Chapter 9: And presents by the tree

Tiffany Call was the last one to enter her son's home. She felt as if her feet were glued to the floor. She couldn't move.

Her heart was filled with a swirl of emotions. Anger, resentment but most of all shame. Her heart was full of shame. Shame for how she treated her son. Shame for how the tribe treated him. Shame for being 18 and pregnant with no plan for her life.

Shame for when her parents kicked her out when they found out she was pregnant. Anger at Billy for never loving her.

She should have known better than to drink and hang around Billy. Despite being the chief's son at the time, William Billy Black was a ladies' man and didn't care whose heart he broke in the process. Of course, he met Sarah, and all that changed.

So here Tiffany was, with nothing to prove for her life and a son who probably hated her.

Her son stood in the doorway, looking at her with eyes that matched his father's.

"hey ma. It's cold out here. Why don't you come on in."

She didn't move. In fact, she crossed her arms over her chest as if she were trying to hold herself together. She couldn't face him. She couldn't look her son in the eyes and have him know she was a failure of a mother.

Instead of leaving her out in the cold, Embry came down to where she was and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his side.

Tiffany looked at him with tears in her eyes.

" I love you, mom. I want you here. I am not angry with you. besides we have to continue the tradition of putting popcorn on the tree."

Tiffany laughed. "if you say so."

….

The mother and son walked in to find thier guests seated in the living room.

Many of them were looking at the pictures Embry had on the wall and the fireplace mantle.

" you… you married Bella.." Jacob announced in a broken whisper.

Embry stood up to full height confidence running through every fiber of his being.

Bella had been right.

She wasn't Jacob's. She didn't belong to anybody. she wasn't an object however she was his wife and he would be proud of it. He hadn't done anything wrong.

" yeah, we got married right after we graduated college." He said with a smile as he walked over to where Charlie and Jacob stood.

They were looking at Embry and Bella's wedding photos. They decided to go to the courthouse but the theme had been the 1960's. Bella wore her poodleskirt and Embry wore his leather jacket.

"Why do you look like Elvis?" a woman Embry recognized as Bella's mother asked.

She fit Bella's description perfectly.

" Well, Mrs. Dwyer. Isabella knows my love for the 1950s- 1960s decade. So we both agreed on a theme wedding. We had a huge party too. Everyone came out wearing their outfits. "

" Hmm..it was nice of both of you to invite us. seemed like our invitations got lost in the mail." Mrs. Dwyer sneered.

Embry however wasn't phased. He smiled.

" sorry not sorry." He shrugged. " anyway, Isabella and I got married that day and the rest is history. "

" I got hot cocoa and coffee!" Kele said as he brought in a tray filled with drinks.

Embry took it from him and gave him a gentle pat.

" thank you, son." He then turned to address everyone else in the room.

" so first things first, I want to thank you all for coming. You didn't have to. I see some unfamiliar faces, so I'll introduce myself. I'm Embry Call, I'm Isabella's husband. This is our son Kele. Isa and I invited you here so that we could let bygones be bygones and have a great family Christmas. If you'd like I can show you your rooms and once you get settled we can have dinner. "

As soon as Embry was done speaking three voices asked the same question.

" where's Bella?"

" she had to step out for a minute she'll be home for dinner. Now let me show you to your rooms."

As much as he didn't want to admit it, awkwardness filled the room.

How could it not? He had been on bad terms with almost everyone in this room.

" chief, you and your wife can have this room on the ground floor. Jacob, you can have the room across from them. Everyone else follows me up to the second floor "

Once they got to the second floor, Embry directed all the adults to their rooms.

However, Renee and Bella's stepfather stopped when Embry squatted down in front of the boy with dirty blonde hair.

" hey little man, what's your name?"

The little boy hesitated before he peeked up at Embry through his long bangs.

"Names Zeke. Short for Ezekiel. I'm gonna be a baseball player just like my dad."

Embry laughed and "That sounds awesome! Hey, your mom and dad only have one bed. So how would you like to get in a bunk bed with Kele?"

" you mean I get my bed instead of sharing it with mom and dad?"

" yes sir." Embry smiled

" that won't be necessary. " Renee tried to intervene but her husband stopped her.

" Ren. Give the boy some room to breathe. He hardly gets to be with kids nowadays."

He then turned to Embry.

"Hey, I'm Phil Dwyer. Bella's stepfather. That's our son Zeke. I'm sure Bella will be excited to know she has a brother. Well, brothers I should say with Charles getting remarried and all. Anyway, on behalf of my wife and I, we just wanted to say thank you."

"It's no problem at all. I'm sure Isa will be excited to meet him. You mind if I take him to my son, so he can get settled?"

" no problem."

