Wildflower (Chapter 22)

Chapter 22

 

            Wildflower went into the kitchen when she got home; she needed to drink something before she went up to bed. Her feet were officially never going to let her wear stilettos again so the cold floor felt good on her bare feet. Carmen had told her she shouldn’t have driven them home barefoot but since Carmen was too drunk to really do anything about it she did it anyway. She was surprised the kitchen light was on; she figured one of the kids left it on. But then she heard a noise coming from outside so she peeked out the door. It took a second for her to fully comprehend what she was seeing. Nicolas was outside with her brothers and his brothers and they were playing basketball and laughing. What had happened while she was gone? Her cell phone rang and she absently answered it.

            “Hey you wouldn’t happen to know where my husband and child are?” Christina asked her.

            “Actually I do know where Isaiah is,” she said still staring outside. Then her phone beeped, it was Brooke. “Hold on Chris,” she said and clicked over to Brooke.

            “I’m in an empty apartment, why is that?” Brooke asked her.

            “Hold on I’m connecting my calls,” she said then pushed a few buttons. “Ok ladies your men are over here and they are hanging out with Nick and his brothers.”

            “Hanging out? Doing what?” Brooke asked.

            “Playing basketball,” she answered. “I’m looking at them right now, Ricky, Isaiah, Jay, Ivan and Van are out there with Nick, Jose and Delanoz.”

            “Seriously?” Christina asked.

            “I wouldn’t believe it if I wasn’t looking at it but they are laughing too.”

            “Wait Ivan is hanging out over there and not killing Nick?” Brooke asked.

            “Yup and wow I have not seen Ricky do anything fun in forever.”

            “So have you seen my daughter?”

            “Nope,” Wildflower said then she turned to see Sugar coming in the kitchen.

            “Isn’t that weird?” Sugar asked when she came over to look outside.

            “That’s what I was telling Chris and Brooke.”

            “Tell Chris I have Ariela asleep in my room,” Sugar said.

            “Sugar has your baby Chris,” Wildflower told her.

            “Ok I’m going to be a nagging wife and call him to tell him to bring his a*s home its almost 2 in the morning,” Christina said. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

            “Bye,” the both said.

            “I think I’ll be doing the same,” Brooke said. “I’m drunk and easy and Jay isn’t here, there is something so wrong with that.”

            “Bye Brooke.”

            “Bye,” Brooke said then hung up.

            “They went out to the bar together,” Sugar informed. “Then they came back and they were out there laughing and talking like friends, weird right?”

            “Very, why are you still up?”

            “Summer time Tia, I don’t have a bed time,” Sugar said smiling.

            “Why are you so happy? You weren’t with Evan again where you?” Wildflower asked, she was silently praying the answer was no.

            “Uh no, I told you that is beyond over, he is in love with somebody else.”

            “Who?”

            “I should let them tell you but I thinks its cute,” Sugar said. She sat up on the counter before she divulged her secret. “He’s in love with Sammie.”

            “Sammie? As is you cousin Sammie and my God daughter Sammie?” She asked completely shocked and Sugar nodded. “And does she know what the two of you have been doing?”

            “No, I’m not going to tell her because I don’t want her to think she has to have sex with him or something. He’s the first boy she’s ever kissed.”

            “Hold on, kissed? Why do I feel like I’m running a brothel in my house? You and Evan and Sammie and Evan and Marli and Dom, do you know how this looks?”

            “Nobody really knows, btw I thought me and Evan was supposed to be a secret? How does Ivan know?” Sugar asked looking at her suspiciously.

            “Oh that sorry it might have slipped out, but they pick on Evan and say he’s going to die a virgin. Meanwhile he’s obviously not a virgin, but Sammie is and that means I’m going to have to talk to them. I thought having all of you together would be good for our families but I bet if I went up to peek in Sonya’s room that she wouldn’t be alone in bed. Do none of you find it weird that we are all going to be one family?” Wildflower asked and Sugar just shrugged.

            “In my defense my fling started a long time ago, but I will spare you the details. Besides we are going to be related by marriage it’s not like we are blood related. And Marli will be gone at the end of the summer so their thing will be so over,” Sugar told her. “So does Uncle Nick know about me and Evan?”

