Chapter Five: A look into the life of the rest of the family.

Bruno watched as his twenty-year-old daughter raced up the stairs, stomped down the hall, and slammed the door of the nursery shut behind her, despite Luisa trying to tell her about her own bedroom on the other side of the house.

"Well," he said slowly, "I can't tell, do you think she took the news that I'm her father better or worse than last time?"

"She certainly dealing with it differently than last time," Julieta confessed as Dolores peered down at them, hand singling that she was going to talk to Mirabel before heading off towards the nursery.

"She's still taking it better than Isabela did," Camilo announced, emerging from the kitchen, an arepa in his hand.

"Camilo," Julieta exclaimed, "What are you doing here? I thought you were helping around town today."

"I was," Camilo insisted, "But I had to shift into Jose to help paint a building, so, of course I was hungry, and as I was just getting myself a snack, low and behold, what do I hear, Mirabel's lost her mind and doesn't know who her father is, again," he grinned broadly as he looked at his Tio, "You should be thankful that she didn't react the way Isabela reacted when she found that Diary."

"I'm just grateful that Isa didn't have her gift at the time," Bruno muttered, shivering, "I mean, we weren't even lying to her, but she would have killed us if she could."

"You kind of did lie to us," Isabela snapped, eyes flashing, "for fifteen years, you never told us about Baby Pedro or Ana Perez or the truth about Mirabel! Why just why! Why did you have to do that to us," Isabela stomped her foot, causing a cactus to bloom, before stomping off up to her room with a call over her shoulder that she was going to go get changed, and to call her when lunch was ready.

"Bad choice of words there, Tio," Luisa announced, watching the trail of plants that had popped up in Isabela's wake wither away and disappear, at least at the moment she was more annoyed than angry. If she was really angry the plants wouldn't disappear as quickly and might try to have someone for lunch.

"Yep," Camilo said brightly, "I'll put it right up there with telling Mama that it looks like rain!"

Both adults turned to look at the boy, for in their minds the twenty-year-old would always be a boy, especially since he hadn't fully matured yet.

Bruno smirked, "Camilo, I happen to know what your plans for tomorrow are, don't make me ruin them."

"How do you know what I'm planning to do?"

"I can literally see the future," Bruno insisted, "So unless you want me to tell your Mama and Papa that you have a …" Bruno grunted as Camilo slammed his hand over his mouth.

"Don't you dare say it," he hissed, "Do you know how hard it is to hide this from Dolores? If she finds out, then she'll tell Mama and Papa. And if they find out, you might as well dig my grave because I'll die from embarrassment."

"Then stop hounding your tio," Julieta snapped, jerking her head to the door, "Why don't you go find something to do until lunch is ready."

"You're starting to sound like Abuela," Camilo muttered, "And I'm talking about the pre-fall Abuela, so not a compliment."

"I don't care," Julieta insisted, "Go!"

"I'm going to go get changed," Luisa announced, noting the tone of voice that her madre was using and knowing that she was trying to get rid of Camilo due to his tendency of eavesdropping so that she could talk to Tio in private. Tio Bruno had always been involved with his daughter's life as much as possible. Which was why, when the truth came out, she was not surprised.

…

Julieta sighed as she started to pull ingredients out of the cupboards, "I'm sorry, Bruno, I didn't even consider how she would react. Last time…"

"She went into denial and it took about two months for us to convince her that it was true," Bruno insisted, snatching a chunk of cheese and sticking it into a pocket that mysteriously squeaked and wiggled.

"That's true," Julieta admitted, "I'm glad we worked things out with the four of us so that you could be involved in Mirabel's life like you should have been from the beginning."

"I am too," Bruno admitted, "But I'm also glad that you raised her. She needed a mother, and she didn't have to grow up with the stigma of being the family's black sheep's illegitimate daughter. I can't imagine how bad things would have been when she didn't get her gift if that was common knowledge. There were enough rumors about it anyways."

