Chapter 3 – Michael

'I can't believe you,' Ella kept moaning and I leaned back in my chair, glaring at her as she continued to pace the room. We had moved back to Maui headquarters to discuss and get ready to drive up to Blakeley academy, which was a two and a bit hours drive away. Well, we weren't getting the car's ready. I was sitting in our joint office as Ella continued to have a go at me for being so irresponsible.

'Do you know how many years I had to listen to your bullshit for having a kid accidently? At least I stood up to the job.' Ella kept complaining.

'I would have if I knew.' I protested, flicking through the paperwork I was meant to take with me later on today.

'That's even worse! How can you not know?'

'She didn't talk to me much after that,'

'Brooklyn who worked here?' She questioned and I nodded. Ella remembered Brooklyn – they never really spoke but she remembered her none the less. I had always wondered what had happened to her and why she so suddenly disappeared off the radar and didn't even bother keeping in touch. Now, the reason she didn't contact me about the baby was a bigger concern. She was in trouble keeping her, why didn't she just ask me to pick her up? Why didn't she just leave the baby outside my house if she wanted to remain anonymous? There were so many "what ifs" about this whole mysterious daughter thing that just didn't make sense. Why she never told me I had a daughter for four years was the biggest question. I couldn't tell if I was annoyed at her for hiding it or suspicious because it never came up before this moment.

'How do you know which kid is yours?' Ella asked.

'I have pictures?'

'You have a picture of a back of a kid's head, good luck identifying her from that,' Ella mumbled, going through her section of paperwork.

'What has got into you?' I asked, wondering why my normal gentle sister, the one who always was kind and put others first had turned suddenly into an asshole.

'You left your daughter four over four years and think nothing of it. I would be totally devastated. And then you told Joe you don't know if you'll keep her,' Ella mumbled. I cursed myself for being so stupid to tell her husband that I don't know if I wanted to be a parent. Of course it would come back to my sister.

'How can I just take her in?'

'How can you live knowing you have a daughter you just gave up because she was never planned?' Ella retorted and I hesitated. I hated the fact my sister made so much sense in asshole mode.

'Michael, this is your kid,' Ella sighed. 'Your very own child and you're acting like you realised you won a free kebab. This is someone's life. She has grown up thinking she has no parents apart from the person who cares for her, all she probably want is a parent and you're debating about giving that up,'

'It could take weeks to get custody of her,'

'But it would be worth it when you get her home,' Ella said.

'But she already has a home,' I argued back. I couldn't just waltz into her life, claim to be her father and waltz away with her again. She has someone who already loves her to pieces who has raised her for the four years she's been alive. Nicole already has someone who cares for her, who is her mother in a way, and I can't do and ruin that. She would be devastated if I just took away Nicole.

'Then you have to decide what to do, but she is your baby girl. It's easy for you saying this when you haven't met her, but the second you see her you'll understand where I'm coming from,' Ella said as she shoved the folders back into a rucksack, throwing it over her shoulder.

'If you were in my position, what would you do?' I asked her as she stopped in the doorway.

'I would do anything to get her home,' Ella simply said as she left me alone in silence to mill about what to do.

'Jake!' I called, walking into the spare office that I knew he would be in, doing bugger all. He was due to leave with us, but of course having four children, all of which were under six, he was organised a lot more than we were. I think he was secretly excited to get away from the kids for the few days we would be there; the two eldest twins – Isla and Amelia – were now an unstoppable force who have discovered their Savant gifts and find it funny to make it rain inside or speed up the growth rate of plants. Jacob is in his terrible two's, and Nathan was teething. You can just imagine what it's like in their house. Jake simply raised his eyebrow as I walked in.

'I got parental issues,'

He closed the laptop lid down and frowned at me.

'What kind of parental issues?' He asked.

'Big ones,'

'That narrows it down greatly, thank you for that,' Jake said opening his laptop up again. I walked over, closing it and handing the letter over to him. He had the exact same reaction as Ella in the means of "Go and get your daughter back" look at me before he just put the letter down on the table, before looking back to his laptop.

'I guess Ella's reaction will be the same as mine – what did she say?'

'Told me to get my shit together and find her,'

'Yeah we have the exact same reaction.' Jake simply said shrugging. 'Why wouldn't you?'

'I can't just take her and run can I?' I said back and he shrugged.

'You have a point, you have to remember Nicole's guardian through this as well, she would have raised her for four years and would be attached to her immensely, so you can't just grab and run with her. But you can't just go "okay I have a daughter so I'm going to do fuck all," either. Do you understand what we're on about?'

'Yeah, but it's tricky,'

'We've never done it, we were responsible,' He referred to him and Ella and I rolled my eyes.

'I get it, I'm stupid,'

'You're only stupid if you don't do anything about it.' Jake protested. 'Also, neither Ella nor I called you stupid because you haven't done everything yet, it might take time but it's if you give up on Nicole – that's when you're stupid,' Jake argued.

'I agree with him,'

I turned around to see the voice, which was unmistakably my cousin but couldn't find him. I frowned at the back end of the table where the voice had come from, and suddenly Jason just appeared, sitting cross legged on the chair.

'Lucy?' I simply asked and he nodded. A few seconds my cousin's fiancee appeared in the chair next to him, and I noticed the baby car seat on the table appear too. Lucy hesitated slightly, feeling incredibly awkward before Jason put his hand on her leg.

'I should have said we were here,' Jason simply said.

'You're getting too powerful, you know that?' I said to Lucy and she shrugged, looking down to her lap.

'Leave her alone,' Jason told me, giving me a death look.

'That's a good thing,' I added and Lucy smiled shyly. 'I mean, nice hiding, did you know they were there?' I asked Jake and he nodded.

'But I'm agreeing with Jake and Ella,' Jason piped up.

'I didn't ask you,'

'You asked everyone in the room, you just didn't see us here. Would you just leave your daughter at Blakeley when you know people are going missing and that's the exact reason we are going up there today?'

'Blakeley is a good place,'

'It is, but people are going missing from there. Sure, it's all older children than four at the moment but it's still dangerous,' Jason protested as Lucy picked up their son, Tyler, from the car seat as he made some noises like he wanted to cry. I watched as Lucy held Tyler so gently.

'I'm glad everyone's agreeing with me,' Ella said from the doorway.

'I never disagreed with you,' I pointed to her.

'What are you going to do then?' She asked and I scanned the room of my family and friends.

'I'm gunna bring Nicole home,'