Wherever You Are

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A guy in his early twenties stood in front of a gravestone with lots of flowers scattered in front of it. The gravestone said it belonged to a man named Richard Drew Kellen. The boy stood there quietly for a while. He had been in Europe when he heard that his father had died a week ago. It was the first time he could convince himself to visit him after the funeral. He had blamed himself all these days for the death of his father. If only he had been there to take for him. He hadn’t been informed of his father’s bad health over the last few weeks. All these days he had been enjoying and partying with his friends while his father was suffering.

Many people had come to offer him their condolences. Richard was rich and therefore was known by many people. Among all of them, the only people that mattered to him was his friend Vincent and cousin Caden. Now he understood how Caden felt. What it was like to lose your parents. Maybe not completely since Caden’s pain was much much more. But he could understand.  After his mother died when he was still in high school, his father gave him everything. He worked hard to afford everything they could need and now he had lost him too. If only he had shared his burden. But he was so busy in his own life that he had no time to help his father. What kind of a son he was?

He closed his eyes and sighed defeatedly as he glanced once more toward the grave and turned back toward the mansion. Rosemary manor. It was build by Richard in the memory of his wife Jeanne Rosemary and christened after her as well. The manor felt empty now. He looked at the faces of the servants who worked at the manor looking at him with pity. He was after all an orphan now.

He took the stairs to go towards his room. But was stopped in his way as his phone ringed. It was his Dad’s secretary Mrs. Ross. She was a nice woman in her mid-thirties. She was not only looking after his father’s business after his sudden demise but also helped him in taking over.

“Yes, Mr. Ross.” He answered pinching his temple. He was emotionally exhausted and wanted nothing more than whiskey at this moment.

“You must come to office immediately, sir.” She said her voice hushed and panicked.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I think you should come here to hear this. This can be private matter for you.”

He was alerted by her tone and reversed his step picking up his car keys. He knew she wouldn’t disturb him for anything trivial at all and if she did he could always fire her. he jumped inside his BMW that his father had gifted him on his twentieth birthday and drove towards their office building.

Walking inside the office, he was welcomed by whispers and stares. He still hadn’t inherited the company. It would take another week for the formalities to be clear. Apart from the normal gossip about the new owner, he couldn’t find anything wrong. He had expected a fire or some business rival to be threatening to take over but there was nothing like that here. Everything was normal. He took the elevator towards the twentieth floor where his dad’s or now his office was.

He opened the door to be surprised to see two women sitting there. Mrs. Ross looking at him panicked and another woman who looked just his age sitting with a wrapped bundle in her arms. She had a frown on her face as she stared at him.

“Sir.” Mrs. Ross said as she tried to pull him aside to fill him in. he stared at the woman wondering if he had seen her before but she didn’t look familiar to him. 

“What are you doing Barbara?” the woman asked Mrs. Ross. He was surprised to see that she knew her name. even he didn’t know her name. Maybe she was a relative of hers.

“What’s going on Mrs. Ross?” he asked his headache returning back. His eyes unconsciously darted towards his father’s stash of drinks. What wouldn’t he give to get a drink right now.

The women opened her mouth to say something but was stopped by a loud cry coming from the bundle in her arms. She huffed in annoyance. 

He realized just then that she was holding a baby in her arms. She placed the baby on the couch and stood up.

“I will tell you what’s happening here.” She said as she folded her arms in front of her. “That baby there is now your problem,” she said pushing a file in his hands and dashed out of the office. He stood there staring at her in shock. Was this kid his? Sure, he had a habit of sleeping around but he would have remembered at least her face.

“Mrs. Ross?” he questioned the secretary who looked sadly at him. She was sympathic towards the young man who had just loss his father and now had another bomb dropped on him.

“Just tell me what happened right now?” he asked angrily , irritated of her silence. But the child was still crying. “And do something about it please.” He said pointing towards the bundle on the couch. 

Mrs. Ross hurriedly picked up the kid and rocked him in her arms but it wouldn’t quieten down. He was worsening the headache he already had. 

“Would you like to give a try? Maybe he will sleep in your arms.” She asked timidly.

“And why pray so? If you cannot stop that how will I?” he said. He just wanted to leave.

“Just give it a try please.” She requested and out of the need to quieten the banshee he nodded his head in annoyance. She guided him to hold the baby and then placed him in his arms.

He was still crying out loud.

“There I tried. Now take him back.” He said holding him out to her. 

“He is a kid, he won’t just stop crying on going into your arms. Rock him.” She told him and he stared him in confusion. Did she expect him to know how to deal with a baby? Heck it was the first time he was seeing him a baby. He had never before seen a baby. He looked down at the baby and his widen on seeing the innocent tear rimmed looking up at him with those grey eyes of his. He had bronze colored hair just like him and his face was red from all the crying.

“He looks like a monkey.” He blurted out.

Mrs. Ross snorted at him. “He is a new born. He will look better after a week or two.” She told him looking at them. He had started to rock him gently and the baby stopped crying only sobbing now as he had exhausted himself from all that crying.

“Ask the secretary to stop that woman. Why did she leave her child here?” he asked once he had stopped crying. He felt oddly glad with the baby. Maybe all those who said babies can make anyone happy were right.

“It’s better if we don’t.” Mrs. Ross.

“What do you mean?” he asked. 

“He could be your brother Mr. Javier.” 

He was shocked. He felt the air was knocked out of his lungs. The baby in his arms was his brother. He was aware that his father had been seeing someone but he hadn’t expected her to be this young. She would have been just a couple years older than him. 

He handed the baby to Mrs. Ross and ran away from there. Javier was missing for a couple of days as he hid himself in Cade’s house. Mrs. Ross looked after the baby for all those days. When he returned, he was sober. He had made his decision. If the baby was really his only remaining family, then so be it. He would take him in. This was the least he could do for his father. He would step into his father’s shoes and look after the baby. 

And the DNA test left no argument left.

That was the day his life changed.