            “Yes, he made me tell him but as you see he’s not freaking out about it. We’ll have to ease him in gently to this Evan and Sammie thing so that he doesn’t have a heart attack. That would you know ruin my wedding,” she sighed.

            “You’re leaving Ivan and Jose to watch us while you’re gone?”

            “Maybe, but Tammy will be here to keep the partying to a minimum. I know that’s what will happen, don’t all kids do that when their parents leave town?”

            “Probably, but you aren’t our parents just the young aunt and uncle that love us and trust us. I’m over partying and drinking, I am going to be a model student this year.”

            “Good, I’m proud of you for growing up so much,” Wildflower said. “Does talking to Ivan help you? I seem to find you always leaning on him.”

            “Oh, well yeah he’s really nice to me and last night Katrina was being such a b***h and I like cried all over him.”

            “It’s my fault that she came to your room, she apologized to me and I thought maybe she should talk to you.”

            “I don’t blame you, she’s manipulative and don’t you dare trust her. She wants revenge and you are so going to be her target, nobody can act against Uncle Nick. That w***e should know better,” Sugar sighed.

            “He says he’s not going to let that happen but I don’t even care, as long as I have you, nothing she does matters. She can tell the world whatever she wants, but I want you here and safe and that’s what is important to me,” Wildflower told her. At that Sugar got down from the counter and hugged her.

            “Can I call you mommy?”

            “I’m too young to be your mommy.”

            “That’s not going to stop me.”

            “Of course, you never listen.”

            “Hello ladies,” Jose called when the men came in. They all laughed and were obviously pretty drunk.

            “You told on me,” Isaiah said to her shaking his head.

            “Your wife wants you home,” she replied.

            “I almost forgot you married her,” Van said.

            “It’s nothing different from before she’s still a nag,” Isaiah said.

            “Have fun with that,” Delanoz said. “I have an appointment.” With a wave he headed off.

            “Sugar, might I have my daughter back?” He asked and she nodded and followed her out of the kitchen.

            The other guys said their goodbyes and they all headed out, leaving Wildflower alone with Nicolas. She noticed he actually looked happy and peaceful, something that seemed to be impossible unless they had sex. He was a man who was always planning and plotting and strategizing but for once he just looked realized. It was a strange and she also found it sexy. And she loved that he was making an effort with her brothers.

            “So what was all that?” She asked him when they were alone.

            “That was us getting along, it was Ricky’s and Jose’s idea and I’m surprised it worked out so well,” Nicolas told her. “So did you have fun?”

            “Yeah, I wouldn’t have thought Carlynn was so wild, she was dancing on the bar,” she told him. It had been an interesting sight and somehow she was talked into doing it too. “I’m liking your cousins more than your sister and mother.”

            “Its good that you found friends in this family, I was worried they would all dislike you because of me.”

            “Well only Carlynn, Persephone and Kati and now you are friendly with my brothers, so it’s a good thing I told them to come over more often. When are you going back to work?” She asked, she liked having him home but at the same time she knew he was growing restless.

            “Don’t know, maybe I will come on your Parisian shopping spree so I can witness the damage you’re going to do to my credit,” he shrugged.

            “We don’t have to go,” she said feeling a pang of guilt.

            “Baby I don’t care about the money; you know that I was joking. But I might come; we might as well just take all the kids. Family vacation and I might steal Delanoz’s credit card for the occasion.”

            “Sounds good,” she nodded. “So I thought I told you to be naked when I got home? I had plans for us.”

            “We are alone now, so let’s go,” he said taking her hand.

 

            “I really need to go, I have to work,” he told her. He didn’t move and neither did she and she liked it that way.

            “You could stay the night and leave in the morning,” she suggested.

            “Sugar I’m thinking we shouldn’t tempt fate,” he said and kissed her. They had been kissing and saying goodnight hidden by the stairs in the entrance hall. His brothers had already left and the house was quiet, she really wanted him to stay.

            “And it isn’t tempting fate now with your hand all over my a*s?”

            “You have clothes on, not that these little shorts should be considered as clothes.”

            “I have an appointment in the afternoon, I could get away after and see you,” she said. “Your sister wouldn’t mind, she knows I like to talk to you.”

            “Maybe, but you know we can’t be seen kissing.”

