"I am not happy with your past discretions, if this is the future the Sons have to look forward to when I'm no longer head then, then I foresee our downfall." Seref spoke, his words carefully measured and deadly calm. Two of the three that sat at the table in the conference room of Seref's office shifted uncomfortably.
"Who is responsible for this mission?" Seref asked leaning back in his chair to look over the faces that was supposed to have reported directly to him and had failed to do so.
"Father, surely I don't need your permission for every endeavor I undertake." Ethan spoke up giving away the fact he was indeed the one responsible.
"From this last debacle, you should not wipe your ass without telling me about it first," Seref said shooting Ethan a quelling look which had him swallowing any comment he may have thought to say.
"This debacle made the Son's six million dollars," Ethan's wife said speaking up and coming to his defense.
"This debacle has been the death of one of our most lucrative clients, not to mention the business associate that has been taking into custody by the American government." Seref replied his tone as sharp as a knife.
"Well we can't win them all, now can we Seref?" She asked with an insolent tone and smug shrug.
"Winning them all is exactly what we have been doing for the last thirty five years. This was just plain sloppy. Your mission was to find a girl without any familial ties and what do you bring me?" He paused to skewer them both with a well-sharpened glare. "The most influential well connected girl you could find. Her grandmother is the matriarch Clairrington, her grandfather the Commander of Staff of the Ethiopian armed forces. The last thing we need is to be taking it from both sides, from the Clairrington's and General Dahnay.
Our business prospects have been drying up like the fucking Saharan Desert," Seref slammed his fist down on the table. He leaned forward to look into his daughter in law's eyes. "If the two of you were anybody else I would have had you killed for putting in jeopardy what so many before you have died to preserve." Seref spit at her.
"Father please." Ethan pleaded in fear of what he knew his father just might do to his wife for his own failure.
"No, Ethan. Do not!" She said never breaking eye contact with Seref.
"Yes, Alejandra. Let him, for my son knows me well and he knows I may very well take your life in order to punish him. So please, let him," Seref said ruthlessly narrowing his eyes.
"Father we can fix this." Ethan tried to assure Seref.
"How Ethan, how can you fix what has already has been broken?" Caleb asked, speaking for the first time. "Besides, the time to fix this has already come and passed. Your wife should've done damage control while on Guevara's island, instead she was collecting an under the table payment that had nothing to do with the Sons of Change. By the way Alejandra you must have taken a rather nasty spill, your bruises or atrocious." Alejandra glowered at Caleb as she shifted the arm she had been shot in so it would rest a little more comfortably in its sling.
"Shut up, Caleb! This doesn't concern you." Ethan replied furiously.
"Oh but it does, for I am the reason this has all came about. What you and Alejandra did was not for the benefit of the Son's but for your wife's own personal vendetta against me." Caleb said leveling Alejandra with a cold stare.
"I pray what he says isn't true, Ethan," Seref said slowly inhaling.
"Father it is all a lie." Ethan said shooting daggers at Caleb with his eyes. Caleb didn't bother to argue with Ethan because he had his own plans for Ethan and Alejandra.
"I grow tired of your excuses, Ethan. You and your wife may leave me," Seref said dismissing them with a wave of the hand. When Caleb rose to leave with them Seref stopped him.
"Caleb, please stay. You and I have things that need to be discussed." Caleb nodded once and remained seated. Ethan and Alejandra made haste leaving the room but not before Caleb noticed the look that past between them. Seref waited a minute after they had left and began to speak.
"I am afraid I may have ruined Ethan. Him being my only son, my only heir...I may have indulged him more than I should. Unlike you, Caleb, Ethan is weak and his own self-awareness of his weakness makes him desperate to constantly try and prove himself to me. Maybe I should've taken a page out of Niles book and sent Ethan away to become a man in his own right. But that is neither here nor there, one's past will never be made to be undone, we must suffer through the future of our own making." Seref said with an edge to his voice.
"If it is any consolation, Seref, my father was already dead before he could even imagine the man I would become. Everything I am is a testimony to sheer will and determination." Caleb replied his voice lacking emotion and full of raw truth.
