Chapter 130 Finding family again

Chapter 130 Finding family again
Kieran:

“So how's the food? I made all your favorites after a long time.” Mom asked all enthusiastically and I paused mid bite, looking at the table spread in front of me.

From steaks and mashed potatoes to lasagna, to grilled chicken and fried rice, with chicken gravy, everything was made favorite. I don't remember when was the last time I ate all of my favorites together, made so deliciously.

“Very tasty mom. Thank you for cooking for me. I have missed this taste for a long time, you know.” I said bobbing my head and finishing the bite.

“It's like you have revived my taste buds.” I kept eating and suddenly I felt deep silence. I looked up and mom, Alina and Vocenzo were looking at me with warm eyes. I immediately felt exposed.

“W-what?”

“So who cooks for you, Kieran? Don't you enjoy good food anymore?” Mom asked, her voice emotional.

“No, it's not like that. My chef cooks really good food, but I'm mostly on a diet you know. And….of course nothing beats your food.” I then looked at Alina silently begging her to help me in the situation.

“Yeah mom, he stays on a diet most of the time. So this vampire barely eats, stays up all night and drinks a lot. He sleeps in the morning so his routine is really messed up.”

Alina rolled her eyes instead. I blinked twice.

“Thank you for helping Alina.” I replied with a tight smile and she wiggled her brows.

“Since when have you become like that Kieran?” Mom asked, forgetting food and looking at me worriedly.

“He has been like that since forever ma-mom!”

Vocenzo replied in a low voice now, focused on his plate.
“His manager Hoseok has pulled his own hair out so many times, trying to fix Boss’s lifestyle but nothing worked. He’s doing better now, he would barely leave his room and eat anything, surviving on drinks and anti depressants, and injections for sleeping.”

I winced internally at the mention of that, Vocenzo didn't even look up once, I would have glared at him otherwise.
The room turned silent, only the clink of forks and plates was audible.

“You should have come home sooner.” Mom said it quietly then, but the hurt behind the words still landed heavily inside my chest.

I froze, finally looking at her face, she looked so weak and hurt, barely holding it together.
Her fingers wrapped around my hand even after she finished speaking, almost as if she was reassuring herself that I was actually sitting there in front of her and not about to disappear again.

I looked down at our hands for a moment before leaning back slowly against the chair.

“Now I'm here mom…and that's all that matters.” I gripped her hand warmly, finally looking around.

The living room looked exactly the same. The same cream curtains, but upgraded to new design and better stuff, looking expensive now.

The same bookshelf near the staircase, with addition of a new collection. The same faint smell of sandalwood and tea lingering in the air.

The old clock was gone now, replaced by a similar looking brown new clock on the wall, that also ticked every few seconds loud enough to break the silence when the room went quiet.

Nothing had changed here overall except us. And somehow that made the years feel even heavier.

Mom’s eyes searched my face carefully, like she was trying to find traces of the boy who left this house years ago and returned as someone she no longer fully recognized.

When we finished dinner, I was about to get up and help with the dishes but mom and Alina kept me seated. Both Vocenzo and Alina left to the kitchen while mom and I remained in the chairs, drowned in our thoughts.

“You disappeared all of a sudden,” she said softly.
“At first I thought you were angry and hurt at what your dad said and would come back. I kept praying for you….I cried at nights, visiting your room in hopes that you might have returned sneaking back to your room. But when Alina got your letter confirming that you have left for good, all of my hopes crashed down. Your dad started regretting his words and panicked when we couldn't find you, we sought help from the police, hired a private investigator, but all in vain.” I gulped, all the days from the past came haunting back at me, mom’s heavy and tired voice pierced my heart into a million pieces.

“Then months started passing. We once found out your location, tried contacting you but you changed your number I guess, cause we couldn't contact you after that. We found out that…..you also moved to another place so we couldn't find you. Alina's mental health worsened, she started blaming your dad for everything, she was used to being with you since the day she started forming her memory. How could she have taken it normally? After that…” Her voice faltered slightly, my breath staggered.

“It began to feel like you were leaving us on purpose….with no intentions of coming back.”
I swallowed quietly. I didn't know my family tried to contact me, not even for once. I blinked twice.

“I didn't know you were contacting me mom. I knew nothing about that.” I confessed, mom looked at me, confusion spread on her face.

“I was……being managed and handled by the company I signed the contract with….in exchange for my career debut, they were supporting me financially and my contract came with strict clauses.” My vision blurred.

“I was not allowed to meet anyone from my family. Mark, he knew what happened and why I ran away from my family, and he didn't want me to go back….guess he made sure to remove all my traces for you.”

I looked at mom in the eye then, “Then as per contract, I had to marry Lily, my late wife….. Mark's terminally ill daughter, and that's when I found out about her relation with Alina. But I had no choice. I was stuck in a messed up situation where contacting any of you would have put you all in danger….. especially Alina. I couldn't do that.” I took a break to even out my heartbeat that was getting abnormal now, mom looked too pale, her eyes wide with shock, filled with unshed tears.

