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CHAPTER1
MaKayla Prada
I locked the door to the restaurant as the last employee left. It had been a long day and I knew I wasn’t the only one tired, my mother was too. It was time to address what she had mentioned while we were closing. I was sure she thought I would be excited to hear, but it had the exact opposite effect on me. I had to hide my emotions with the staff around, but I couldn’t do so any longer.
I headed to the office at the back of the restaurant. My mother was still sitting at the desk tolling up all the slips from the night. Without even looking up from the pile she said, “This was one heck of a Valentine’s Day. I don’t think we had a vacant seat all evening.”
My aching feet were enough proof of that. When I turned twenty-one, mom made me an equal partner in the restaurant, and we split duties based on our strengths. Mom handled the financial side while I ran the rest of the restaurant. Thankfully we had dedicated staff that worked almost as hard as we did. The cash bonus they received for working on a holiday was definitely an additional perk. But their loyalty went beyond that. We all worked together and treated each other as family.
It was odd because family was all I had been thinking about, especially lately. And tonight, being all about couples in love and overhearing them speak about their futures together, or their children home with the babysitter, made me jealous. I had no one waiting for me. The restaurant unfortunately had become my life.I’m not willing to settle for that.
I couldn’t talk to mom about everything I was feeling, but there were things that couldn’t wait. “Mom, can we talk?” I asked, taking the seat across from her. I was sure she could tell from my tone that I was about to say something important.
Mom put down the receipts she’d been working on and looked at me. “Of course. Did something happen in the restaurant that I missed tonight? Because everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Was it the sea scallops wrapped in bacon? I wasn’t sure if that was a good appetizer for Valentine’s Day, but I know they are one of your favorites.”
No, Mom. It’s not the food or the staff. It’s us.I prepared myself for the difficult conversation, but she obviously wasn’t picking up on my mood. But she was going to, once she knew the topic I intended to broach.
“It has nothing to do with dinner. It’s what you said right before we started closing.”
Mom smiled. “You mean the birthday trip to Fiji, just you and me?”
The one I am not going on.“You know we can’t go on a trip together. Who would run the restaurant?” I asked, not caring about the answer.
She waved a hand and shook her head. “Is that what this is all about?”Not all, but a little part of it.“You have nothing to worry about. I’ve already thought about that. We are going to give all the employees a week off with pay. After all, this is your birthday celebration MaKayla. It is not every day that you turn twenty-five.”
That was an option, even though a costly one. She’d done it a few times in the past when I was young and not old enough to run the place in her absence. That’s not the case now. Also, there was no need for such an elaborate birthday celebration. “Mom, my birthday was two weeks ago or did you forget that you baked me a carrot cake with the most delicious cream cheese frosting I’ve ever had?”
“I’m glad you liked it.”
“Loved it. But that’s not the point. And besides that, twenty-five is not even a special birthday.”
She gasped. “All your birthdays are special. You’re special.”
Every mother thinks that about their child. There was nothing special about me. If there was, then I would know where I came from. I’d have family besides my mother. But there had always been just the two of us and she never spoke of anyone. Not even one person from her past, her childhood. She wasn’t hatched from an egg or dropped by aliens from some planet. She had parents, and maybe even siblings. Yet every time I asked, all she would say was there was just us.Like no one wants us.
I had no idea why. There were things I knew were safe to cross off. It was highly unlikely that we were on some witness protection, and I was pretty sure my mom wasn’t a secret agent, and we were living a secret life either. But this wasn’t about her, it was about me.
“You know what I mean, Mom. I don’t need a trip for my birthday. There’s only one thing I want.”The same thing I’ve been asking for as long as I can remember. Who was my father?
I knew she said he died when I was a baby, but his name wasn’t on my birth certificate. And I still didn’t know what it was. Even after all these years.
“MaKayla, it’s been a long day. Why don’t we talk about this another time,” she tried suggesting.
Brushing it off was something we did all the time. I was tired of waiting. If she couldn’t or wouldn’t help me find my father’s family, then I was going to take matters into my own hands.Just not going to let you know about it.
“Mom, just because I want to know more about him doesn’t mean I don’t love and appreciate you. It’s just that...I feel as though there is....”
“You’re not missing anything. Your father loved you and before he died, he made sure to provide for you and your future. That’s how we have been able to afford everything, even the restaurant. But what I haven’t told you is he also wanted to make sure I protected you from his family. They aren’t...nice people. He didn’t want you to be exposed to them at all. Isn’t that enough?” she asked.
This was more, but not what I’d expected. What did she mean, he wanted to protect me? How horrible could his family really be? And even if they were horrible people, it’s my father that I want to know about right now. I had a great life, a wonderful mother, and an abundance of friends. I couldn’t help this gnawing feeling I had. I wanted more. Even if his family wasn’t nice, it didn’t change the fact that they were stillmyfamily.
“Mom, that was long ago. Maybe they changed.”Maybe they are wishing to know me just like I want to know them.
She shook her head. “No. People like that don’t change. Now you know all you need to know about your father. I don’t want to talk about it any longer.”
I could see her getting upset, and there was sadness filling her eyes, and her tone said that the wall was back up. She wasn’t going to talk about it any longer. There was no point in putting a wedge in our relationship. She was right, my father left us comfortable. It was time I took some of that money and used it to look for my answers another way.
Changing the subject I said, “Do we have to go to Fiji?”
