NINETEEN

"Father...I need to speak with you..."Lee said.

Looking to see his sister, nervously looking away and fumbling with her fingers, he gained no response, but continued,"Father, I snuck out of the temple, several times to meet someone...a guy, he was the better half of me and actually made me feel more loved than you actually ever did...I know it was wrong, on many levels, but I loved him, I truly did...and as I already assume you know, I met mother."

"So that's the reason..."A low voice spoke.

Standing up from his seat, Mack walked towards his eldest son and asked,"I feared this would happen, not knowing she'd find a way to poison your mind even in her absence!"

He stood right before Lee then spoke,"So, you choose your mother over me, after she abandoned you, left you when you needed her most and corrupted you, which you confessed."

"Enough with the lies father!"He yelled.

There was dead silence in the room as he spoke,"Mother didn't abandon us, I was there when you kicked her out for telling me a simple story!"

"She was polluting you! Turning you after the ways of her father!"

"You are polluting us! You have trained us to fear you our whole lives and made us feel like we were worth nothing to you and I'm not even the one to talk as there were many others like me, it is my sister who suffered the most at your hand. I know of all the days she spent crying herself to sleep, cursing her own mother for the lies YOU told her, the days she could eat nothing, not for a fast or religion, but because you wanted her disciplined, and you think you're in the right?! If anything, you're more than her father than she is!"

"Enough, Lee...please..."Ruby said,"... he's still your father...Mack, I know you were scared of what I could make the children into but believe me, those fears haunted me, night and day as I prayed for them to be returned to me, I prayed for you, to be returned to me, I still love you Mack...more than you know..."

Mack looked at her for a few seconds, then said,"Out..."

"Mack, please..."She began.

"I said get out!! Never set foot here again and you, you are no more my son..."

"And what? I am no more your daughter? If they go, I go, I can't be separated from them to be in your hands again, not anymore."

Mack began to chuckle, then burst out laughing, before he spoke,"And where would you go and live without my help?! In the shelter?! An orphanage?!"

"They'll live with me.."Ruby said.

"Apart from the fact that you no longer have legal rights over them."

"But I still have biological rights over them, everything comes second... you've changed Mack, I don't see the man I loved anymore..."

She turned with the two children and walked out as Mack threw a tantrum, then began to laugh like a maniac, meeting Scarlet Sapphira again, they went home...

He doorbell rang and Rose went to answer it and dropped her jaw, tears of joy flowing and Lee and Akane...Clancy Brair Rose...Red Briar also began to cry, their mother had a twin sister.

They ran into her arms as she hugged and kissed them, then looked at Ruby...and her children, who joined in on the hug.

She called for everyone, their children had returned.

Lee was stunned when he saw the triplets...they were beautiful, he looked to his side, then pulled off his sister's wig and said,"You look better this way."

She smiled at him till he heard someone mention his name.

He looked at a handsome man he couldn't recognise as he proceeded.

He then asked,"Mack, is it really you?"

"Yeah...who ..."

"It's me, remember, Rollie Pollie?"

Lee widened his eyes, he had grown so much...taller than himself...

"Junior!"

The moment Junior showed his true emotions was priceless, we had never seen him so happy before, it was heart warming.

I suggested that we threw a party to celebrate their return and invited all sorts of people, the old, the young, the boys, the girls, basically anyone who we found in the less fortunate sides of town...it was a common custom.

Ruby spoke with her children of the reason she fell in love with Mack in the first place, his sacrifice for her, his love, kindness, joviality... everything and they began to say why she chose him over me as I played patty cake with some kids.

Lucy looked at her phone and was about to call Luis, but decided not to, he'd call if he needed...

***

A man walked through a grassy field, to see a mountainside view of potato vines.

He walked to the address he was looking for and knocked the door and an old woman came to meet him with some notice in the background.

He took a deep breath and spoke, this was the last one on his list.

The woman's brows furrowed as she walked back in, after a few seconds, she came...Lucille...

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lucille's pretty eyes filled with tears as Luis said,"I've finally found you...my daughter..."

She hugged him tightly as they both wept, then he pulled back, seeing her beauty marred by scars of the past.

His expression changed to one of horror as he asked,"Did HE do this to you?"

"Oh no, it's nothing..."

"Lucille, please tell me who hurt you."

"You wouldn't be able to find them."

"Try me..."

She was silent for a few seconds then burst into tears, begging him not to hurt the bandits who raided the church she built and attacked her, she had already forgiven them, she just hoped he could too, but his eyes were blinded by hate as he said,"We have to go..."

"But I can't, I haven't finished my mission yet."

"Then I'll wait, how long will it take? A month?"

She shook her head as he continued,"Two?"

She shook her head again as he continued,"A year? Two? Five?"

"The rest of my life..."

"Then I'll go with you..."He said, determined.

"Please go back, they need you, your family needs you."

"You are my family Lucille, you always have been, since the day I kidnapped you and used you for ransom, the day I had to give you off to Clark just to save your mother...the day you said you loved me..."

She cupped his cheek as he spoke with fresh tears,"I can't lose you again, I spent too long chasing a vain goal, too long away from Lucy, away from you, I don't want to lose you again."

She smiled and wiped his tears then said,"We may be apart, but the love we have for each other will forever grow... I'll always love you, whether I'm present, or not..."

"But please be present with me, we could be a whole family again..."

"My place is here..."

He sighed, then brought out a large bundle of money in the local currency and said,"At least take this, to care for yourself."

"It's too much, I can't take this from you."

"Please..."

She couldn't look at him as she took it, but he lifted her head by the chin and said,"I'll come again to visit as soon as possible."

"I may not be here much longer..."She said.

"Then I'll find you again..."

Leaving the house, where Lucille cared for widowed or wrongly divorced women and their children in the centre of the Peruvian mountains, he wiped a tear and for the first time in his life, looked up, and smiled...