            “I know but being near you will be enough and I just need to do something semi normal. Staying in the house all the time is driving me crazy, but my wonderful uncle thinks that will keep me out of trouble. I bet he has someone follow me whenever I’m not here, it’s so something he would do,” she sighed. The only thing she missed about living with her mother was her freedom, but she would trade her freedom for her sanity any day.

            “Think he would get mad if he saw us together?”

            “Just hanging out, no, well maybe not it depends on his mood. But like we are now, he would kill you and Jose would help him cover it up,” she said seriously. “Are you sure you really thought this through? I will again stress the fact that he would kill you and he would get away with it.”

            “Having second thoughts?” He asked, she felt like he was definitely not taking her seriously but she was in fact dead serious.

            “If he finds out I would probably be locked in my room, you would be dead.”

            “Why do you think he would kill me?”

            “Because he would.”

            “And has he done something like that in the past?”

            “Well,” she paused. “I actually think he has but they try to keep these type of things from us children.”

            “My sister is going to marry a murderer?” He asked seeming to finally grasp the situation.

            “I wouldn’t say it like that but he would never hurt her, he loves her.”

            “I need to get home so I can sleep at least an hour before I have to work,” he said.

            “Stay with me and you can leave before anybody gets up,” she told him.

            “You know why that’s a bad idea,” he said pulling her closer to him.

            “I promise I will be a good girl and you have nothing to worry about. We are keeping it relatively legal,” she said and he shook his head.

            “Again I say I’m going to Hell for this,” he said and kissed her again. “Would the guard say anything if I was sneaking out of here in a few hours?”

            “No reason to, its Wildflower’s house now and you are her brother. If he asks just say you were tired so you just crashed here, not a big deal. I can even say I showed you to a guest room,” she said hopefully.

            “Fine, I’ll stay but we have to go to sleep like now,” he said. It was hard to not react to his decision, it was a bad idea but she didn’t care. Before they could head upstairs they heard voices coming from down the hall.

            “They must not have gone to bed yet,” she whispered.

            “You are really going to be the death of me,” he whispered.

            Wildflower and Uncle Nick were laughing and coming from the direction of the kitchen. But since Sugar and Ivan were in the corner on the side of the stairs they would never notice them, it was dark. This was proof that sneaking around with Ivan was a very bad idea. She rationalized it by thinking of the fact that he was the one who came to her earlier that day and he kissed her. And it was him that wanted to ‘kiss her goodnight’ before he left. The soon-to-be-wed couple stopped at the bottom of the stairs and from what she could hear they were kissing. With the way they were always all over each other she shouldn’t have been surprised. Their relationship made her long for something more in her own life. She was almost 17 and had a lot of sexual relationships but never love. That was what she wanted and thinking about that made her feel sad, Ivan wasn’t going to love her. He wanted her for her body, like every other man, but she was going to pretend that it wasn’t that way. But why else would Ivan want her? She had seduced him just yesterday and now he wanted to be with her. Thinking really sucked. Finally they went upstairs leaving her and Ivan alone once again.

            “Let’s go up to my room,” she said once she was sure no one was around.

            “Ok,” he said. She led him up to her room and she locked her bedroom door and the bathroom door so Sammie couldn’t get in. “What’s wrong?” He asked when she came to lay with him in bed.

            “Just thinking I want somebody to love me one day, like Wildflower and Uncle Nick. They love each other so much,” she sighed.

            “Yesterday you told me you were in love with me, did you really mean that?”

            “I said that?” She asked completely shocked.

            “Yeah, when I went to get up you told me that but you were half sleep.”

            “If I say that it’s true will you get up and run from me?”

            “You know I don’t think I have ever been told that someone was in love with me before,” he said thoughtfully. “But I don’t want to hurt you and lie to you.”

            “I know you aren’t in love with me too, you don’t have to say it,” she said. Why did she have to feel like crying right now? “Just being with you is enough.”

            “Meet me after your appointment we can go for coffee or something and talk,” he said. She looked up into his eyes, he looked sincere.

            “Yes that sounds good,” she said. He pulled her close to him and kissed her, this was enough for now.

