Chapter 22:
(Caleb POV)
"Can I sit down? I want to talk to you about something." I nodded my head and he sat down on my bed and I sat down next to him. "Are you dating my niece?" I was shocked by his bluntness, "So skipping over the small talk." He shrugged, "You don't seem like the person who would want me to do the whole small talk thing so I figured I'd go straight to the point." I nodded my head, "Yeah I guess I'm not really." "So?" He asked and I nodded my head, "Um I guess technically. I mean the festival was our first date." "You went right into the public eye with it?" He said and I nodded my head, "Isabella didn't want to have to hide anything." He let out a breath, "It is going to be hard for you, both of you, if you decide to have this relationship." I looked at him, "How do you know that?" He let out a breath, "Because I was an outsider before."
I quirked my brow and he let out a breath, "My Mama was not from the same town as everyone else here in Encanto. She was the one who warned them the night they were attacked. She sacrificed herself to keep them safe and stashed me away in a cart that was pulled into town. I came into town with no family, no money, no reputation. When someone like that falls in love with one of the most prominent families in town not everyone is willing to accept it right away. Don't get me wrong I had her Mama's support, if you don't have Alma's support then Augustin would be the one to talk to about that, but I do get it. In fact pretty much anyone who has married into the family, they would get what it feels like to be an outsider." I looked at him, "What about your Papa?" He let out a breath, "My Padre was apparently a bad guy. He was some General who was planning the attack on the town where everyone here is from." I nodded my head as I tried to absorb the information.
(Isabella POV)
After I left the shack I went out to check on the border before I made my way to Casita. As I arrived home I knew that everyone was awake and probably already moving around. I went over to the back door, everyone should be down at breakfast right now so if I made my way upstairs without being seen I might be able to avoid the inevitable confrontation of my family members about Caleb and I last night or why I never came home. I looked at the clock in the kitchen and saw that it was already 11:00 a.m. I had been gone for way too long and if I got caught it would be really bad. I made my way inside and began making my way inside. "Casita give me some stairs, please." I whispered and a new staircase began to form.
I was walking up when I heard someone call out "Isabella?" I let out a breath, "Yeah?" I called out. "I thought I heard you, come into the dinning room. Where were you?" I let out a breath and went downstairs toward the dinning room. I saw my entire family looking back at me, "Why are you in the dress that you wore yesterday?" Pedro asked. I turned around and let out a harsh breath, I hated this. I turned to face them and saw the kids at the table and Abuela looking at me with her brow quirked, "Just was out in town, thought I'd check on the border while I was out.. I'm going to go up to my room, I will talk to you about this later." "Isabella, are you sure there isn't something else you want to tell us?" Abuela asked and I just smiled, "Not at the moment Abuela but, maybe we will talk about it later." I went to walk upstairs when Daniela said, "Did you see Caleb this morning?"
I bit my bottom lip and turned to face them, "Why do you ask Daniela?" She smiled, "I just wanted to know if you saw Abuelo?" My eyes widened as I looked around the room and realized that Tío Felix wasn't there, "Um what do you mean I would have seen your Abuelo?" She just shrugged, "Well he went to talk to Caleb this morning." I let out a shaky breath as I looked towards the adults in the room, "Why did Tío Felix go to see Caleb?" Camilo just smirked, "Where were you again this morning?" Touché cousin, I thought to myself. I just smiled, "You know what I think I'm going to head back into town. I will see you all later." Mama called out, "Don't you want to eat something first?" I shook my head, "I'm fine." Casita opened the door for me and it was clear that I was on a mission as I began to make my way back to the shack. I don't know how I missed Tío Felix on my way back to Casita or how long he had been there, but I didn't need a representative from my family talking about me to Caleb while I was trying to figure it out myself.
(Caleb POV)
I let out a long breath before looking at him, "Why did you come to talk to me about this?" He looked at me, "Because I saw you two at the festival yesterday and I've seen that look one too many times. The love, the doubt, maybe a few lies stoking the fire, all of it together in a mess of emotions." I looked up at him, "I like you niece, I'm not sure if I would say..." He cut me off, "You are in denial, which is cool I lived there for a while. You'll get out of there eventually, we all do, and when you do and you need someone to talk to come by Casita." I nodded my head as he left. I had a lot to think about. He opened the door and a breathless Isabella stood there, "Tío... what... are you... doing here?"
He smiled as he looked between us, "I was just talking with Caleb about Enrique. He didn't go to work today." Isabella looked at me, "Wait why didn't you go to work?" Felix looked at us and nodded his head, "I will see you at home Isabella. Nice talk Caleb." I nodded my head and he left. I looked over at Isabella and she let out a breath, "Um, I'm sorry for coming over here. I was just worried that my family was..." I smiled shaking my head, "Don't worry. Um he was just talking to me about some stuff because Enrique asked him where I was."