With that said, Embry helped Zeke carry his stuff down to the basement. Well, it wasn't a basement at all. They had turned the basement into five extra bedrooms plus a second living room and a kitchenette.

Kele was currently in the living room of the basement playing his video game.

"Son. this is Zeke. Your mother's brother. He's technically your uncle. Which is kind of funny huh? Your other uncles are upstairs and im going to grab them. You all are going to sleep down here, you alright with sharing your space?"

Kele smiled as he quickly handed Zeke a controller.

"It's no problem at all. Hey Zeke, you ever play Fortnite?"

"uh no?" Zeke said shyly

"No problem, I'll show ya. Come on."

Embry smiled with pride, as he watched his son show Zeke what to do. Just a year ago, his son was a shell of a boy and yet here he was a completely different person.

"I'll be back." He told them.

Embry made quick strides to go upstairs and knock on the door of the room, he gave Colin and Brady. He vaguely remembered seeing them on the reservation all those years ago but they were always short glances. He would have to ask Charlie how he and his wife met.

"hey guys." he greeted. Coin looked at him curiously as he unzipped his suitcase.

"uh, I wouldn't unzip that quite yet. How would you guys feel about joining Kele and Zeke downstairs in the basement, you both would have your own individual room."

Excitement, filled the boys' eyes as they immediately followed embry down to the basement. Of course, Kele handed them a controller, and before he knew it they were all wrapped up in some kind of tournament.

With the kids taken care of, Embry headed back downstairs.

…..

"Adrenalina siempre que estás al día en que nos conocimos.." Embry sang as he poured gravy over the lamb.

He turned to take the rolls out of the oven when he noticed a presence. watching him from the kitchen doorway was Rebecca black.

His estranged older sister.

"Hey! How's it going, is your room comfortable?" he asked trying to ease the weirdness between them.

"It's a very nice room. This house is nice too. You're lucky you got to escape the reservation. "

" what do you mean? I never had a problem with the reservation. I wasn't trying to escape anything but I did need to live my life how I wanted to."

" so what our father ignoring your existence didn't make you leave?" Rebecca asked in an angry tone.

" it pushed me away yes but I have no resentment or ill will towards the reservation or anyone on it. I went to college and found a breath opportunity for my life. What exactly is your issue?"

Rebecca looked at Embry with angry eyes.

" I'm just jealous. " she admitted. " I left the reservation with a chip on my shoulder, thinking I was going to become successful and live my life. Instead, I failed at school, got married, and then divorced, and then finally had to come back home with my tail between my legs and nothing to show for It. yet you take off and leave for years with no help and here you are rich and successful. And to make it worse our life has been turned upside down with finding out that you are our brother and dad cheated on mom and now we're all supposed to just sit here and act like nothing happened. How is any of that fair? Or right?"

Embry motioned for Rebecca to come to stand next to him. He then handed her a mixing bowl.

"you stir, I talk. "

Once she began to stir, he talked.

"All my life I wanted to know my father. I got to watch my friends have these awesome experiences with their father and here I was left out. I used to daydream about what my father would look like and how he would accept him. However, the older I got the more I realized whoever my father was, he didn't care and he wasn't coming after me. I used to think it was Joshua Uley or Quil Ateara. I spent forever wondering. And there would be the days, that I would come over to your house and have dinner with you all. I felt like a part of the family. But then all that stopped when Jacob joined Sam and the family shut me out. to make it worse, my mom finally told me who my father was, and when I went to confirm it, no one could give me any answers or they avoided me altogether. So I made up my mind, that I would graduate high school and go my own way. And I did, I received a scholarship to Cornell University and graduated with honors. I spent my first two years in college kind of stuck though. I was angry and resentful of the way my, life had gone. I thought it was unfair that I had been lied to and abandoned. But there was a problem with that. Yes, I ha been lied to. Yes, I had been abandoned but dwelling on that pain wasn't going to do me any good. After I met Isabella, we both made the choice to forgive our families and to forgive ourselves. Life was too short to dwell on the path past the mistakes everyone made. Besides, something we had to remember was that our parents were once our age, and they had to make difficult decisions too. Not excusing, the lies that were told but trying to see things from our parent's perspective as well. Take my mom for example, I can only imagine the stress and struggle my mother had to go through, being pregnant young and having to go through life all on her own. And then I can't imagine the stress our father and your mother have gone through and the strain it's put on their marriage, instead of just telling the truth and learning how to co-parent. Long story short, we have all made mistakes and we have to move on. My question to you sister is what are you going to do with it? are you going to stay in this space of woe is me or are going to get up and dust off the dirt."

Rebbeca didn't get to respond because Zele dashed into the kitchen, Collin, Brady, and Zeke behind him.

"Ma's home!" he cheered