 

 

            Wildflower was sitting on Nicolas’ desk in his home office, waiting. They were supposed to be leaving for the hotel but he had an ‘important business call’. She was going to watch him because if she didn’t she knew she would never get out of the house. His lack of working was driving him crazy and she knew that, it was obvious. And it couldn’t help that while his father basically banned him from the office that both his brothers were needed at work. But she liked having him around so she didn’t mind him being home. She had once thought that staying home all the time would drive her crazy but she actually liked it. When school started she would probably be bored without the insane amount of kids in the house, she would just have three. And she suspected that two of the three were having some type of relationship and it wasn’t the original pair. Things in this house were getting to be way too complicated. Having a love triangle in the house was a recipe for disaster, but today she wasn’t the day to play Dr. Phil. Today she was going to go spend 24 hours away with the man she loved without any drama.

            She started making faces at Nicolas to distract him. He just rolled his eyes at her and for the most part ignored her. Later he was going to pay for it, if they ever got out of the house. Her cell phone rang and by the tone she knew it was her other half. So she got up from the desk to take the call.

            “Hello Ivan,” she said into the phone.

            “Hey, this is going to sound a little weird but is Sugar home?” He asked and indeed that did sound a little weird but she knew he was helping Sugar.

            “No, I think she had an appointment today, why?”

            “I told her I would meet her for coffee after her appointment, just you know so we could talk and I can’t get in touch with her. And we were supposed to meet an hour ago,” he told her.

            “Ok, let me ask Nick if she made any detours,” she said. He was off the phone at the moment but typing on his computer. “Nick, do you know where Sugar might be?”

            “Uh,” he looked at the time on his watch. “She isn’t home? That appointment was over an hour ago, she should be here.” He picked up his cell phone no doubt to call her driver, since he didn’t trust her to drive herself. At the same time his landline rang that was on his desk.

            “Hold on another second Ivan, Nick is on two different phones,” she told her brother. Watching Nicolas made her worry, especially when he sat both phones down.

            “Who are you talking to?” He asked her, he did not look happy.

            “Ivan, she was meeting him for coffee, I told you she likes to talk to him. Is something wrong?”

            “Well Sugar was dropped off for her appointment but she never made it to her appointment and he saw her go in. And when he went to pick her up she never came out. But that idiot that driver said she told him she was meeting a friend for coffee after her appointment. So he assumed that she just walked,” Nicolas shook his head. “That means either she ran off somewhere or Katrina made good on her threat.”

            “There is no way she would just run off somewhere, not now when she really wants to stay with us,” Wildflower said.

            “Then that would mean that Katrina did something,” he sighed. “See if the kids know anything, I’m going to make a few calls.”

            “Ok,” she said and headed out of the room. “Ivan, was she acting any different than usual yesterday? I barely saw her but you were here.”

            “Uh no, nothing out of the ordinary,” her brother said. Something in his tone sounded suspicious but she figured maybe Sugar told him something she wanted to be kept secret. What else could it be?

            “Oh my God,” she said when she opened the door to Sammie’s room. She almost dropped the phone, she was sick of finding Evan in everybody’s bed. At least this time he had clothes on.

            “Sorry,” Sammie said with her cheeks flaming red. This was not what she wanted to deal with today. But of course the three teens she was supposed to be keeping in the house were the ones that caused trouble.

            “Do you ever knock?” Evan asked, he looked annoyed and that was a big change.

            “My house I don’t have to knock,” she replied. “As much as I would love to get into what you two are doing not, I am looking for Sugar. Have either of you heard from her in the last few hours?”

            “She had an appointment and she said she was going for coffee with somebody but she didn’t say who,” Sammie told her. “Is something wrong?”

            “Maybe, she was dropped off at her appointment but didn’t see her therapist and she didn’t meet her friend. She didn’t say anything else?”

            “No, she was really excited about something,” Sammie said. Now she looked worried too. “Do you think she met a guy or something?”

            “Should I think that?” She asked and Sammie and Evan looked at each other, they knew something she didn’t. Wonderful.

            “No,” Evan said but Sammie looked doubtful.

            “Start talking,” she told them.

            “There is no guy,” Sammie said staring at the floor. “She has a crush on somebody but she said she was over it. But I have no idea who she was meeting.”

            “Oh I know who she was meeting,” Wildflower said. Both of them looked surprised, obviously there were too many secrets in this house.

            “Was she meeting Ivan?” Evan asked, he wouldn’t look her in the eyes either.

