Take Me Back | ✔️

1. SHE'S BACK

I RIPPED the earpiece away from my ear and throw it lightly on the table. My eyes gazed at the time and noticed that it was already five in the morning.

              No time for sleep now.

              I walked to the refrigerator to found a long note placed on it with a magnet. I took it off and read the note from Sean and Adri.

DO NOT BE MAD AT US! We fed him chocolate but just a tiny piece! Maybe about two bars of it. Don't worry, we regret it. He got all hyper and destroyed the ugly vase you bought for humor reasons. He ate some pasta and chicken for dinner. And then he just passed out by ten. We left by eleven just to be sure he's really asleep.

Call us next time when you need someone to watch over him again. We enjoy being with him. :)

Also, he wants some bacon for breakfast. He told us to tell you that.

- S & A

              Expect my brother and his wife-slash-my-best-friend, Adri, to feed a seven-year-old kid, Gabriel, two bars of chocolate and say that it was just a tiny piece. I'm sure that Adri got mad at him (I'm definitely assuming that it was Sean's fault, he has a way to spoil the kid) about that since we have the same definition of "tiny piece".

              Sean keeps and absolutely loves spoiling Gabriel and I couldn't figure out whether it was because: 1.) to really spoil him so he feels happy or 2.) to get on my nerves. I've talked to Adri about him many times and she would always say that she tried to stop him but then we all know no one can actually stop my twin brother from doing anything.

              I jogged upstairs quietly and opened Gabe's room, only to find no one on the bed. I knew that if he wasn't here, then he was inside my room which is where I found him, sound asleep, a quiet snore passing through his lips, and his hands around my pillow.

              I couldn't help but smile at this handsome kid on my bed. I laid down on the bed, carefully taking away the pillow from his arms and then moving him closer to me.

              "Mama?" He whispered.

              I shook my head and ran my fingers through his hair. "Shh," I replied, softly. "Go back to sleep."

              "Okay," he nodded, moving closer to me even more, then placing his right arm around my waist. "I love you."

              "I love you too, sweetie," I leaned my head to him, kissing the top of his head.

              Yes, Gabriel is my son. I did have him while I was still in college—not my finest moment, but I wouldn't trade him for the world. I never discussed him to anyone except Sean, Adri, Ruvée, and Alex because they were the only ones that weren't going to judge me or my kid and I knew that they did still love me and the second their eyes landed on him, they already loved Gabe.

              No one exactly knew why I disappeared when I was so close to reach the third year of my college. Well, this was why. When I came back, they were all questions about what happened to me, especially Hayley, my dorm roommate, she kept asking but all I said that there were things that I needed to take care of. After three months of asking, she eventually knew that I wasn't going to tell her anything so she gave up. We both went to parties but, as always, I was the one who was always sober. I never drank, got Hayley and some of her friends out of the party earlier than they wanted, and went home every night no matter how much the distance just to make sure I was there for him.

              I was a mom no matter what. So I have to make sure that I act like one even if my kid is away.

              It became hard but no matter what had happened, it was really the best college years of all. I got gifted a beautiful boy, I finished college at a slow pace, and then I immediately got a job waiting for me after I graduated.

              Staring at the clock sitting at the bedside table, it was already six in the morning when it felt like I was in bed for about ten minutes. I had to get up, make breakfast, and drive him to school.

              Shaking him slowly, he stirred awake immediately. Gabe was always a light sleeper—I guess he got that from me. He opened his eyes and I see the most gorgeous hazel eyes I have ever seen. "You have to get up and get ready for school. It's almost seven, we're going to be late!"

              He nodded silently, his hand raising to rub his right eye. I knew what that action meant. Immediately, I pulled it down to his side and gave him a look. "Oh no, you're not going back to sleep. Come on, get up."

              "I don't want to," he whined, closing those light, hazel eyes again.

              "Fine," I stood up and went for the door. "Don't be too upset when mommy eats all of the bacon, okay?"

              And then I closed it.

              Three. Two.

              One.

              I heard shuffling in the bed and his light footsteps, it was an indication for me to run downstairs to finally get start on the bacon right away.

              "Bacooon!" I heard him yell, running to his room to get ready.

              I laughed at him.

Stopping in front of the school, he leaned in to me, gave me a kiss in the cheek, and then his bear hug. "Bye ma, see you after school!"

              "Wait, wait!" His hand slid off the handle and turned to me. My eyes narrowed at him. "Gabriel Alexander if your teacher calls me again to tell me that you've been causing trouble then I will be一"

              "Ma!" He yelled, cutting me off, and offered me a weak smile. "I love you, okay? I promise not to get in trouble again."

              I raised a brow. "Uh-huh, I've heard that before."

              "Mom!" He giggled, giving me one last hug. "Bye."

              "Bye," I said.

              He got out, started walking to the entrance of the elementary school but before he goes in, he turned around, as usual, gave me a wide grin, waved goodbye, and ran inside.

              Hearing my phone go off inside my bag, I pressed at the earpiece on me and waited for the person on the other line to speak. "You on your way?"

              It was Alex.

              "Yeah, I just dropped of Gabe first," I informed him. "Why? Is there another case that we need to look into?"

              He hummed in response. "You really, really need to be here. It's about Jason Stein."

              Not many people know about Jason Stein, because those who do are dead, except for me. I've hunted him for about nine years now, and I still haven't found him. All I could find were the dead people he left, including my father's and step-mother's.

              Cops thought it was just a simple car accident where the brake simply didn't work and I let it think that way because when it was personally checked by Alex and I, we found out that it was tampered with, and the fire that burned their bodies didn't come from the tank of the car—no, someone waited somewhere for them to crash and have their seats drenched in gasoline, and lit on fire.

              It wasn't where I started hunting him. It was just a job then, but after what he did, it was revenge. All those years, I definitely hope I'm given something better to work with, something that I could finally tie his ass to the ground and serve justice for Misty and my day.

              I'm a mother now, but first, I have to be the daughter who fights for her family.

              "I'm on my way."