"I must disagree with you, Caleb. The blood that runs through a person's veins decides what that person will be capable of. On many levels you are an exact replica of Niles and it's because of his blood you are what you are today. Your loyalty to the Son's is a calling from the very blood that flows through your veins. In fact that is why I have asked to speak to you in private." Seref said his gaze never wavering from Caleb's. Caleb remained silent so that Seref would continue.
"It's seems that that fool wife of my son might have unwittingly uncovered information that we have been looking for ever since Niles's disappearance." Seref said carefully watching Caleb's expression.
"What could that be?" Caleb questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Gabriel and Amelia." Seref triumphantly exclaimed.
He cocked a brow. "Dahnay's daughter and husband?"
"Yes, those two may very well be able to tell us the whereabouts of the Heart of Africa." Seref replied with satisfaction.
"How shall I proceed?" Caleb asked his face impassive and his eyes taking on an unnatural gleam.
****
After meeting with Seref Caleb had one more stop to make before setting his plan into motion. Having dismissed his driver for the evening Caleb pulled and unmarked car into the empty lot that he had been instructed to come. Upon seeing the already parked black limo he knew his contact had already arrived. Caleb climbed from the driver's seat of his car and slowly walked over to the waiting limo. Once inside, he nodded at the occupant.
"Tell me that you were not aware that she was my granddaughter?" The General commanded in a clipped tone.
"Of course I knew of no such thing." Caleb answered in a controlled tone.
"How could you not?" The General asked angrily.
"Ethan and Alejandra acted without the Son's knowledge or consent; it was already done when we finally knew of what had taken place." Caleb coolly explained. The General stared at Caleb for a full two minutes before he finally decided to accept what he had said as the truth.
"Very well, that's all I wanted to know," The General said ready to call an end to the meeting.
"Yet, that's not all I have to tell." Caleb replied, unwilling to be dismissed.
"What has changed?" The General snapped, staring at Caleb intently. Caleb gave the General a humorless smile.
"Seref knows where your daughter is," Caleb said ominously, letting his words fall like a dull edged guillotine.
"I have no idea what you are talking about." The General denied.
Caleb laughed amused by the General's obvious lie. "You know I have often wondered what drove you to recruit me at the tender age of twelve to help you take down the Son's. All this time I thought it was for the love you have for Africa, freeing Africa from the exploitations that The Sons have wrought on her for so many years. How stupid have I been in my assumption, you have arranged and manipulated us all into play for the love that you have for your daughter. The very same daughter who may very well know what happened to my father all those years ago," Caleb said taking immense pleasure in watching the always cool and collected general squirm. Oh how he'd love to bring both Seref and the General's worlds crumbling down around them.
"If you even think about double crossing-"
"No worries General, I will still bring down the Son's, for both of our motives coincide." Caleb assured the General with a smug smile that only pissed the General off.
"Your motives being?" The General asked with a grimace.
"For me to keep to myself." Caleb answered opening the door to the limo, and before he got out he added, "I will be touch General."
****
The man in the island shirt stood at the edge of earth waiting for the invitation that had been so elusive to him ever since he'd taken his last breath. The bright light that he had grown used to seeing appeared on the ocean and began to draw near. Patiently, he waited.
"You have done well, Niles." A loud voice said serenely from the light.
"Thank you. I have waited long to hear you say that Michael," Niles said trying not to feel a swell of pride at the angel's words.
"You deserve the praise. Your work has ensured a future to those who were robbed of one by the many wrongs you committed in the past, before their lives even began." Michael's voice emanated from the light.
"And I am now ready for my salvation for my work on Earth is complete." Niles called out his words being carried away by the wind.
"You have done well but your work here on Earth is only beginning. You have committed great sins and those sins must be atoned, salvation is not yet yours to have, Niles," Michael said, his voice fanning out from the light in soothing waves.
"When will it be mine?" Niles yelled out in frustration only to have his voice taken again more forcefully by the wind.
"When you or done." Michael said his light growing dimmer and fading away.