            “Why would you look so concerned about her meeting Ivan?” She asked and that made him look up into her eyes. “She has a crush on him?”

            “Yes,” Sammie answered.

            “Ivan you knew that right?” She asked into the phone and both Sammie and Evan stared at each other then her.

            “Yeah, but we talked about it and we were just meeting for coffee, I swear,” Ivan said. Still it seemed like he was hiding something. “Sugar, wanted to talk to me that’s it because obviously you see her two best friends are busy with each other.”

            “You knew about them too?”

            “Yeah,” he admitted.

            “I swear I am so ready to just leave this house and never come back,” she said. “What did I do to deserve all this?” She asked aloud to no one in particular.

            “I’ll go ask if anybody else has heard from her,” Evan said. He left the room very quickly, no doubt because he knew one of the many things she had to say to him.

            “Do you want me to call her?” Sammie asked, she was sitting with her knees pulled up looking both worried and scared. Of course she would be scared, the three of them wanted to live here. How could she actually let all three stay?

            “Go ahead, let me know if you can get her,” Wildflower said and she left the room. She went back to Nicolas’ office; he was on the phone again. It was becoming pretty clear that they were not going to have their night out. “Ivan, I will call you back.”

            “Alright,” he brother said and they hung up. She laid down on the couch in the office and dialed Sugar’s phone, it went straight to voicemail.

            “We have a problem,” Nicolas said and she looked up.

            “What is it?” She asked hoping it wasn’t worse than it appeared to be. Maybe Sugar just went out on her own, she was always complaining about being in the house all of the time.

            “Katrina paid someone to pick up her runaway daughter,” he said. There was nothing but fury in his eyes; he really looked like he could kill somebody at that moment.

            “How are you going to find her? I’m guessing she didn’t take her back to her house that would just be stupid.”

            “I have no idea where she’s taken her but I will find out and when I do I will strangle Katrina,” he said seriously.

            “Not if I strangle her first,” she said. “There is no way that Sugar is going to take this well, she can’t be near Katrina without there being a huge fight.”

            “I know,” he nodded. “Sorry, I’m thinking we aren’t going out tonight.”

            “Yeah I know, but Sugar is more important,” she said. Silently she prayed that they would find Sugar in one piece.

 

 

            Sammie felt guilty. While she was making out with Evan her best friend in the world went missing. A whole day had passed and nobody could find Sugar or Katrina. When Sugar had been getting ready for her appointment she seemed happy, like real happiness and not just pretend. She was excited to meet a friend that Sammie now knew was Ivan. But she did not understand why he would be meeting her cousin. After finding them together he said he was going to stay away from her. So why would he be meeting her? Part of her felt like this was his fault; he was obviously leading Sugar on. Logically she knew it wasn’t his fault because her aunt was crazy and it appeared that she had taken her. But what if it wasn’t that? What if Sugar just got tired of her life and was dead somewhere? It was possible.

            At the moment Sammie did not want to see Evan, so she stayed in her room. Maybe it was just her being irrational again, but being near him made her feel guilty. Why had she let a boy keep her so distracted? She cried herself to sleep last night and the police were there that morning. It had to be bad if the police were involved; her uncle usually did things on his own and followed his own set of rules that weren’t always legal. Though the police weren’t much help since it appeared that Katrina took her own daughter and that wasn’t illegal. Then Luis came over with legal documents that listed that Uncle Nicolas temporarily had custody of Sugar. That surprised everybody, but obviously he knew his sister would cause trouble.

            “Sammie,” Lexy called. She knocked then peeked her head in the room.

            “Yeah?” She didn’t want to be bothered; she just wanted to be alone. But Lexy wasn’t alone; Marli and Sonya came in behind her.

            “Um they found Sugar,” Marli told her.

            “Where is she?” Sammie asked, the way they were looking had her worried.

            “Something happened,” Sonya said. They all looked nervous. It was obviously really bad from the way they were looking. Bur once they told her, it was much worse than she imagined.

Reviews

[Katie]

Wow! I'm anxious to see what's going to happen next!

[deeps]

Loved it such amazing chapter here, Full of drama and action, and detail.
Love the characters. I really feel for Sammie though.
This is an amazing chapter here. Very Enjoayble read.