The Life - Rebirth (The Life 4)

I was tempted to Facetime the twins one last time but ignored it. I’d said my goodbyes in the last week or so, though no one knew that that’s what I was doing at the time. I made sure to share some wisdom with the girls that would set them in good stead as they matured and had spent as much time with Lancelot as I possibly could. The letters I’d written to each one of them would hopefully help ease the pain of my absence.

I didn’t breathe easy until Gramps’ plane was in the air. Somehow, I half expected Pop or the would-be hacker to appear and stop me before takeoff as if this were some movie or something equally cheesy.

Or maybe I was hoping someone would show up and save me from myself. As much as I was going to miss my family, and as sad as I was for the loss they were going to feel, the thing that made me tear up as I looked down at my home country disappearing through the clouds was the fact that I hadn’t found Gianna. Her absence was like a hole in my chest, a void where my heart should be.

LYON

From the way my mother reacted when she walked into the room and saw the image on the wall screen, I knew no one was pranking me. Up until then, I was almost certain that it was some elaborate hoax, which now that I think of it made no sense because we’re not known for pissing around when it comes to serious business. I watched her as she got closer to the screen and reached her hand back for my father.

“She must be Eloise’s. Must be.”

“Who dafuq…who is Eloise Ma?”

“She was my favorite cousin. She and I were so close; we looked alike in some ways, but not like this. She’s the only one I can think of that would have a daughter or granddaughter that looks like this.”

“She’s the spitting image of you, love.” Ma started crying, and the pothead hugged her into his chest like they hadn’t just dropped a bomb.

“Cousin, what cousin?”

“Remember we told you how we left our home way back when even before you were born because our family did not accept us being together even though we’re so distantly related?”

“I don’t need another trip down the Alabama memory lane fuckery.” Tyler snorted out an ‘oh Lord’ and the others looked like they wanted to give me shit, but nah.

These two have been making my life hell for the past two years or so, first with the trickle-down truth about their relationship, and now cousins that I never even heard of. “Where is this, Eloise?”

“She’s in Virginia, but wait, what’s going on? Who is that child?”

“She might be your cousin or mine, or I don’t know what dafuq. I just know she looks too much like you and Men…. Catalina, not to be related. Anything else you wanna tell me before I go looking for these people?”

“Boy, don’t yell at your mother like that.”

“Am I yelling?” I asked the room at large. “You two are going to talk yourselves into a retirement village somewhere in Iceland, no more beach.”

“Shove it, Colt, now what do you need us to do?” No respect from these two old people.

“Are you still in contact with this woman? I’m guessing no since I never heard her name mentioned. Is it gonna hurt you if I look for her?”

“Of course not, so much time has passed, that’s water under the bridge. I’m sure El must’ve looked for me a time or two over the years, but I’ve always known where she was. You can contact her. I’m sure she’d be happy to see you.” I had to mumble my true feelings under my breath because I wasn’t in the mood for none of her shit.

“Okay, but if anything else jumps out of that graveyard you call a closet, I’m taking away the pothead’s stash for a month.” Fat lot it will do me; his crazy ass granddaughter would just supply him with more from her grow. Freaking kid is trying to become a millionaire before she reaches eleven with her hopped-up weed.

At least that’s what it looks like, even though she and her grandfather swear they’re looking for cures for illnesses that no one else has. What the hell am I thinking about now? “You two can go do whatever it is you were up to. What is it that you two are doing down there anyway? There are other people here, you know.”

“I plead the fifth.”

“This is not America Elena, that shit don’t fly here.” I turned back to the others while those two left. I was worried about them whether this was too much of a shock for them, but we needed to get started on this, then I’ll check on them later. “Let’s find this woman in Virginia. Maybe she can tell us where her granddaughter is hiding.” I looked back at the picture one last time and shook my head—freaking doppelgangers and shit.