Secrets (The 3rd book in The Billionaire's Son Trilogy)

Chp 6:

Tessa:

"She and I have now met three times. She and I got a DNA test done. She wasn't lying. We're related. I've just been trying to figure out how and when to tell you about this...along with the rest of my family too." He remarks. 

I soften my gaze at him and touch the top of his hand. "I'm so sorry that I accused you of anything malicious." I say with embarrassment. He nods. "It's okay...I don't blame you for worrying. If you hadn't been coming home on time and you were being secretive I would question the same shit."   

"Let's address the main thing...how are you doing with all of this?" He gives me a half smile before responding. "I still can't wrap my head around it. It's crazy...even in death Robert still has this grasp on my life and I don't ever think it will go away." 

"It will...it's just going to take more than a few years." 

"Maybe so....", "So what is her name? What is she like?" 

"Her name is Katia. She's 22. She's sweet but you can tell she definitely is like myself and Eli. She has a similar attitude." He says with a smirk and I can't help but smile.

"Wow...yeah this is heavy shit babe. So who knows?", "Only you and Eli. I don't know how or when to tell my mom. That's a thing of it's own." 

I nod, I couldn't fathom what Natalia was going to say or do. Oddly enough almost right on cue Nick looks down at his phone which was ringing. 

"It's my mom." He picks up and begins to speak. 

Nicolai:

"Hello?" I answer. "Hi, darling."

"Hi mom. What's going on?"

"Oh nothing honey. I was actually just calling to tell you that I need you and your brother and your family to pack your bags. Brian and I decided that we want to take the families on a spur of the moment vacation trip. Oh and you can even invite Kirsten if you'd like. I know she's been staying with you." 

Tess looks across the table at me as I rake my fingers through my hair. A nervous habit that I needed to break.

"Where...where exactly are we taking a trip to?" I ask. "Out to California. I figured we could all rent a nice house in the Valley and we could even visit with your aunt." She tells me. I let out a sigh.

"When would this be?"

"We'd plan to leave on Thursday, Brian's kids have all gotten off work. I just need confirmation from you and Tess and Elias." She continues on. "Uh, okay. Yeah. We'll get back to you on all of that."

"Okay, but please let me know by at least Monday." We say our goodbyes and hang up. "What's going on?" Tess asks. I explain everything to her and she seems excited and up for it-no shocker. The next person I needed to ask though was Eli. 

Tess heads inside as I FaceTime my brother; when he picks up I notice that he's sitting on his couch with a gaming controller in his hands and he's barely looking at the screen.

He's aggressively shouting at the game on his TV. "Yeah bro, what's up?" He asks without breaking his gaze. 

"Mom and Brian have planned for a 'family' trip to California and we'd be leaving in a few days." I trail off. 

This catches Eli off guard as  he stops what he's doing, giving me deadpan look. "Is it mandatory?" He asks. "Yeah man, I'd assume so. All she left out was how I'm sure she's already booked the house and flights."

Eli groans. "I do not need to be locked in a house with people that I don't even know for several days." He tells me. "Elias, you once went to Miami and roomed with ten strangers you met at a club for two weeks straight." I look at my brother in disbelief at how dumb he sounded.

"Bro, that was different though. They weren't related to me or about to be in the family." I shrug at his remark and stand up as I head into his kitchen and grab myself a beer, still holding the phone in my hand.

"Well, you better figure out your shit with this by tomorrow or else this is going to be one hell of an awkward family vacation." I tell him.

"No shit." He says.