A/N:NOT EDITED.
Chapter 13 — The Past, The Unexpected Truth (Kaden POV)
While Etta was currently distracted, dressing Reese and Morgan for the day, I wanted to know something that had been working my nerves; I had been trying to remember since she and John came clean, "When I was injured the last time, Etta? What were we doing?" caught off guard, her brows scrunched together.
"I had a feeling... a premonition, it was still a new skill for me — but we were looking for a family, Maisy Clemente and her children." Her response off handed.
"How did I get injured?"
"We were attacked in New York, you told me to go with them, when it was time for you to check in, you didn't, John said you were injured in the attack and that when you woke up, you couldn't remember a few things..." she says fixing overalls on Ree.
"What happened to the Clemente's?"
"Well it was the right face, wrong name," again distracted she placed Reese on the floor, before picking Morgan up, "Well anyways, they're on the island," nodding I picked Reese up, tickling her in my arms. Inhaling her calming scent, for now I'd worry about this coming visit.
.
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Undecided on how to proceed with this situation, Etta and I took a step back, evaluating what we would be doing, how to handle this in the right way. Unfortunately there was no way that the Bradley's wouldn't get hurt, in the long run, we would still be getting full custody of Sawyer and Tristan, even if we dragged it out, the end results weren't changing.
The gag order the judge placed preventing either them or us to involve the media, was set, however the Bradley's and their lawyer, Margo — Donavan's sister — were unaware of Myles, Vivian, Reese and Morgan. Just two days after witnessing them at the police station, the Bradley's filed for the children to be returned to their home, while they were introduced and met with Etta and I, and thankfully that was denied.
Sitting in the kitchen, with Reese on my lap, while Myles, Vivian and Morgan played outside, Etta scrambled around the area, preparing for their first visit with us. It would be the first time we met our children, as well as the Bradley's. The monster inside me, didn't see the point to all this run around, if we had gone with what I wanted to do, which was take our children, eliminating the threat the Bradley's posed we would all be back home on the island. I truly believed that Etta was the key to my humanity, the rationale for good inside me.
It wasn't that she made me soft, but she opened my eyes to more than just seeing things as some clinic, straight cut, black and white situation. While the researchers were unaware of my ability to change my physical features, they had created a soldier in me, removing the humane part of my wolf, leaving me more monster than man.
"Dadee eat," Reese patted my face, her hand holding a piece of egg waiting to push it inside my mouth. Doing as she pleased, I lowered my head, and opened, "hmmm," I made a show of chewing and swallowing. "So good, your mama sure can cook." Not sure she really understood just what I was saying, but nonetheless, she nodded, filling her mouth with a piece.
"Aren't you nervous?" Etta asked me when she sat across from Reese and I. Shaking my head, "No, not really..." I didn't think there was going to be a reason for that. "I want them to like us, but I'm just — we have to go at their pace, it's the same thing with Reese and Morgan..." I explained.
"Reese took to me like that," I snapped, "but Morgan, I'm not sure she'd approach me if I was even the last resort," I said seriously but was still able to put a smirk on Etta's face. "She's my careful thinker girl," Etta answered.
I frowned for a moment, looking down at Reese in my arms, her face tilted up smiling at me, "So this one here is going to be the one that brings home the bottom of the bottom?" I harrumphed, not if I could help it. We'd live on that island and I wouldn't let a single 'bad boy' near my little girls. I didn't want some jerk to hurt them, the way I couldn't remember hurting Etta. Just knowing the story angered me inside, my attitude, the reason I approached her when I was Reese, the things I can't remember saying when she was fourteen... all things that made and brought us to this situation now.
"It already happened," is what Etta continued to say, but I couldn't see it like her just yet. To me this was all fresh, I couldn't remember hurting her all those years back, but to me it didn't feel like I did it nearly ten years ago, it felt like I did it two weeks ago. "You can't keep me on a pedestal," something else she added. But it wasn't exactly a pedestal that I kept her on, it was the truth of the matter. Months ago I walked up that mountain and found Etta, and she welcomed me inside her home, with little to no grudge. She kept Reese and Morgan from me, not as some childish game, but because she and John, everyone knew that when I was assaulted with memories, things I had forgotten, when they returned it was with pain.
The truth was I didn't deserve Etta, but she was giving me the chance to do the right thing here, and while she was beautiful on the outside, her greatest attribute, the most beautiful thing I found was her compassion. Her heart.
Recalling our past — minus that one amazing memory — was more so an annoyance to me at time, because while I couldn't reach that wall they seemed to be trapped behind. I had no problem, no issues seeing just how I had fallen in love with Etta twice. With no one guiding my thoughts or letting information slip about us, I could see how when we were younger, after that brutal rejection from Lana, just how Etta soothed me.
