen and they're covered in flour.

A smile spreads across my face. "Someone tried and failed to make a cake? There's more flour on the both of you than the cake."

Teresa laughs. "He started it."

I pick up the wooden spoon from the table and I start licking the icing off it. "Thanks for saving the bowl for me." I put the spoon in the bowl scooping more icing on it.

Teresa picks up the bowl and she hugs it. "That's mine," she scoops her index finger in the bowl and she brings the chocolate covered finger to her mouth, but before she can lick it off Nate's mouth is on it. She slaps him. "Hey," she pushes him away, "that was mine."

Nate laughs. "Nah, it's mine." He takes a step forward. "You're mine and that bowl is mine too." He scoops up the icing and he brings his finger up to Teresa's mouth.

They are so cute together.

"Nate, I need to tell you something." I sit at the bench and look at him.

He pulls away from Teresa. "What is it?"

I turn towards the door. "We have an older brother. He's three years older than I am. I read it in Mom's Diary."

Nate walks over to me. "We need to find him."

"No, we don't. He found us. He's in my condo now."

Nate runs to the door. "I'm going to meet him." He opens the door and turns towards me. "Are you coming?"

I shake my head. "You should meet him, Nate. I'm not going to hold you back from meeting him. It's your decision and I want you to know that you're not going to hurt me if you want to get to know him. Just don't expect too much from me."

He walks across the hall and enters my condo.

There's shouting coming from across the hall and I walk to the door. I see Drex on the ground and Jai is about to hit him."

"Jai?" I enter the room and stand next to Nate.

Nate's face pales as he looks at our brother. "He looks like Dad, Chloe."

Jai looks at me. "What does Nate mean by 'he looks like Dad?'

I take a step toward Jai and I wrap my arms around him. "When I answered the door and saw Drex there I thought for a moment I was looking at a younger version of my father. It turns out I was right. I went to our room and went through Mom's Diary. She had a child at sixteen and she gave the child up for adoption. That child was Drex."

"Are you sure?"

I shrug.

Jai whispers. "That's not good enough. If he's your brother we're going to find out. You're getting a DNA test." He looks at Drex. "I don't want you near my fiancé and her brother until you get tested."

"I understand." Drex looks at me. "I'll make an appointment right away. I want Nate and you to be there for the results."

***