PART XXVI

"Natara." She turned and walked to the woman walking to her and hugged her kindly.

Maria Susanna kissed her cheek before pulling away and send unsuspicious smile at her.

"Why are you awake earlier? Were the drinks not strong as the ones you used to have."

She rolled her eyes putting space in between them. "Just how much do you know about me?"

"Apparently not enough as how a parent should know of their child." She smacked her lips together because she knew what she was going to say might sound insensitive.

"Well, If you hadn't abandoned me beside a car tire many years ago that wouldn't have been a case at all." Maria Susanna lowered her head. Because no matter the reason she had of leaving her beside a car tire, late at night with a wounded cheek. She will never try to excuse herself for it in any kind.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm just kidding, so I wanted to talk to you about something." She quickly changed the subject not wanting to kill the morning vibe of the woman beside her by guilting her in her past.

"Do you mind chatting over morning food?"

"Not at all, I will go get my husband." Natara beamed at her mother and turned around to walk back to her house but she remembered something and stopped.

She composed herself, breathed in and out. She calmed her mind and became one with her soul and sent a voice.

"Wake up." Aaron opened his eyes but no finding someone there beside him in the bed confused him and he started believing that maybe he was dreaming about his beautiful wife's voice.

He ignored the voice and closed his eyes again but the voice came back through his head.

"Wake up Aaron, I'm having breakfast with my mom. Hurry and come over?" He groaned waking up realizing what was happening.

"When did you leave? Your side of the bed is so cold." He said back to her waking up fully and rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"It wasn't that long, just hurry I'm hungry and I have something to say to my mom."

He nodded pulling the sheets away from him. "I will be right there."

Natara walked back to her mother, who smirked at her.

"You are getting better and improving in yourself beautifully," Natara just shrugged.

They sat down and the two women engaged in a heated conversation as they set breakfast on the table in Maria Susanna's backyard with a perfect view of the morning sun.

Aaron being a man of his words and a man of actions. He didn't delay in joining his mother-in-law and his beautiful young wife.

His marriage to the outside would be highly illegal but now that he had a taste of Natara, he never saw himself with anybody else apart from her.

He first walked to his wife to where she sat, on the right of her mother shining as beautiful as the morning sun.

She turned to look at him and smiled brightly at him. Maria Susanna was quiet enjoying the interaction of the people in front of her with loving eyes.

Nothing pleased her than seeing the two people in front of her getting closer and closer at each passing day.

Aaron walked to Natara and kissed her cheek, "Good morning, princess." He whispered the last word to her which brought butterfly feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Allowing herself to smile from left to right, she replied back.

"Morning." He nodded and looked back at Mrs. Darker.

He pulled from Natara and bowed down to her. "Good morning Mrs. Darker."

"Morning Aaron, sit and have morning food with us, we've been waiting for you." He sat on the seat beside Natara.

"Now that I have the both of you here, I would like to say to you how much I love seeing you both like that." She said smiling to them.

Aaron was like her child cause she took him in at a young age and raised him and then Natara was her real child that she birthed even though she didn't have the privilege of raising her as a mother, she still loved her with everything she had.

"Can we eat?" Natara asked making both Aaron and her mother laugh at her eagerness.

"Yeah, we can and you can tell me what you wanted to say to me too."

She clapped her hands feeling glad for finally getting to what she wanted.

"I want to practice and develop this… Uhm, you know, whatever you call it."

It took her mother some time to process and hideously let out a relieved sigh. Somehow she was suspicious that Natara knew.

Putting her worries away, she beamed at her daughter cheerfully. "This is great, you just made me happy."

She was smiling to her mother when Aaron leaned in again and kissed her cheek again.

She turned to look at him and stared him in the eyes.

She could feel all he wanted to express within his eyes because they held the strongest feelings than words would ever express.

"Are you happy, too?" She finally asked him and he chuckled.

"I am." She leaned in to him and kissed him on his lips.

They kept the kiss cute and quick because of Maria Susanna's presence with them.

They pulled back and she said again.

"I want to start as soon as possible because, I feel like I can't wait no more."

"You could start now if you want." She turned to stare at Aaron as she answered her mother.

