Hendrick drove into a remote area. There weren't many houses located there and it was really quiet.
He got to a hill and had no choice but to park his car at the side of the road and continued his journey on foot. He only took his phone along with him and climbed up the hill.
When he got to the hilltop, he saw a house. It was a one storey building and it looked simple and unattractive on the outside.
He looked at his phone and the picture that was displayed on his screen was the picture of the same house he was standing before.
A small smile formed on his face as he slowly walked towards the house.He stood before the door and his smile was long gone. He seemed to be really nervous to meet whomever he was expecting to be in the house that he even found it hard to knock on the door. He kept on hesitating and retreating his hand as it got close to the door.
"C'mon, you can do this, you are already here." He mumbled words of encouragement to himself.
He let some air out of his mouth so as to try calming himself, then he forced his hands to knock on the door, making a loud banging sound.
He quickly held his hand back. "Are you trying to scare them?" He said to himself. He composed himself and tried knocking again, but before his hands could reach the door, the door swung open.
....
Charlotte drove to her parents villa.
"Welcome to my home and abode." She said as she led the way while Jane's eyes travelled around with a bored look on her face.
"I've seen better." Said jane.
Charlotte playfully hit Jane. "That was so brutal. If my dad were here, he'd hide his face in shame... You could at least pretend to be impressed and say something like 'whoa! Your house is so beautiful. It's like heaven on earth'."
"Okay. Whoa! Your house is so beautiful, it's like heaven on earth." She mimicked Charlotte.
Charlotte chuckled. "I know it didn't come from your heart, but it still felt so good hearing it from you."
Jane's playful expression disappeared. "Is your brother in?" She asked.
"Why?" Charlotte looked at Jane intently. "You are not thinking of starting a fight, are you?"
Jane shrugged. "Of course not, as long as he doesn't do anything stupid and stays away. Have you told him how scary I am?"
Charlotte laughed. "Yes I did and I might have exaggerated a little." She pulled Jane into the house.
A young lad was sitting on the couch playing a video game in the sitting room. He looked their way and rolled his eyes before refocusing his eyes on the tv screen.
Charlotte ran to him. "Tristan! What do you think you are doing?" She glared at him.
Tristan looked up at her with an annoyed look. "What does it look like I'm doing? Frying eggs?"
"Mom already told you a million times to play your silly games in your room."
"Yeah, so?" He tried shoving her out of the way.
"Then why are you here? You promised her you would be good little boy."
"Don't call me a little boy. I'm seventeen... And then, promises can be broken. So please just keep your mouth sealed, okay?" He nonchalantly responded.
Charlotte didn't even know what to say anymore, but when she remembered that Jane was there. A smirk appeared on her face and she went to Jane, pulling her till they were both standing in front of Tristan.
"Remember I told you I was friends with Jane Wilson?" Asked Charlotte.
Tristan looked up at Jane and he subconsciously gulped. "Yeah?"
"'I'm sure you also remember the stories I told you about her and what she would do to you whenever she comes here for a visit."
"You were only bluffing, right?" Asked Tristan in a slightly shaken voice.
Charlotte raised her brows challengingly. "Wanna find out?"
Jane was a little confused but she glared at Tristan.
He jumped over the couch in fear. "Mummy!" He screamed as he ran up the stairs.
....
Hendrick flinched back a little at the unexpected movement of the door, but it wasn't only because of the door. He also flinched because standing right before him was someone he had not seen since he was seven years old.
His mouth opened, but no words could come out of it. His eyes also got teary and he didn't bother fighting it back.
The person at the door was an old woman, her hair was totally gray and she had eye glasses on.
She looked at him from his head downwards in confusion and squinted her eyes as she looked at his face. She moved closer to him, very close that it could actually freak out a stranger, but Hendrick didn't back away. He too just kept looking at her without saying anything, his lips slightly quivering.
"Tony Rodriguez." She said with a frown, but then her eyes widened in shock. "Hendrick! Is this you?"
"Yes grandma... it's me, your little munchkin." He replied.
A gasp escaped her lips and she subconsciously took some steps backwards. "You... I.." she was short of words.
Hendrick rushed up to her and pulled her in for a hug. "I missed you terribly, grandma. I missed your warm hugs, your sweet smile and your melodious voice that puts me to sleep at night whenever you sang me lullabies." He let his tears fall freely.
"It really is you." She cried as she hugged him tight like he would disappear at any moment. "My little munchkin... You finally came back to me." She cried harder.
"Grandma?" A young guy was standing by the door, looking at Hendrick warily.
Hendrick pulled away from the hug and looked at the guy standing by the door. His eyes widened "Harry?" He said and it was surprising to the young man that a stranger knew his name.
Hendrick looked at his grandma while smiling widely. "Grandma, is that harry?" He excitedly asked.
The old woman smiled and nodded. "Yes, that's your Harry."
The young man glanced at the woman and back at Hendrick. "W-what do you mean by his Harry? Did... did you just sell me off to some stranger?"
Hendrick excitedly went to him and hugged him. "Harry!" He kissed his cheek.
"Ew! Please stop." He tried to free himself from Hendrick's arms, but Hendrick was way stronger. "I don't know what she told you, but I'm straight and not into men."
Hendrick loosened his grip, but still held him close. "What are you talking about? Don't you recognize your brother? It's me Hendrick."
"Hen?" Harry sounded confused as he looked intently at hendrick's face. "Oh my God! It really is you!" He finally responded to the hug.
He held hendrick's face. "I missed those sparkling blue eyes so much."
