ELENA

I wake up to Mrs Harris's text inviting me for breakfast. It is then to my surprise that after I have read her text, I hear the voice downstairs. I then notice that she sent the message a while ago and I am yet noticing it. My eyes pop out of their sockets as I jump off the bed and make the bed.

I run to the bathroom, brush my teeth and take a shower which I thought would be short but turns out to be long. I am fearing what my father could be chatting with Justin's mother. The last time she was at our house, she thought I was pregnant and left thinking so.

Soon I am in a gown and I head downstairs. I put my hands before my bump to make it less visible as I only plan on remaining on the stairs for the sake of any of them not noticing my bump.

"Goodmorning." I delightfully release. "Mrs Harris. I'm yet seeing your text but I'll be down in a second." Is that not what we all say? I will be there is a sec when actually we might mean an hour.

I go through one of my dresses again. I still got nothing. Did not yesterday prove that? I sigh as I am starring at my wardrobe. I decide to wear my long cream tight fit dress with a light weight oversized jersey that does not make a bad thing at all but it looks like a planned outfit. Heel! Good thing I can still walk in them in my state. I pick out block offwhite sandlas heels and head out.

"Have a good day, dad." I kiss my dad goodbye as Mrs Harris will be driving us to the restaurant for breakfast.

We arrive in less than thirty minutes. It would be less than twenty if it weren't for traffic but we arrived after all and ordered. I was already hungry, plus eating has never been a problem for a pregnant woman. I feel like I am eating for five. Or that every food I consume is being eaten by someone else a lot than me. THE CONSUMER!

"What are we even going to name you little guy?" I hear myself say. A slip of a tongue.

"Sorry?" Mrs Harris pardons, and I giggle.

"Oh, excuse me. I'm trying to balance off my schedule for the day. Just in case I do forget important meetings." I lie.

Mrs Harris and I get on with breakfast chatty and she becomes open to me that she was just here to check up on me because her son is just soo worried about me. Jeez. I wonder how he is going to react when he I tell him I am pregnant. How overprotective he is actually going to be.

After our breakfast, we have juices to carry down the food and I should admit. I should eat out for breakfast in restaurants more frequent. It's calm, less occupied and the view in the morning is the best.

It is right here that I see the guy from the parking lot the other day. What was his name again? Earl! He enters and talks to the receptionist and seeing him reminds me of my tattoo as I even caress it under my hair which is let down today. My eyes remain on him, studying him.

"We should get going. I've got some meeting with the ladies. I hope mine doesn't go like yours yesterday." Mrs Harris says. I have told her about yesterday's crisis.

Ealr looks exactly at me when he turns like his senses told him where the stare is coming from and I immediately look away to face Mrs Harris as I let out a nervous giggle. I see Earl approaching from the corner of my eye.

"Good morning, ladies. Mrs Harris." Earl greets and as Mrs Harris joyfully replies, I just nod. "Do you mind if I join?" He continues.

What does he mean do we mind? Of course we do. What does he think this is? A guys' night out. Mrs Harris stands up to pat his back.

"Unfortunately, I'm on my way to a meeting now. But I'm sure Elena doesn't mind. I'll leave you two." Mrs Harris says. What is she trying to do? "Surely drive the lady home after. Be a gentleman. I trust you, Earl." She continues as she leaves.

My eyes never stop to fill the entire restaurant after Mrs Harris left and Earl took his seat. Until Earl giggles and I suddenly feel his fingers on my arm. I look at him to find him looking at my circular ring like birthmark on one of my arms when heading for the biceps. I look at his revealed arms to find him having the same and it looks like this is getting more complicated.

"I won't bite you, little sis. You can trust me." He says, leading me to be more scared. Sis!

I chuckle unbelievably.

"Shouldn't go around claiming people, that could be a crime." I say, and this time he chuckles.

"Elena Sam, right? More like Elena Cross." He carries on and his words somehow cut deep in my heart. The whole fact that there is a chance that he might be right hurts me the most but I will not willingly agree. I am Patrick Sam's daughter.

"Just because we have the same birthmarks doesn't make us siblings. This things happen. Where do you stay? Under a rock?" I laugh at the end, having a sip of my juice as I sight at other actions.

