"Please say something Marley-Rose."Brody begged me as he drove us home.
I couldn't.....
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When Brody pulled up his car by the house we saw that Angelo was there yet again and Jake was arguing with him on the porch. When I saw Angelo it hit me the man, this stranger was my biological father. I'm his daughter and I know nothing about him.
Brody and I jumped out of the car and I made my way to the porch. They both stopped fighting when they saw me.
I just pushed past them and ran into the house. I couldn't look at Angelo. I couldn't face reality just yet. I just wanted to close my eyes and be with my parents. I ran up to my room and fell onto the bed shutting my eyes tightly.
*****flashback*****
"Does she hate me?" I sighed looking up at my dad who had a saddened expression on his face. It was just after they discovered I was suicidal. They were both taking it hard but my mom couldn't even look at me.
"No baby girl." Dad sighed putting his arm around me.
"Do you?" I asked him.
"No! Never think that Marley-Rose. You are my daughter and I love you with every part of me. I could never hate you." My dad kissed my forehead. "You're sick honey, we'll get you help and we'll be with you every step off the way."
"I love you daddy." I cried into his chest.
"I love you too sweetie." He sighed kissing my head.
*****End of flashback*****
"Just let me see her! She's my daughter!"
Angelo was still here... and by the sounds of it he was making a scene. I had to sort this out now.
I got up off the bed and marched back downstairs and out to the front porch where Jake Brody and Angelo where. I looked at Angelo and for the first time I saw him as my father. I had his eyes....
"Jake. Brody. Go inside." I ordered. "Please I need to talk to him."
Jake and Brody went in side warily. I know they didn't want to leave me but this was between Angelo and myself.
"You can't come around here anymore." I told Angelo strictly. "I have a life and you can't come in and turn it upside down."
"Marley-Rose please if you would just let me explain." Angelo explained. "You have to believe I'm your father."
"I do." I told him. "I know you're my biological father but you will never be my real dad. I don't know why you're here. I'm seventeen, you're too late."
"I tried finding you Marley-Rose, I really did but I was broke. I wanted to be a good dad so I worked to build an empire for you." Angelo pleaded.
"I didn't need money. I needed a father and I had one, I had the best father in the world and just because he's not here anymore doesn't mean you can try take his place." I told him.
"I don't want to replace Max, I just want to be apart of your life." Angelo begged.
"Where were you when I was raped! When I was suicidal, sick, when I was kidnapped, when my parents died where were you?!" I cried.
"I didn't know about any of that." Angelo sighed as he found out everything I had been through and a look of regret and sadness drained his face.
"How could you?" I sighed wiping away my tears. "You're not my dad."
"Give me a chance sweetie." He begged.
"What do you really want Angelo." I crossed my arms.
"I want a relationship with you. I want to know about you and take care of you. I want to show you the world, introduce you to our family, our culture." He explained.
"You have to understand that I can't." I sighed. "This has to be the last time we see each other."
"But you're my daughter...." Angelo stuttered.
"You're just a stranger to me." I shook my head.
"You have a brother." He added.
"Tyler yeah I know." I nodded.
"No - you have another brother Sebastian" Angelo told me.
At this point my mind just crumbled. I thought I was handling everything strongly until he mentioned I had another brother. I had a completely new family just like that. I was confused now. I wanted to be able to walk away but my brother.... I had to at least give my brother a chance, none of this was his fault.
"Would you like to meet your brother? I know he'd definitely like to meet you." Angelo informed me.
He wanted to meet me. He actually cared. At the minute that meant a lot to me because of what I was going through with Tyler. I did want to meet him. It wasn't he fault this happened.
"I want to meet him." I nodded.
"Give our family a chance Marley-Rose." Angelo pleaded. "Come for dinner with us, please. Just let us talk, one night."
Was I actually giving into this stranger? I was only doing this because I wanted to meet my brother, I in no way wanted Angelo to act like my dad, he didn't have that right.
"One night." I sighed giving into him and he shared a bright smile. "Just let me get changed."
"Of course! Take your time." Angelo exclaimed holding his smile.
I left Angelo on the porch and went inside to get ready. As soon as I got inside though, Brody and Jake were on top of me.
"What happened?!"
"We're going to dinner." I replied. "He's going to let me meet my brother, I have another brother."
"Marley that's not a good idea! You don't even know this man!" Jake snapped at me.