Niles wanted to scream for Michael to take him away from this world. He could no longer stand to watch so many people suffer from the militia that he helped to create. Every time someone was murdered at the hands of the sons he felt the last cries of the victim rip through his very being and at those moments he wished for salvation or hell, it really didn't matter which, he just wished for release from the eternal purgatory he was now trapped.
****
"The storm is weathered," Amelia said wistfully as she stared down at a picture of her two beautiful daughters. Gabriel sighed and continued to stare out of the bedroom window for he knew that the storm had not been weathered and the calm they now experienced was actually the eye of the storm.
"It looks as if we may have more rain instore for us all, Amelia," Gabriel said without a real interest in the weather.
Amelia tilted her head to the side. "No, the weather man says there'll be clear skies for the rest of the week."
"I often wondered if maybe we should have stuck more to the truth with the children instead of letting them believe the elaborate lie we've fed everyone else." Gabriel retorted as he turned around to face Amelia. With concern in her voice Amelia asked, "Gabriel, where is this coming from? When we left Africa we agreed to leave the past in the past. It was your idea for heaven's sake."
"It was your father's idea! You know I always believed we should've told Kayla the truth," Gabriel said calmly while he stared intently at Amelia.
Amelia's eyes grew wide in horror as she shook her head at Gabriel. "No, we can never tell Nikayla! It'd destroy her."
"She is stronger than you think, Amelia," Gabriel said raising his voice.
"Do not allow your own selfish need to relieve your conscious, to ruin our daughter's life." Amelia yelled back. They stared at each other in a stand-off of sorts, until Gabriel turned back around to continue to stare out their bedroom window.
"I don't care what the weather man says Amelia, I think we are in store for some pretty nasty weather ahead of us." Gabriel said as he watched the fat gray storm clouds hang threateningly over the horizon.
****Six months later****
"Peek-a-boo" I said lifting my hands open to reveal my face to Jaden. That sent him into another fit of giggles that showed off his two teeth that was just beginning to make an appearance. I put my hands down charmed by his dimples and his grin that stretched from ear to ear.
"What you doing, Kayla, practicing?" Miah asked standing in the doorway to the nursery of mom and dad's clinic.
"You're out of class early." I said leaning over in the play pen to tickle Jaden.
"It was an early day today, and so I ran back here as fast as I could to be with the man of my dreams," Miah said scooping Jaden up out of the play pen and cuddling him to her. I sat back and watched mother and son, and smiled to myself. Miah made it look so easy.
"So how are things here?" Miah asked tearing her gaze away from Jaden to look at me.
"It's going, my case load is pretty heavy, but hey I'm not complaining, even though Carmen has got to be the biggest nag since Ruby." I replied standing up from my kneeling position. Like clockwork my cell began to ring. I looked at the screen, sighed and then answered it.
"Yes Carmen?" I said skipping hello.
"It's twelve thirty Kayla, past lunch hour, get your butt home and eat or I'll come and drag you out of there by your ear," Carmen said over the line.
"I was just leaving," I said making a face at Miah that made her laugh.
"I'll see you in ten." Carmen said hanging up the phone with an attitude.
"So how are things since Carmen moved in?" Miah asked nonchalantly. I rolled my eyes.
"She's getting on my last nerve. I've never met anyone so bossy." I replied shrugging into my coat and picking up my purse from where I left it by the play pen.
"Well, Kayla, someone has to boss you around. Things aren't exactly the way they use to be," Miah said sitting down in the rocking chair with Jaden, who was now rubbing at his eyes a clear sign that he would be out like a light at any given moment.
"I don't need the constant reminder, Miah. Trust me, I really don't have a problem remembering on my own." I snapped, regretting my shortness soon after the words left my lips.
"Ooh, talk about mood swings," Miah said with a frown.
"I'm sorry. I'm just sick and tired of people treating me like I'm a piece of glass that will break under the slightest bit of pressure," I said shifting my weight to the other leg.
