Episode 6

Uncle George tried to speak but Uncle Stephen beat him to it. Uncle George had this sympathetic look on his face.

"Of course you are adopted. What? Did you think you were a full blood of this family? Please," the words came out of his mouth filled with hate.

I looked at him with a pained expression on my face. God! I hate this man! Uncle George turned me towards him.

"Daniel, please go into your room. We will talk after I am done talking with your uncles, okay?"

Tears began to fall from my eyes. "So, it's true I am adopted. You knew, didn't you? You knew all along," I said, my voice breaking up at the thought of my favorite uncle lying to me.

"Daniel, please listen to me…"

"Ugh, why are we wasting our time with this brat? We all know he is adopted because our brother told us about it. No need to deny it anymore." Uncle Stephen said and just laughed.

I was beginning to get angry. I was hurting and this man whom I call my uncle would not stop adding more salt to injury. What does he want from me?

Uncle George gave Uncle Stephen a glare."Stop this Stephen. Can't you see you are hurting the boy more with your words? What do you want?" he said angrily.

"Someone needs to tell the boy the truth. Since you are too scared to break his little heart, I did it for you. There is no need to hide the truth from him?" my uncle said in disgust.

I could not take it anymore so I ran up to my room and locked the door behind me. I fell onto my bed and cried my eyes out. Why did my parents lie to me? Why didn't they tell me the truth about my birth? I cried and cried till the tears stopped coming.

I heard a knock on my door after a few minutes. "Daniel, please open the door. I know you are in here. Please Daniel."

I was feeling very tired from doing nothing but crying. I just wanted him to go away. I decided to ignore him till he gets tired and leaves. He knocked again and again, pleading with me to open the door. I could feel the sadness and guilt in his voice and it made me feel bad instantly. I slowly got out of bed and opened the door.

"Oh, Daniel!" he gasped and hugged me tightly. I began to cry again in his arms. He held me close while I cried. He led me into my room and we sat on the bed.

"Do you feel better now?" he asked me, when he felt I was no longer crying.

I nodded. "Are they gone?"

"Yes."

"Uncle, please tell me. Am I really adopted? Am I not the son of my father?"

He shook his head. "No, you are not."

I sighed deeply. "Then who am I? Where do I come from?"

"My brother, Emmanuel and his wife Mabel, had tried so many years after they were married to have children. It turns out that Mabel had a serious illness that prevented her from having children. So, my brother and her decided to adopt a child. You were just a week old when they brought you to the house. I remember the excitement in my brother's voice when he called me to tell me about you. We all came to this house to see you. When I saw you, I was so happy. You were the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. But my older brothers did not like the idea of an adopted son in the family. That is why they… "

"...they never liked me. All the hate was because I am adopted. I never asked to be adopted. Why would they hate me just because of that?" I asked.

"Listen, that does not matter. What matters now is that you know the truth. I don't care what the others think of you because for me, you are my nephew and will always be." uncle said and hugged me again.

"You will never leave me alone, right?" I asked him.

"No, I won't. I will always be here to protect you and I won't ever leave you alone. So don't think because of what you know now, I am going to treat you differently." he poked my nose playfully, making me giggle.

"You know, we should call your school and let them know what has happened. I don't think you can go to school now, at least, not this week."

"But, I have an exam coming up next month. I can go back to school to study for it, right?" I began to protest.

"I know you have an exam but I am doing this so that when you go back to school, you will fully be able to concentrate on your studies. It is too fresh for you to be among people now. And knowing how sensitive you are, I would feel at ease if you were home with me." Uncle said.

"Okay. But, what about the restaurant? Who will take care of it?"

"Roland will take care of it. I trust him and besides, he has been working for me ever since I opened the restaurant. He is the best man for the job."

"And what about your house?"

"Well, I guess I will have to bring in a few of my things just to sort out what needs to be done. After that, I will see if I should move back there with you or stay here."

I smiled at him. My uncle had all these figured out and I was getting all concerned about it. I hugged him again, while he sighed in relief.

Everything was okay throughout the week. My uncle moved some of his things to the house and stayed with me just like he said. Tina, the housekeeper and John, the security man had both been told about my parents demise. Tina cried so much when she heard the news and John just shook his head when uncle broke the news to them. Both of them became very worried that they would lose their jobs, but Uncle George assured them that they wouldn't.

Tina was very sympathetic towards me. She would come to my room and comfort me. She was like my older sister and I loved being around her. John also made sure to make me laugh all the time. He is a very funny man. I could not believe the love these people showed me. The love they showed me touched me in ways, I cannot describe.