She had one of those easy going, be there for you, and let you handle problems on your own, waiting near by if you needed her types of personalities.
Looking up from Reese, catching Etta staring at our little girl, her eyes full of sadness, "What's wrong?"
"I — I don't want Sawyer and Tristan to think that we didn't keep them, but we had Reese and Morgan," she whispered, distressed.
"If you would have known, earlier, that they were alive, would you have waited until now to get them back?" I asked pushing Reese's empty plate away from her before she made a mess.
Etta's eyes widen, "No, of course not... I always — always — thought that they had died, that it had been my fault," she cried, whipping her head from side to side.
"Exactly."
.
.
.
"There coming up the driveway," David said reaching for Reese and taking her outside with the rest of the kids out back. Shaking with fear and worry, I couldn't see Etta suffering this way, reach for her hand, the two of us walked outside waiting for two cars to come to a stop. Exiting the first car, Donavan and Katherine got out, along with Margo. While the second car revealed a woman — Ms. Gloria — and the children Sawyer and Tristan, who immediately dashed towards the Bradley's.
Turning the children around to come to us, along with Ms. Gloria the children walked forward with wide eyes, as they took in Etta and I, then looking behind at the house behind us.
"Children, these are Elizabetta and Reese," Ms. Gloria introduced us, as Sawyer and Tristan gazed at us with wide eyes, "Can you introduce yourself?" the moment was stiff and so tense that the only thing easing my own racing heart was the noise I could hear the children making out back. The shrieks of laughter, joy in the backyard, that the humans, wouldn't be able to hear.
At the loudest one, I witnessed Sawyer tilt her head in the direction before she just stilled. Keeping my face calm, I took that in.
"You were at the park with the two children," Tristan blurted out looking at Etta. Who nodded furiously, a smile breaking out on her face.
"Yeah, Myles and Vivian."
"Are they yours?" Tristan asked.
"Well they are, they are adopted like you were adopted."
"So they aren't your babies?"
With a brief squeeze I kneeled down to Sawyer and Tristan, "They are biologically related to Etta, they didn't have a mama and daddy to take care of them, so Etta-"
"Reese and I, take care of them," Etta followed my actions, smiling at me, giving me credit when in reality I had just shown up on the scene. "Do you know what that means?" she asked them.
Sawyer nodded, "Mom told us that it means that your insides match, like your insides match ours," she pointed to Tristan and herself.
"Exactly, Myles and Vivian, their insides match mine," from the back there was another loud squeal, nothing that the humans could hear, but again, Sawyer turned her head in that direction, this time Etta noticed. They were showing signs of being like us already.
"So... they are here?" Sawyer asked her head cocked to the side waiting for us to answer, Tristan.
"Well, they are here, but not only are you and Tristan their big brother and sister, Reese and I have two little girls, twins like you and Tristan," their eyes widened. Donavan and Katherine, had reactions just as the children, while Margo, seemed to have a look of disbelief on her face.
"So you have two babies, like you had them in your tummy? Like Sawyer and me?" Tristan asked and Etta nodded.
"How big are they?"
"Well Ree and Morgan are two years old," the twins shared a look.
"So they're babies?"
I snorted, "Yeah, but they can talk... walk... not great but... they're about..." I lifted my hand to his waist, "They are this tall."
"They're here?" Sawyer asked, her face looking more like Etta, than the pictures showed.
"Would you like to meet them?" I asked standing waiting for their reply. Again looking at each other before they turned to face Etta and I, they nodded.
"Okay, follow us," Etta said, the two of us walking hand in hand, while Sawyer, Tristan, and the others followed behind us.
Turning around to the back of the house, Reese let go a squeal, "Dadeee," she toddled over to us and slowly Morgan came up reaching for Etta. Dressed in pastel overalls, both their hair styles the same, the only difference their undershirt. Scooting down to Sawyer and Tristan, we placed the girls in front of us, "Ree, Morgan, this is Sawyer," I pointed, "And this is Tristan," Etta finished.
Sawyer knelt down in front of the twins her self, shyly waved at the girls inhaling deeply, twice and for a moment I was sure she was trying to catch their scent, but then again, a small part of my mind told me that it was reading too much into Sawyers actions. I was seeing what I wanted, looking for reasons to justify taking them from the Bradley's.
"Oh wow, identical twins," Ms. Gloria noted, "how do you tell them apart if they're dressed alike?" she smiled wide, while behind them, the Bradley's stood still, their face unreadable.
"They smell different, she smells like honey," Sawyer said her eyes wide, her mouth closing, cocking my head to the side, with my eyes on her, "And Morgan smells like Vanilla," I finished for her, watching a beautiful smile erupt on her small Etta like face.
It wasn't my imagination.
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