"Which was one of the reasons you hid yourself away for so long," Julieta pointed out, "I still don't know how you did it, give up your daughter, the only thing you had left of Ana, like that."

"Mirabel deserved the world," He confessed, "She deserved better than what I could give her. I knew that you and Agustin would take good care of her."

"We didn't not really," Julieta insisted, "I should have told her that she was adopted once she was old enough to understand, and I should have believed her when she saw those cracks. You know just as well as I do that there are some things that Mirabel just won't talk about. No matter how much they obviously bug her."

"This is new," Bruno announced, "When did you figure this out?"

"When she mentioned stuff on the way here from the lake. Stuff that I haven't heard before, stuff that explains why she doesn't have any friends her age, or why she hasn't dated since that last guy."

"Well, to be fair, two fathers, an overprotective uncle, a primo who can order a jaguar to eat you, and a hermana mayor that can get really descriptive about how she will tear you apart should you make her hermanita cry probably played a major role in that as well. That will make anybody think twice about dating someone."

Julieta snorted, "I wish it was just because the boys are worried about you and Agustin, but… according to what Mirabel said on the way back here… I believe that the reason she hasn't found somebody yet is that she's been hurt so many times by people claiming to be her friend, that she stopped making them."

"I was worried about that, watching from the walls," Bruno admitted, "I was starting to think that she was taking after me. You know how hard it was for me to make friends growing up. The only person besides you and Pepa that didn't mind my gift was…" he trailed off, his face dropping as a frown formed.

"Ana Perez," Julieta finished, "I know. I'm curious about just how much memory is missing. Something she said suggests that six years of memories are missing, yet she mentioned her fall out with Marcel and that didn't happen until her Quince which would only be five years of memory."

"The mind's a tricky thing," Bruno pointed out, pulling a cutting board and knife towards him so that he could help his sister make lunch while they talked, "You say that yourself all the time. Could be she is missing all her memories since Antonio's gift ceremony, has some of her memories from before Antonio's gift, to some point and time, and has maintained most of her memories from about six years ago back. At least that would explain the discrepancy of her memories."

"I guess," Julieta muttered, "But the big issue that we have is the fact that a lot has changed in the family in the past five years and she obviously doesn't remember anything from that time period."

"Hopefully this is a temporary thing, her memory will return soon enough," Bruno insisted, "If you want, I can check that for you." He frowned noting as Dolores slid into the kitchen silently as ever, "How's Mirabel?" he demanded.

"Confused," Dolores whispered, "I got her settled into her bedroom, but the two of you need to talk to her. I know that you've already had this conversation with her, but she obviously doesn't remember it. Even if she gets her memories back, she should know now," she paused tilting her head to one side, "I have to go," she confessed, "Pedro's calling for me. Talk to her, both of you," she insisted as she headed back up the stairs.

Bruno and Julieta watched their sobrina waddle away, shaking their heads at her retreating backs, "She's right, you know," Julieta insisted, with a heavy sigh, "As much as we don't like talking about it, we need to tell her, again. She's twenty years old, and despite what she thinks this is an old story."

"We might want to fill in the rest of the family on what's going on, I don't want someone bringing up Casita's fall, or the miracle going out without thinking. I mean, she still blames herself for that."

"Who blames herself for what?" a new voice asked as Mirabel appeared in the kitchen, she was wearing her normal outfit of a blue and green striped skirt, white blouse, and a heavily embroidered green rauna. She had even brushed back her hair and clipped it up with a beautiful butterfly hair clip with blue and green gems on it.

"Nothing," Julieta insisted, giving her daughter a quick peck on the cheek, "How are you doing?"

"Still really confused," Mirabel confessed, "I tried sorting everything out, but nothing really makes sense."

"That's understandable," Bruno confessed, "There are times that I'm still confused by all the changes that have happened, and I'm not missing five years of memories."

Mirabel shifted slightly, obviously debating rather or not to ask something, no doubt something concerning her parentage.

"How about after lunch we sit down and talk," Julieta offered, "Just the three of us."