Emily

"Evan wanted to share the plan with you, but I wanted to let you before he does. We were planning a thanksgiving lunch. We don't know where or anything of that sort. We're still planning.."

"I'm in." he said. "Not like I have any plans. We can do it at my place. We can do it on the weekend and have sleepovers. I have enough rooms for everyone to have a sleepover."

"You have more than just enough rooms."

He shrugged. "Usually, Mr. Harper and I celebrate thanksgiving together. I think its time for us to celebrate with more people. He will be happy to know that."

"Don't you have any plans with your family?" I asked.

"We don't celebrate birthdays or festivals with each other." he said and I felt sorry for him. At least, my parents make sure to celebrate festivals together.

"Don't give me that look." he said and before I could ask him what he meant by that. He added, "The guilty look. You don't have to feel guilty about anything. Its not even your fault to begin with."

"How can you still be so..." I tried to search for a word that could describe him. "strong?"

He laughed. "Strong? I go to the gym and do a lot of exercise."

"That's not what I meant." I said as we stopped outside his garage's gate and the security opened the gate for him to drive inside.

"I was just teasing you." He said as he parked his car. "I can hide emotions very well. One thing my Dad taught us good was to hide our emotions. While growing up, he made sure we didn't show much emotions in public. He said its not good to show too much emotions in public. People can use that against you."

"Are you allow to show affection in public then?" I asked and he laughed.

"I don't give a sh*t about that anymore. We are humans after all." he sighed. "We react to all sorts of things."

"Is it another way of going against your Dad?"

"Its not like he cares much about it, anyway. He thinks I'm showing teenage tantrum to get his attention. My brothers went on those phases where they got drunk, smoke and did all sorts of illegal and bad things. Now they got their sh*t together. He expect the same thing from me. He thinks I will grow up soon and then after studies I will be working for him like my brothers." He took off his seatbelt.

Little did his Dad knew, his son was making his own path, rather than walking on the path, that was built for him already.

Mr. Harper was not at all surprise to see me over and told me he made some snacks for us.

"Did you tell him I was coming over?" I asked him.

"Yes." He said as he helped me took off my jacket.

We shared the macaroons that he bought and ate sandwiches and the snacks that Mr. Harper prepared for us.

Mr. Harper sat down with us as well for snacks and shared some interesting stories about Everett. Mr.Harper have been single through out his life, and have been working with the Levi even before Everett was born. The way Mr. Harper spoke about Everett with pride made me happy.

Everett was embarrassed and his ear turned red when Mr. Harper brought some embarrassing stories about him or praised him.

He told me how one time, Everett was trying to cook by himself for the first time and the fire alarm went off and he asked Mr. Harper if he wanted baked potatoes instead of putting off the alarm.

"I was flustered." He said to me and I laughed a little.

They went campings and fishing together and its almost like a father and son bond.

After snacks, we went to his room. We sat down on the carpet, facing each other.

"You learnt a lot about me today." He said.

"Yes." I smiled. "It give me a little insight about you."

"Will you let me in as well?" He asked curiously.

"I have been, didn't I?" I asked.

"Do you still want to talk to me about yesterday's or should we pretend we never had that conversation? I don't want you feeling uncomfortable talking about something you don't want to."

"I've never told anyone about this before." I sighed as I looked at my hand.

"Why do you think your dad doesn't like you?" He asked and I looked up to see his face. His face was curious.

"He said he can't look at me without remembering what my biological father did to him."

He blinked a couple of times. His face tells me he didn't understand.

"When I was little, I once woke up in the middle of the night, due to some noises from downstairs. I've never seen my parents screamed before."

I watched him and he was waiting patiently for me to continue.

"They were fighting about something and my Dad mentioned something about him regretting adopting me."

He took a sharp breath. "Em.."

"My little self didn't know what adoption meant.." I shrugged. "My cousin called me stupid for not knowing what adoption meant."

"How old were you?"

"Five." I said.

"You were too young to understand."

I shrugged.

"My parents told me the whole truth the day we were suppose to go on our first date."

And his mouth dropped a little.

"My mom took me out for brunch and shared with me about my biological parents and told me how my biological father ran away with my Dad's money. My Dad struggled financially after that. My biological Dad didn't know that his wife was pregnant with me and when I was born, my biological mom thought she wouldn't be able to provide basic necessity to me and give me up for adoption."

"Em.." he said in a softer tone. "You don't have to share if you don't feel like.."

"I've been wanting to talk to someone about it for a while."

He nodded. "I'm listening.

"I felt bad.. my Dad told me that he couldn't look me on my face without remembering those harsh time, him and my mom had to face because of my biological father."

He was quiet for a moment.

"You know what I think about this?" He said looking me straight in the eyes.

"What?"

"You shouldn't be feeling bad in this situation because it's not your fault. It's not your fault your biological father ran away with the money, it's not your fault your biological mother give you up for adoption, and it's not your fault that whatever struggle your parents went through because of your biological parents. Your parents were the one who made the decisions to lend money, it was their decision to adopt you and I'm sorry, they said that to you because no one should ever feel like they are not wanted."