Hendrick pouted. "Not fair. I really missed you a lot and you only missed my eyes?" He jokingly asked and they all laughed.
"He missed you so much that he didn't stop crying for so long." said Georgia.
"Really?" Hendrick felt special to have been loved like that.
Harry looked away from h im. His ears were already red in embarrassment. "No, she's just exaggerating. I never shed a tear for you."
Hendrick let out a small chuckle. "Well, I'll admit that I was a cry baby for months until I got sick of it."
"I didn't stop crying for years." Georgia chimed in.
"Okay grandma. We are not having a competition of who cried and how long they did." He then smiled at Hendrick. "I must say I have not been able to take my eyes off you cuz your muscles are huge." He commented as he raised Hendrick's arm.
Hendrick flexed his muscles. "I can't say the same about you cuz I'm looking at you and I don't see a muscle." He made fun of Harry.
"I don't need muscles in order to be strong... Or handsome." He winked.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention how cute you've become. I thought I would see an obese and ugly looking guy, knowing you were such a glutton."
"That's exactly what I wanted bro, but no matter how much I eat, I still look so perfect." Harry flattered himself.
Hendrick looked at him with an amused expression. "Why would you wanna be ugly?"
"To chase away the stubborn flies that keep making annoying buzzing sounds close to my ears."
"Flies... Meaning girls?" Hendrick was confused.
"He doesn't want to admit it, but he's into men." Said Georgia.
"No, I'm not!" He retorted and faced Hendrick. "She just misunderstands because I haven't had a girlfriend before."
"Enough of the chitchat!" Georgia shouted at Harry, then her face went soft immediately she faced Hendrick. "I'm sure your legs must be hurting. Come in, I'll make you some tea." She held him as they walked into the house.
....
The sound of Charlotte's laughter filled the house. "What a scaredy-cat. One would think he just saw a ghost." She laughed harder. "You see, I told him how you get satisfaction from beating up guys like him and that one day I would invite you over to teach him a lesson."
They later went up to Charlotte's room. It was painted with the colours pink and purple. Also, almost all her belongings in the room were either purple or pink in colour.
Jane opened her mouth in surprise and that made Charlotte smile, thinking that Jane was impressed, but...
"What nightmare did I just walk into?"
Charlotte was thrown off balance by Jane's words. "Huh?"
"This... this is a shrine." Jane commented again.
"Okay, that's enough." Charlotte went to her wardrobe and took out two pajamas. "We came here for these, so pick one."
Jane looked at the pajamas that were on the bed. One was pink and the other was obviously purple.
"Can I pick none?" Asked Jane.
"Great choice, the purple pajama would really suit you." She picked up the purple pajama and threw it at Jane.
"But I didn't.."
Charlotte interrupted Jane. "La la la la la la." She picked up the pink pajama and left the room. "Shut my door when you leave the room."
Jane grumbled before leaving the room with the purple pajama.
....
Inside the house looked the opposite of what Hendrick Hendrick had expected. The interior design was so beautiful and looked a little expensive and so were the furnitures.
It came as a surprise to Hendrick as he did not expect that they would be able to afford those things.
"The designs are so cool, and they look expensive." Said Hendrick in awe.
"They are expensive, but not that expensive." Harry said and smiled. "You didn't think we would be able to afford it, huh?"
"You can't blame me for thinking that, especially when the house is located on a hill and looks distorted on the outside."
Harry laughed. "It's a long story, but the building of a house on a hill was all her idea." He pointed at Georgia.
Georgia sat Hendrick down on the couch. "I'll go make you tea." And with that, she dashed to the kitchen.
Hendrick saw a big picture frame that was hung up on the wall. It was a picture he had taken with his grandma, his mom and Harry on his seventh birthday.
"Tell me how you found us." Harry curiously asked.
Hendrick sighed. "It wasn't easy. I searched for three years and got nothing. I hired so many private searchers, giving them pictures of grandma to help me search for her. They went far and wide, asking around for her, but no one claimed to have seen her or know her. At a point, it was getting frustrating and overwhelming and I just didn't want to jump into conclusions that she... that she was.."
Harry patted Hendrick on the shoulder. "It's okay, you've seen her now and she's fine."
"Yeah." He sighed and continued. "I got a call from one of them yesterday and he said he saw grandma."
Harry's brows creased. "Where? Grandma barely leaves the house."
"He said she was by the lake."
"Oh, she does love the lake. It's also one of her reasons for wanting a house here."
Hendrick smiled. "So when he told me that over the phone, I was so excited, but at the same time I didn't want to get my hopes up, just in case he had made a mistake. Thankfully, he was able to clear my doubts when he sent me pictures of grandma and a video of her entering the house. I couldn't contain my joy and wanted to come right away, but I had other stuffs to take care of."
"I was going to search for you too, but there was no important info about you online, only stories about you being... you know.."
"Me being the illegitimate son of my father. Yeah, that was all his wife's doing." Said Hendrick.
Harry continued. "So I was gonna hire a private investigator to help me with that."
"You can afford that?" Hendrick asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I've got some money. I own a small restaurant." Harry proudly said.
"Wow, you seem to be doing pretty well for yourself... I'm proud of you."
Harry chuckled. "You sound like a proud dad, but thank you."
"Your tea is here." said Georgia as she gave him the cup of tea. "Drink it while it's still hot, okay? I'll go make dinner."
"But it's just five o'clock, dinner can wait." But what Hendrick said fell on deaf ears as she already left for the kitchen.
"You really are a blessing. Because of you, I'm going to be having a taste of grandma's food which I haven't in years." said Harry and they both laughed.