"I have another brother, I can't ignore that." I shook my head then ran past them up the stairs.
In my room I found that Brody had brought some of my bags up somehow so I stripped and changed into white skinny jeans, an ice blue crop top and a white blazer. I touched up my hair and makeup up finishing my look.
I guess I was really doing this, going to dinner with my dad and brother. Last week I would have killed to have dinner with my dad but this wasn't what I expected. I had to do it though or else I would live my life in wonder.
I grabbed my clutch bag and made my way downstairs. I was hoping to avoid Jake and Brody but that didn't seem like an option as they were both waiting for me.
"Guys you're not going to change my mind." I told them.
"Let me come with you." Brody suggested.
"I can't. I have to do this myself, this is my family." I replied.
"Marley I have to tell my dad." Jake sighed.
"No! You can't." I jumped. "Jake I have to be the one to tell him, please let me."
"They all need to know." Jake told me and I nodded. "Ok Marley but please be careful tonight."
"I'll be fine." I smiled and kissed Jakes cheek.
Then they let me go. I walked outside and found Angelo still on the porch swing. He stood up when he saw me.
"You look beautiful." He smiled proudly.
"We should go." I stated and he nodded. I guess I just wasn't ready for sweet talk with him just yet.
Angelo led me to his car, his very fancy car. He wasn't kidding about building an empire, this car cost more than some people's house. I stepped into it and Angelo followed then began driving.
"Sebastian's going to love you." Angelo smiled. "I'm so excited."
"What's he like?" I asked Angelo.
"A lot like you actually, strong, loving, caring. I'm proud of him. He's nineteen." Angelo told me.
"So how did that work, did you leave your wife and son for my mom like she left my dad and brother for you?" I asked him.
"That's not what happened Marley-Rose." Angelo sighed exhausted. "My girlfriend died in childbirth to Sebastian. I didn't leave her. I didn't leave Sebastian either, I never would. As for your mom, she's didn't leave Max for me, she just left, she wanted more. She wanted to see the world."
"Wait so it was you, my mom and Sebastian? Sounds like a perfect little family." I rolled my eyes.
"It would have been, if she would have let me raise you." Angelo replied.
"My family was perfect once, then I screwed it all up." I remembered.
"I'm sure you didn't." Angelo said.
"I did. I always do that's why you don't want me to be in your family." I thought deeply.
"There's nothing you could say to make me not want you to be in the family." Angelo smiled at me.
"Doesn't it bother you I tried to kill myself?" I asked Angelo.
"Of course it does but I can see you're stronger now, you're so brave. I know you know what's right now." Angelo told me. No one else really described me as that before. He understood.
The rest of the journey was silent until we reached the restaurant and my nerves started to kick in. Butterflies appeared within me. I was Terrified to meet my brother but also excited in a way. I couldn't really express how I felt, I was just a big bag of emotions.
Angelo sensed my uneasiness and gently took his hand in mine then he kissed it which for some weird reason I found comforting. Then the two of us got out of the car and made our way to the restaurant.
Inside we were shown to our table. I couldn't even think as my heart began to race and I panicked so I stopped in middle of the restaurant. I couldn't do this.
"Angelo I'm not ready." I hesitated on the verge of tears.
"Yes you are daughter." He smiled. I was unsure about the fact he called me daughter, I wasn't too keen on it.
I followed Angelo anyway to a table in the corner where I saw the back of a boys head. Angelo went on and spoke to the boy, my brother I presumed while I stayed back.
Then he stood up and turned around to me.... Sebastian. It was him. My big brother. He was tall, smartly dressed with brown hair, tan skin and he had my eyes.... There was no denying he was my brother. I stood and stared at him because I was frozen but then he surprised me and hugged me. He held me close like we actually were family. I happily hugged him back. I needed this. With everything going on with Tyler it was surprising and a blessing I have another brother. I would never try to replace Tyler but something tells me Sebastian is very different than Tyler.
"My beautiful baby sister!" Sebastian exclaimed in a hint of a French accent.
"Hi." I said awkwardly.
"Let's sit." Angelo smiled.
So we all sat down, Angelo and Sebastian sitting on one side, myself on the other and all they did was stare at me.
"This doesn't seem real." I sighed trying to force a smile.
"I secretly always wanted a sister. " Sebastian laughed. "I can't believe this."
