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“We can eat there,” I squeeze Melanie’s hand. My assistant knows my tastes well, and she has organized everything for us.
“On the jet?” Melanie asks me, a little bit stunned.
“Why not?”
“That sounds…” she thinks about the word for a second, then adds: “Extravagant.”
“Like owning a jet,” I counter.
“And wasting the company resources,” she quips.
“My company, my plane,” I tell her. “If I want to take my family for a getaway, I’m allowed to do it, don’t you think?”
“Whatever,” she says, rolling her beautiful green eyes, but a smile pulls up her lips.
Honestly, this is the first time I have taken so much pride in traveling with someone on a private jet.
Standing at the bottom of the stairs carrying my son and waiting for Melanie to come to us, I feel like a million dollars or a rockstar. I’d give them the entire world if they asked me for it. That’s a lie. They don’t need to ask. Everything I own and everything I am its ready to please them.
“Daddy, the plane is small. Are you sure it can fly?” Davi asks, pointing at the fuselage with his little finger.
“Very.” I clasp his shoulder and nod.
“Daddy, but how?” he insists.
“Are you an expert now? Mommy told me this is your first time on a plane.”
Davi frowns again. “I’ve seen bigger planes on the TV.”
He doesn’t know yet. But their safety matters to me the most. I won’t take any risk if they are involved.
“This baby can fly,” I tell him. “What if we take it for a ride?”
“Let’s go!” Davi cries while I run to the stairs and board the plane. Melanie is there, waiting for us, looking around with amazement.
She better gets used to all of this. Everything I have and everything I am is hers now.
???
After a short flight and an even shorter drive, we enter my father’s orchard’s—La Gloria—driveway. All the memories rush over me as an avalanche. My siblings and me running around the mango trees. The four of us riding our bikes and feeling like the princes of the Universe because we were allowed to go by ourselves to the convenience store.
My mother yelling at us because we went to the creek to swim on a hot summer afternoon. The joy, the love… and then the sadness. The rushed trip when my father called us with my mother’s news. The darkness… the solitude. Me, getting lost, until a green-eyed goddess broke the shadows with her light.
I give her a tight squeeze, and Melanie smiles at me, her eyes full of love and, yes, a hint of nervousness on them too. I understand perfectly, and as terrifying as it is for me, coming back to the place where everything happened, I’m happy to have her with me. To bring my son to my family’s home.
“Daddy, look! So many cars!” Davi yells from the back seat. My gaze flies to the line of cars parked in front of the old farmhouse I grew up in.
A spotless white Tesla. Gabriel.
A black Range Rover. I bet it is Martin’s.
And a red Porshe. Ruben.
Elena, the little of the litter, doesn’t need to drive. She and her husband live on the property with her daughter.
I wasn’t expecting this. When my father said he would be waiting for us, I was picturing just us. Melanie, Davi, my father, and I having a quiet dinner tonight, paving the way before meeting the rest of the clan. I’d suspected they would come at some point for lunch, as they usually do. This is ahugesurprise indeed.
My heart pumps even harder until it’s all I hear. I’m not the same guy that left this place years ago. I’m not the same coward anymore. If any of my siblings is planning to start a rift, I’ll stand. For me and for those who matter the most.