"Kayla that's not how we're treating you. Girl! I know you're capable of taking on an army with one hand while saving lives with the other. And because of your superwoman ways, you're more likely to forget your limitations. You'll end up overdoing it and you won't be the only one who suffers," Miah softly chided, not wanting to wake Jaden who had just fallen asleep with a lock of his mother's hair grasped tight in his hand.
"You're right, it's me. Of course it's me. You know, sometimes I feel like if I think about it all too long I will break. Are worse, break her." I said pointing at my rounded belly. "You make it look so easy, but me...I don't have a maternal bone in my body."
"Kayla! Everything you attempt to do is perfect and this will be no different for you," Miah said nodding her head knowingly.
"Well I'm glad you believe in me, now I'll have someone to blame when the authorities ask 'who told you, you could be a mother'." I replied drily. "I know mom and dad must be proud of us. Two daughters both knocked up without one wedding ring between us. Girl, I swear we're living the Ratchet Atlanta dream!"
"You know what, I think they are, and if they're not then screw 'em!" Miah said lifting her chin up in the air.
"Miah!" I exclaimed with a shocked laugh.
"No, Kayla, I think they should be proud of us, mostly because with everything we have been through we have yet to crumble, and they should take pride in the fact that they raised us that way," Miah said rising and placing Jaden in his carrier.
"When did my little sister begin to know everything?" I asked folding my arms and tilting my head to the side.
"When your little sister realized that life doesn't always play out like it does in the movies, and it is easier to be your own hero and save yourself instead of drowning and waiting for a knight in shining armor that may not ever come." Miah replied practically.
I frowned because I was not use to such cynicism coming from her lips. It was normally my job to dish up the man bashing lines. I smiled and kissed her goodbye. I turned to leave but was stopped by Miah's words.
"Oh and, Kayla, the thought of you being broken has never entered my mind. Haven't you heard about the Nichols' girls?" She asked her eyes wide with age that somehow didn't go with the youthfulness of her face.
"No, Miah, what do they say about the Nichols' girls?" I asked turning to look over my shoulder with a smile.
"We are unbreakable, and those who try to break us are the ones who'll be broken," Miah said with an arched eyebrow.
I gave her smile and waved to her one last goodbye and turned to make my way down the hall to the exit of the clinic. The Unbreakables, I really did like the sound of that. When I made it outside the clinic I stopped in my tracks. The man standing not ten feet away was unrecognizable to me but something about him seemed familiar. The way he moved as he paced up and down the walk, seemed as if I should know him. Could it be? No, it couldn't.
Kayla you are going to have to stop doing this to yourself. Every Latino man you see that is about his height and weight sends you in a tailspin of nerves. Get yourself together. My stomach did a triple somersault. Damn, now you got the baby on the move. I took a deep breath and told myself that it's not him.
This man had a scruffy Rick Ross beard, and long hair which needed to be cut ASAP. Just as I began to walk again the man looked up from his furious pace he seemed intently concentrated on and made eye contact with me. My heart stopped for one second and then began again at a frenzied pace. It was him! He'd come back. I knew in my head I should be subdued. That I should tell him to go to hell and never come back, but something in my soul said something different, something in my soul recognized its mate and would no longer be denied no matter what my stupid brain said.
Unable to move I stood there and watched him approach with steady easy steps. When he stood right in front of me I had a strong compulsion to touch him to ensure me that he was in fact real and not some elusive day dream I'd now started to have all the time. We stood there in front of the clinic staring at each other for a long time before anyone said anything.
"So did you find Alejandra?" I asked breaking the silence, while I inadvertently pulled my winter coat closed.
"No, I didn't." Antonio answered his eyes never leaving mine.
"Then what are you doing here?" I asked feeling disappointment starting to prick its way through my hesitant elation.
"When my family was taken from me when I was sixteen, I dedicated my life to finding my sister and bringing her home. Not only because to me it was the right thing to do but because I was alone." He stepped closer. "It didn't matter if I had a thousand people around me I still felt isolated and alone. The pain of that night always replayed in my dreams never allowing me to forget how I failed my family. So to avoid ever having to feel that way again I never allowed myself to get attached to anyone. But when you came along things changed and my defenses were rendered useless. It scared the shit out of me, Angel. Especially when you stayed throwing yourself in harm's way."