“Then I lost Lily……and my…..u-unborn c-child. I took my time to grieve, and I wanted to take a chance at living life normally. I thought I could be a normal man, resign from my career even if it would cost me a lot, then take Alina somewhere far away with me, and we will finally live happily.
But then….I kept contacting d-dad and he rejected me thrice….saying she has someone in her life better than me, and she doesn't deserve me.” I wiped the two rebel tears that left my eyes, my bare hands trembled and before I could say anything more, mom immediately leapt forward and hugged me fiercely, breaking down in loud sobs. I hugged her back, finally finding a place where I could call it peace.

“I'm so sorry honey. M-momma is so s-sorry! You didn't have anybody w-when you were going through s-so much! I'm so sorry baby! Y-you didn't deserve any of it sweety I–”

“Mom, it's alright now.” I broke the hug, wiping her tears as she wiped mine.
“I'm here now, and it's over! I have married the love of my life, and I have you back too.” I smiled through tears and she held my face with both hands, placing a deep kiss on my forehead.

“Don't you ever leave me again like that…promise me!” She said, forming a faltering smile.

“Promise, mom! I'm never leaving you ever again!”

“Mom, please don’t cry again,” Alina said, appearing out of the kitchen with a tray full of tea cups.“If you keep on crying, he’ll disappear for another ten years out of fear.”

I glanced at her flatly. She ignored me completely.

Mom let out a weak laugh through her tears and shook her head. “You both joke exactly the same even now.”

“That’s because I don't like people who change with time, let's all get to the couch and have a tea time” Alina replied dramatically before heading towards the couch.

Vocenzo appeared after her from the kitchen with some snacks, getting on the couch with us.
“You didn't have to do this, son. You should have just told me.” Mom said to Vocenzo, looking concerned.

Vocenzo glanced at Alina then back at mom.
“Mam Alina warned–”

“I was planning to make tea and he offered help so yeah, here it is, enjoy!” She chimed.

The couch dipped slightly under her weight, her shoulder brushing mine naturally, and I loved how comforting that tiny contact felt after everything.

Mom looked between us quietly for a few seconds. Then her eyes softened all over again.

“You really brought him home.” Alina immediately shook her head.

“No, Mom. He came back himself.”

“He came back because of you.”The room fell quiet after that.

I looked away first, not able to deny it. Because the truth was, she wasn’t wrong.

If Alina had not barged into every locked part of my life with stubborn determination, I probably would have spent the rest of my years convincing myself that I deserved isolation, and this was my life now.
Mom reached over again and touched my face gently.

“You became so thin,” she whispered emotionally. “And these dark circles…” Her brows furrowed. “Do you even sleep properly?”

“Sometimes.” I replied, holding the tea cup.

“That is not a proper answer.”

“I have packed schedule actually as Alina told you. But I will, sleep every night now…. peacefully.” I looked at Alina, she passed a shy smile.

Mom sighed with a heartfelt smiles before her gaze drifted lower toward my hands resting against my lap.

The faint scars across my knuckles were impossible to miss under the warm lights of the room..Her expression immediately changed. I froze, realizing the turn of conversation.

“Kieran,” she said quietly, holding my wrist carefully. “What happened to your hands?”

Vocenzo stiffened while taking a sip from his cup, Alina stilled too.

“Work accidents.” I replied after a moment, taking my hand away from her gently.

Mom gave me the exact same look she used to give me whenever I lied as a teenager.

“Kieran.”

Alina looked between us awkwardly before quietly sipping her tea like she suddenly wanted no involvement in the conversation.
I exhaled slowly through my nose.

“Things happened.”

“What things?” Mom asked softly.
I stayed silent for a second too long.

“Boss, it's time to leave, we have a packed schedule tomorrow you know.” Vocenzo left his cup on the table, standing all of a sudden. I released a breath, thankfully he came to rescue.

We all stood up and mom and Alina talked for a while about some recipes, dinner sets and clothes. Mom gave her so much advice about cooking for me, feeding me with lots of nuts.

Vocenzo and I reached the doorway, still waiting for the ladies to realize that they have been saying goodbye to each other for twenty minutes now.

The mom left her and held me away at a safe distance from them. Her eyes filled with tears again almost immediately.

“You were suffering alone all this time? Was it so much that you thought death was a safe option? Why did you not think about what would happen to me when I got to know this?” The question hit harder than I expected.

Because hearing it out loud made everything sound uglier somehow.
I rubbed a tired hand over my face before answering quietly, “I managed mom.”

“That is not what I asked.” Her voice cracked at the end of the sentence, and suddenly I felt exhausted in a way I had not allowed myself to feel in years.

Like sitting in this house again had peeled away layers I spent years building around myself.

“I didn’t know how to come back,” I admitted finally.
Mom stared at me for a long moment before tears slipped down her cheeks again. “Oh, Kieran…”

She moved closer immediately and held my face between both hands, and for a second I genuinely felt seventeen again instead of twenty-nine.

“You foolish child,” she whispered shakily. “Did you really think this home would stop being yours because life became difficult? Or because your dad was being a jerk?”

Something tightened painfully in my throat.
I looked away before she could see it properly.
“Now you have a home, your family, your wife….” She looked at Vocenzo then back at me. “And people you can trust, and lean on to. Don't you ever think of that again okay? Run back to me when things get too much, momma will hide you behind her and deal with everyone with her slippers.” She held me tightly and I chuckled, my body light as air.

This is where I always belonged to….my parents!

My family!

But dad….

That wall still has to break.