She nodded her head, "And why didn't you go to work? You never skip work." "I was just tired and thinking about some stuff," I said brushing it nodded her head when her eyes caught a glimpse of something. She was walking towards whatever caught her eye and I followed her gaze and saw one of the papers that I had before still on the ground. I thought I put everything under my bed. "Um Isabella..." I started to say as she picked it up.
(Isabella POV)
I nodded my head but I saw a flicker of white on the floor. I went over to see what it was. I reached down to pick it up and as I turned it over I knew what it was. I looked up at Caleb and bit down on my bottom lip as I handed him the picture. He smiled down at the image before handing it back to me, "That's my Mama and that's my Papa." I looked at the picture and it was a family portrait. His Papa was standing behind his Mama who was sitting down with a chair and a little Caleb sitting in her lap as she wrapped him around in a hug. He looked a lot like his Papa I could clearly see that they were related.
I looked at his Mama and him and I couldn't help but notice their matching smiles, "You have your Mama's smile." I looked up at him as he let out a quick breath. He came in closer as he looked down at the picture, "Yeah, um that's what my Papa used to say." I could see the tears brimming his eyes, "My Mama used to say that the only thing I got from her was her eyes. So my Papa would say that I got her smile too." I wrapped an arm around him and went up on my toes, "Well I happen to agree with him." I kissed his cheek as I continued to hold onto him.
He kept looking at the picture, "You miss them." He nodded his head, "More than I could ever really say." I nodded my head, "You said that they died in a fire." He let out a long breath, "Yeah when I was 10. But it wasn't just a fire, it was arson. Someone was trying to hurt us for a long time." I looked at him, "I'm so sorry. Do you know who?" He shook his head, "No, I really don't anymore." He looked at me and then looked over at his bed, "Do you have anywhere you need to be today?" I shook my head, "No, why?" He let out a breath, "There is something that I need to talk to you about."
(Caleb POV)
I looked at Isabella as I sat her down on my bed. I reached under my bed and pulled out my notebook and handed it to her, "I was sent to Encanto one purpose." I began to tell her everything from what happened to me as a kid and how I met the General, how I was trained and what I was sent here to do and how I thought that doing this mission would lead me to what happened to my parents. Isabella just sat there looking at her lap, at me and at the notebook.
As I finished she let out a long breath and looked up at me with hurt eyes, "So you were using me and everyone I care about so that you can attack us?" "Isabella," I started but she was shaking her head, "I-I brought you to my home. I-I told you about my family. I-I gave you everything you need to hurt everyone I love." She stood up and closed her eyes, "When exactly are they supposed to come?" I let out a long breath, "I have another report with the General in a month and then 2 months after that they are supposed to attack." "So you are saying that my family has 3 months to prepare for something that 'The General' has been preparing for, for possibly 60 years?" I shook my head, "He uh told me about the mission 10 years ago." She looked at me, "And you don't think that he had anything to do with the village burning down the first time?"
She let out a long breath, "Do you know what my Abuela went through? Do you know what people in this town went through?" I nodded my head, "Um yeah. You told me about how they were kicked out of their town and your Abuelo's sacrifice." She nodded her head, "Yeah I did. And now his granddaughter is going to be the one that leads to the destruction of everything he stood for, because I let you in." "Isabella, we have time, we can figure something out..."
I started to say but she was shaking her head. "You need to leave town. Tonight. I never want to see you again and once people in town find out, I'm pretty sure they will agree with me. I'm giving you until tomorrow morning to leave," She was going out the door but I grabbed onto her wrist, "Isabella, please." She shook her head again, "You have until tomorrow morning." She gave me one last pained expression as she left and I felt my heart sink. I knew that I had to tell her and I knew that it was going to be bad when I did... I don't know what I was actually expecting but, it wasn't this. I looked down at the notebooks and the notes and everything, "What am I going to do?" I said up to the sky.
(Isabella POV)
I went out of the shack I couldn't believe that I had been so stupid. Abuela warned me about getting too close, she didn't want him to come here at all and I pushed. I was trying to get him out of town for most of the time that I was here, but I was the one who brought him in front of everyone, I was the one who brought him to town events, I was the one who asked him on a date. I let my head fall back as I started to cry. I couldn't let everyone see me like this. I don't know why I was protecting Caleb still, but I didn't want the people in town to find out until he was out of here. I looked back at the shack and ran towards the jungle. I needed to be away from everyone and everything.