"Yea it's pretty weird." I laughed awkwardly.
"We want to know everything about you Marley-Rose." Angelo smiled.
"Wait I've been practising being a big brother. Do you have a boyfriend cause I'll beat him up." Sebastian told me making me laugh. He was so cute.
"No I don't have a boyfriend." I reassured him.
"What about that boy I saw you with earlier, isn't he your boyfriend?" Angelo asked me.
"He was but it didn't work out, we're still good friends though."I corrected him.
"Oh well. Tell us what we need to know about you." Angelo smiled.
"Well my life has been pretty complicated. I was diagnosed with with depression, anorexia, bulimia, I had a lot of fears which I'm trying to get over. I lived with my family all my life until they passed away. I was living here until something pretty bad happened and so I moved to my brother Tyler's. I'm back now to help my friends." I told him as simply as I could.
"What are your interests?" Angelo asked.
"Reading, running, music, just stuff like that" I shrugged.
The conversation was very neutral and I found it quiet awkward at the moment.
"You have our eyes." Sebastian announced changing the tone of the conversation.
"I was always told I had my mothers eyes but I don't, I have yours." I looked at Angelo.
I saw the emotion in Angelos eyes. This really meant a lot to him. His eyes even began to water.
"Excuse me." Angelo rose from the table and then left us, upset.
"Did I say something wrong?" I asked Sebastian worried.
"No. Not at all. This is just a lot for us." Sebastian sighed.
"It's a lot for me too. I already had an amazing dad and I have a brother I wouldn't change for the world. This doesn't seem real." I told Sebastian.
"Marley-Rose I want to be your brother." Sebastian told me. "I always wanted to be your brother. I want you to know the truth. When I was fifteen my father told me I had a sister. It was always just me and him and at first I didn't want to even know your name. Eventually I came round and begged dad to find you. We did try but it was so hard."
"How did you find me?" I asked him then.
"Your kidnapping story was in a small local paper in our grandmothers village. She knew when she saw your photo. You had the Monèt eyes. We worked from there." Sebastian replied.
"Sebastian I'm glad you found me. I do want you to be in my life but I can't take on a new family like this. I remember what it was like with my family and nothing could replace that. I'm sorry." I apologised. "I don't want to give you false hope that we can be perfect siblings."
"I don't want a perfect sister. I want a real one." He smiled. "I'll accept anything I get."
Sebastian continued to smile at me when Angelo joined us. They were both making such an effort, the least I could do was give them a chance.
"Sorry I had to get some air." Angelo explained. "You just - you just remind me so much of your mother."
"I'm sorry Angelo. It wasn't right for her to leave like she did." I sighed.
"She did what she thought was right and look at you, you're perfect." Angelo smiled.
"Tell me about your family." I asked making the effort and making the two men smile.
"Well we're french Italian. My mother was french and my father was Italian. I was born in France and grew up there on a grape farm. I have two brothers and a sister, John-Paul, Antonio and Margoux. Antonio was the youngest and he moved to Italy to be with my dad's side of the family." Angelo explained.
"Gramma Bon makes the nicest food, it's like Christmas dinner everyday at theirs." Sebastian laughed. "And Grandpa Al loves taking the horses out."
"They still live on the family farm. Its acres upon acres. I helped them restore it when I earned my money. Its beautiful. Horses, beautiful waters, natural sunlight." Angelo described. "They all really want to meet you. Let me take you."
"It sounds wonderful but I can't just pack up and go to France with some man I've only just met." I laughed.
"I'm not just some man Marley-Rose."Angelo sighed. "I just hope you trust me enough to come some day."
"If it's alright me asking, how long have you been here and how long do you plan on sticking around exactly?" I asked.
"We've been here a year." Angelo replied. "We like it here. So we'll stay here for you because we want you in our life."
"Ok that's not going to work. You can't have me 24/7. It takes hours for me to get to my brothers. I'm always doing something. I have school and a life. We can't have the relationship you want." I explained.
"We know, we just want you in our lives." Angelo sighed.
I could see how much this meant to them. It meant a lot to me too. Angelo would never be Max but he has a right to be in my life and so does Sebastian.
"We can't be around each other." I sighed and saw the hurt in their faces but I wasn't finished yet. "Until I tell my family."
As soon as I said both if them smiled with so much happiness and I knew this meant a lot to them. I just had to tell my family now.
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