"Let's do it now then."

***************

BACK TO THE CITY

"Thank you, Rose." The old woman smiled at the young generation in front of her.

"You are welcome, sweetie." She smiled at the girl and turned to Gabriel. "Bring this girl more often and do bring yourself too."

"Goodbye granny." Gabriel leaned in and hugged the little old lady in his arms. "I love you."

"I love you too, sweet boy."

They pulled back and she signed keilla over to her. "Come here, too." Keilla also walked in her opened arms and hugged the old lady back.

"Please, do visit us more and make him too." She whispered in her ear before pulling back and with a smile Keilla nodded.

Gabriel reached for keilla's hand and pulled her out with him while waving his grandma bye. "Tell grandpa I said hii."

He said and walked further more without waiting for a reply from his grandma, who stayed behind scoffing at herself.

They walked in his car and he turned to her. "I'm going to drop you at your house."

Keilla frowned turning to look at him as she put the seatbelt on herself.

"I thought we were going to talk to your mom together."

"No, I doubt she would say anything in your presence."

She shrugged and replied back.

"You don't know maybe I could convince her with my puffy eyes."

"Maybe those could work on your mom but not on mine, I think mine will do the job." Keilla patted him mockingly. "Your eyes are as hard as a rock, I doubt they have puffiness in them."

"Oh, that's so offensive."

Keilla laughed. "And that was my intention." She said to him and he chuckled with her too.

"Little girl, you sure are merciless."

Gabriel said but deep in his heart he was glad he was able to pull a laugh out of the girl.

He knew she had been trying to pull it together but he knew she was hurting badly.

He started the car and drove away.

"But still, I am taking you home, I will talk to my mom alone."

"Can you still let me come with you, I won't get out of the car, I promise." Gabriel frowned finding the idea ridiculous. "No, I can not leaving you alone in the car, what if… No, just no. Go home keilla. I will call you and tell you how it went."

She just had no any other choice because she also found it reasonable to not go with him because she doubt his mother would say anything to him when she was there.

She sat back quietly and allowed Gabriel to take her home, they reached and she left the car without saying anything.

Even though she understood him, she wondered why he bothered to talk to her when he clearly knew they weren't going to go to the end of it together.

Gabriel allowed her to leave without saying anything to her too.

He just believed her mother would not say anything with a Queens with him.

He drove to his house and walked in, his father and step mother was no where to be found and he found himself liking it like that.

He walked back to the living room where he heard noises coming from.

He found his mother sitting on the couch busy with a reality show.

He walked in closer but she didn't budge to turn around, he cleared his throat but she didn't hear him too.

It took him to call her name a couple of times to earn her attention.

"Mom."

"Yes, baby." She said normally like she would answer but putting it on a second thought, she turned and stared at her son.

"Oh my Gabriel, is that you?" She got up on her feet and walked to him.

She pulled him in a hug and held him so tightly.

"I can't believe you are a man now." She held him for sometime before she pulled away and cupped his cheeks.

"I'm so happy to see you."

Gabriel nodded not knowing what to say. Was he happy to see her? He didn't know.

It's not like he was familiar with the woman standing in front of him, apart from knowing him from pictures as his mother and other fading memories of them in the past years. He knew nothing else of her.

"Why won't you say something? Aren't you happy to see me?" He looked at her and shook his head.

"It's not that."

"Then what is it? Come talk to me, how you've been doing." She said leading him to where she was sitting and sat him beside her.

"Are you coming from school? I didn't realize you came home this earlier?" He shook his head again. "I didn't go to school."

"Where were you then?" She asked and turned to decrease the sound of the show she was watching.

"I… I heard something earlier and—it's been weighing on my mind a lot, I uh I just can't focus on something else." Barbra froze but she didn't let her son know. She could roughly guess what was that that he heard.

"What was that?" He looked her in the eyes and said to her while maintaining her eye contact. "Your conversation with dad."

Barbra stood and cursed. "God damn it Gabriel, you shouldn't be eavesdropping on other people's conversation." She looked away running her fingers through her hair before turning to him.

"What did you hear?"