He pays less attention to what I have just said as he takes out his phone, goes through it for a while before he puts it before me. Its a picture of an old man with the same birthmark.

"That is grandad Mayhem." He states, scrolling to show me more pictures of the people with the same birthmark, introducing each one of them and the more he goes is the more I get shocked. "And here is my beloved father and mother. Rebecca and Fatim Cross. I'm sure in this state you've met the father only." He continues.

My eyes glare around the mother figure. Something about her looks so familiar. It's like i have seen her before. She would look a lot like mother if It was not for her bobbed her and the makeup. My mother never put makeup in her photos at home. This overwhelms me in a way that I feel tears fill my eyeballs and that I am ought to break off. I eruptly stand up.

"I won't stand here and tolerate all of this." I utter. "Could someone get me the bill." I shout. Earl also stands up at my accord, not looking very pleased about my reaction.

"That's because it's the truth." He yells. "As much as you don't want to believe this but I want to get to the bottom of what is going on. I want to know what relationship did my mother have with that Patrick guy." He continues.

His last words take my breathe away. Patrick! My dad. That woman in the photo is really mother. I find myself breathing heavily as I have my hand at my chest and tears shade down my face without hesitation. Its as if they just saw an opportunity and ran with it.

"Elena, breath." Earl now has me in his arms and forcing water down my throat. "Do it for your baby, Elena. Come on, we still need you. I just found you." He continues.

I look at him through the corner of my teary eyes. This considerate guy who has a lot of hope that I am somehow related to him. The next thing he carries me outside and puts me on one of the chairs outside. The air outside somehow helps, i start to breath heavily as I regain my strength.

"What do you want from me?" I ask.

"Please, just give me your time." He says. I take a while before I could reply. "We could take a walk in the mall, maybe the kids' playground. I'm sure you'd love to see what you are going to experience." He suggests and somehow manages to pull a smile on my face.

He takes me to the mall and the next thing I am watching young little kids running around in the playground. Laughing becomes a big part of my day. We then head for snacks and shakes and my day with Ealr actually becomes great.

"How does it actually feel getting married to Justin Harris and having his baby?" He asks as we have been talking about me for the past hours. I smile.

"Not bad." I decide to act like it is not such a big deal, even though it is. Earl gasps sarcastically. "Oh, fine. It actually feels like the best thing that has ever happened to me. I just hope that he really does want to have this baby." I continue, hiding how broke I would actually be if he does not.

"Come on, my little sister is pretty, smart and educated with a good personality. Who wouldn't want to have kids with you?" He comments, and I clear my throat at what he has just called me. "Sorry, my tongue slipped." He continues and I nod.

"Enough about me already." I decide to change the topic. "Tell me about yourself." I proceed, even leaning more to show that I am all ears.

He chuckles.

"I am just a normal guy." He let's out.

"Haa, come on. There's got to be something." I say.

"Well, I am the heir of the Cross family. That makes me the CEO of Cross Sarenity Wears. Married and got a kid." He states, and I gasp.

"You have a kid! How old is the little buddy or it is a teenager?" I ask, horrifying the last part because teenagers are not as cute and innocent as little babies.

"Relax, she's only five and her name is Luyana. I named her after my late sister. I had promised that would be her name until she couldn't make it." He utters, and I caress his hand as my face saddens up.

"I'm sorry. I bet she'd be the most precious." I comfort.

EARL

This day it the best day of my life. Even though Miss Gina was able to get us a glass Elena had used as a DNA sample, but I doubt I can actually wait for them. I can already feel my connection with Elena. It is as if our blood has some sort of electric charge, attracting one another.

We have just wrapped up our walk in the mall after we had lunch. It has really been that long. Now we are heading for my car over snacks and Elena has a medium sized paper bag that has baby clothes in white colour since she is not sure about the gender. But what I can tell is that my little nephew or niece is a quite a consumer.

"Ouch!" Elena screams as she has just bumped into a lady on our way and scattered the clothes on the floor.

Shit. We have not been looking. We were too busy giggling. Elena is now holding tight to her bump, wincing on her face as she breaths and stands up straight and I have ran to support her. I am pulled out of being worried about Elena by an evil laughter and i raise my eyes to see the woman figure standing before us.