"Antonio, you don't-"
"I ran, I ran half way around the world under the pretenses that I was looking for Alejandra. Don't get me wrong I put my all into finding my sister. In hopes of finding what was taken from me that night, and putting back together the family that had been lost. But the harder I looked the more I began to realize that what I was looking for was not lost to me at all. What I was looking for I'd willingly given up when I walked away from you in that hospital in France."
"Antonio, really you don't-"
"Angel I didn't expect that you would put your life on hold for me, but-"
Without allowing him to finish that sentence I threw myself in his arms and kissed him. Letting all of the love I felt for him flow into that kiss. We kissed for a moment and then Antonio broke the kiss and pulled back.
"Angel, you ruined it." Antonio said with exasperation.
"What?" I asked smoothing his hair back from his face.
"I had this whole speech worked out on why you should take me back and you just ruined it by being easy," Antonio said with a grin.
"You can tell me over lunch." I said with a grin. Antonio smiled stepping back to stare at me. His smile then quickly turned to a frown as he squinted his eyes at me.
"Angel, you look kind of different." Antonio said staring hard at my figure. I decided to have a little fun with him.
"It's my hair, I straightened it. Why, do you like it?" I asked patting the side of my head.
"No, now don't take this wrong because you still look good but you look as if you've gotten a little thick," Antonio said staring down at my midsection.
"Hmm, you think so?" I asked with a smile. I watched Antonio face transform from one of confusion to one of understanding. It was like watching a star explode.
"Are you having a baby?" He asked with a look of horror on his face. I laughed wickedly at his expression.
"No, we're going to have a baby," I said holding my breath while I waited for his reaction.
For a moment he looked dumbfounded from my news and without warning he grabbed my face and began kissing me all over again. Being pregnant my emotions was all over the place, I didn't know if I wanted to laugh from joy or cry with relief. We were so caught up in our moment we didn't even mind when two patients lightly shoved us out of the way.
"Ewe, is that Dr. Nichols daughter kissing that Mexican?" I heard one of the patients whisper loudly to the other one.
"Yeah, girl I think it is." The other patient whispered back.
"He's not Mexican, he's Cuban." I yelled happily after them.
"I am half Mexican, Angel. Remember, on my father's side." Antonio corrected.
"Whatever." One of the patients said with an attitude before disappearing into the clinic. Floating on a cloud I let Antonio guide me to the parking lot of the clinic.
"How did you know where to find me?" I asked bringing us to a stop in front of my car.
"Tiger told me you'd be here." He replied with a serious expression on his face.
"Really?" I asked doubtfully. Antonio grinned a boyish grin that I just couldn't get enough of and shook his head.
"Nah, mami told me where to find you."
"I knew she was spying on me," I said narrowing my eyes and pointing my finger at Antonio. "And she didn't tell you about the baby?"
"Not a word, she mainly talked about you in passing, but that's all. I think she did it to drive me crazy, but in the end I guess it worked because my thoughts never strayed far from you."
"And my thoughts never left you," I said seriously, staring up into his eyes. "Are you here to stay Antonio, because I may have been able to let you go once, but a second time is just not happening?"
"I'm not living without you, I don't wanna be freeeee!" He sang off key.
"Boy," She laughed.
He grinned, before his expression turned serious. "I'm not going anywhere, but I'll always continue to look for my sister. However, never again will I put you or us on hold. You're a part of me and without you I'm less than the man I was always meant to be, the man I never thought I could be, the man I see staring back at me every time I look into your eyes."
"Antonio." I sighed, moved by what he said. "Let's go home."
"Angel, I already am." I smiled and disarmed the car alarm to my car.
"Angel, my car, you got it fixed?" Antonio asked as he gazed down at my brand new Camaro with unabashed lust in his eyes.
"No, I just bought one that looked like yours, see." I said pointing to the vanity plates that read Daddy's Angel. Antonio smiled and kissed me again and whispered softly into my ear, "And you always will be."