He sighed. "A lot of things."

"What are those things?" She snapped at him and he looked at her surprisedly, but he knew this was not going to be a good conversation in the first place hence why he did not want keilla here.

Barbra realized what she just did and cursed back in her mind, she couldn't believe what Gabriel did, he shouldn't have done what he did.

"I'm sorry Gabriel, it's just I am so stressed right now because of what you did. You really shouldn't have eavesdropped on our conversation."

"Yeah well I'm glad I did and I want to know everything clearly." Hearing that caused her so much pain and fear in the pit of her heart.

She sat back down and let our thick breaths.

"Mom please tell me what's going on because I also deserve to know." She held her head in her hands and sighed.

"It's for your safety to not know, Gabriel." She said pulling away to look at him.

"I don't care, I want to know everything, I want to know where my elder brother is, I want to know all about Natara and her whereabouts just…just tell me the truth is all I'm asking for?"

"How do y…you know of Aaron?" Gabriel scoffed. "So my elder brother's name is Aaron." He said and turned to stare at her mother who looked lost, confused and a lot more at once.

"I know a lot more mom, the only thing you could do is spare me the bullshit of lying to me and tell me what's go on cause if you don't. I will know it one way or another as I found out about Aaron, I'm giving you a chance now." He looked at her mother as she looked out of place.

He never believed keilla when he told her about his brother, he did not even give it a second of his time but now that he had his name, he feared and wondered what was going on at the same time.

He waited for his mother to say something and waited, waited... and waited but got nothing.

He suddenly got the message that she wasn't going to talk and stood up getting ready to leave before he heard a dazed voice speak.

"Natara is not a biological daughter of the Queens." She said and Gabriel just rolled his eyes after hearing that information. He knew and he knew so many knew like him, I mean who would not know Natara was a blonde while others weren't, not even Mr. or Mrs. Queens were.

She was different from all other Queens.

"Her real mother is a good friend of our family through our ancestors. After giving birth she got into problems with her husband and she left him but he wouldn't stop looking for her and Natara. She asked me for help and I arranged for her to get the baby to the Queens because with them I knew the baby would be safe and his father would never get to her."

"What does that have to do with my brother?"

She looked at him and lowered her head again.

"Maria after leaving the baby with the Queens, it was not a lifetime decision because at the right time, she was going to come back and take her back. So, she needed someone from this world there with her to be by Natara's side when it was time for her to go back to her."

Gabriel frowned not understanding the theory behind that. How can you just give your son away just like that because you didn't want someone to be lonely, how ironic is that?

"How does that make sense?"

"Gabriel, Maria and this family have the kind of friendship that isn't found in this world, in this generations, your generation." He itched his teeth taking her words jokingly.

"So, where is Natara now? And who was the man who has Keitha? I know you know that some man took another daughter of the Queens."

"That man is Natara's father and the husband of my friend, Gabriel whatever you are doing please stop." She looked up to him, staring right in his eyes because she wanted the next words she was going to say to be heard very loud and clear.

"If you are trying to know more about this please stop. Listen, Diego Darker is not someone you can just mess with. The only thing I can tell you is that your brother and Natara are both fine and safe but for Keitha, I am sorry I can't say the same. Just stop because I doubt the man would just sit by idly if he were to catch you snooping. Gabriel my son, I told you everything because I want you to stop whatever you are up to, this man is so dangerous not because he drinks bloods of the fleshy but because of a lot more." Gabriel was frightened by now.

Barbra stood and walked to where he was and rested her hands on his shoulders.

She wanted to make him know and understand the depth of how Diego was not one to even think about messing with.

"Promise me you will stop and keep whatever I just told you to yourself, saying it won't help whoever you will be saying it to, it will just put the person in danger that's all. My son, I want you to understand the depth of this situation. Natara's father is a monster who is not scared of killing his own daughter for immortality, promise me please?"

He let out a deep defeated sigh before biting his lower lip because apart from getting confused even more and at least learning about his elder brother's situation nothing else he got he could say was useless. He was just freaked.

He looked in his mother's eyes and said.

"I promise."

And like that he knew something needed to be stopped for everyone's safety.

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