"What is this? Please tell me you bought this for someone else." As the woman says, Elena chuckles unbelievably as she pulls her jersey that nearly fell off her shoulders.

"That is none of your business, Bridget." Elena says as she snatches the paper bag from the 'Bridget' woman.

"Beat it, slut. Justin doesn't want babies. And as for your career, you can kiss it goodbye." Okay, this Brigdet sounds mean. "Oh, Elena. I thought it would be hard getting rid of you but you just helped me. Thanks for that. I'll step in now." Bridget continues as she leaves.

I feel like I should stand up for Elena. If I do not do it, then who will do it? Regardless of what the DNA test results are going to say, what i am sure of is that Elena and I are family. She might not be my sibling but I know blood is thicker than water. My hands clench into fists as the thought of being angry because of how Bridget just treated Elena.

"Hey, Bridget." Elena yells, looking like she is ought to start a fight from her tone. "You left something behind." She continues, and Bridget turns.

"What?" She asks aggressively.

"This!" Elena raises her middle finger towards Bridget.

Ohh, okay. Shout out for Elena. I give her a high five as Bridget leaves pissed. I then help her pick up the rest of the baby clothes from the ground and put them back in the paper bag.

"Let's get you home, I'm sure you've had enough." I say, and luckily we are just a few steps away from my car.

I take out my car keys and my grey audi r8 goes off.

"Ohh, brother has got just a wet car. This is one of the latest models." Elena goes off.

I am going to ignore the fact that she just called me brother. Or am I really not the only one feeling this connection between us.

"Oh, come on. Says someone who is driving a BMW M8. Get in already." I say, and she really does look like she is impressed by the car as she does not dare but to glare around. "So, where am I dropping you off?" I ask as I have started the car engine.

"Claymont, DE 19703." She delightfully replies.

We head on the road silently like a huge bomb has just been dropped between us. I am lugging in my mind. Maybe I should invite her for dinner someday at the Cross mansion or maybe I should not. Okay, how about I buy her a little present to thank her for today. Geez, Earl. You are overreacting this. You will only just chase her away.

We reach her place and she sighs as I park the car. I look at her to find her bending her head and playing with her not too long probably acrylic nails in the cutest design. She looks sad. I unfasten my seat belt to look at her.

"Do you think we might be related?" Her question breaks off, and I sigh.

Of course, I do. But since I can see that she is having a hard time processing this, I should probably lay low. This girl grew up knowing herself as Elena Sam and then suddenly she discovers she might actually be a Cross. This tells her that the people she has trusted have actually been lying to her and it could hurt her. The baby needs to be protected too. I smile.

"We don't know, but all I know is that I feel the right to love you as a sibling and take care of you." I release and she hardly forms a smile. "Would you maybe sometime like to have dinner with us. Mom is away for some time. It will probably just be me, you, dad, my wife, Luyana and Ben." I request and she giggles. I saw it in her eyes that she wants to meet Luyana.

"Who the heck is Ben?" She asks in her giggle.

"My cousin. Crazy one for that matter of a fact but a tough girl like you can manage." I say and she smiles brightly.

The way she has just brought it up. Exactly like mother in the day light. Her eyes shine beautifully brown just like hers and her hair colour. The only resemblance she has in the Cross family is the birthmark. Forget it, Earl. The sooner you realize that your little sister died the better. Mother could never lie to you for as long as this.

"I would love that. Tomorrow should be fine for me, that's the only day I'll be free. Thank you for today." She says as she steps down the car and I watch her until she has entered her house.

Is this Patrick's house? Obviously. Not bad for a priest. I just smile and head back home. I cannot wait to get home and tell dad all about this. The first thing I do after recklessly parking my car in my father's yard is run out and enter he house yelling.

"Dad!" I continue. "Dad!"

He shows up, "what on earth is going on with you lately? Shouldn't you be at your house? I heard you were also missing from the office today."

"Dad, I have been with Elena all day and she agreed to come and have dinner with us tomorrow." I watch my dad's pale face light up at this hearing, and he laughs.

"Good job, sonny." He says as he gives me a manly hug.