A Family For Keeps

by Rheland Richmond

  A Family For Keeps

  Rheland Richmond

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Nathaniel

  2. Tristan

  3. Tristan

  4. Nathaniel

  5. Tristan

  6. Nathaniel

  7. Tristan

  8. Nathaniel

  9. Tristan

  10. Nathaniel

  11. Tristan

  12. Tristan

  13. Nathaniel

  14. Tristan

  15. Nathaniel

  16. Tristan

  17. Nathaniel

  18. Nathaniel

  19. Tristan

  20. Nathaniel

  21. Tristan

  22. Nathaniel

  23. Tristan

  24. Nathaniel

  25. Tristan

  26. Nathaniel

  27. Tristan

  28. Nathaniel

  29. Tristan & Nathaniel

  30. Nathaniel

  31. Tristan

  32. Nathaniel

  33. Tristan

  34. Nathaniel

  35. Tristan

  36. Nathaniel

  37. Tristan

  38. Nathaniel

  39. Tristan

  40. Nathaniel

  41. Tristan

  42. Nathaniel

  43. Tristan

  44. Tristan

  45. Nathaniel

  46. Tristan

  47. Nathaniel

  Epilogue

  THANKS FOR READING!

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Copyright © 2018 Rheland Richmond

  All rights reserved.

  Cover art by Jay Aheer, Simply Defined Art

  Edited by Sara Miller (Pretty Little Book PR)

  Proofreading : Tanja Ongkiehong & Theresa Preston

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  A Family for Keeps is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  To my first writing partner Richmond. Rest in peace my beautiful angel. Always & Forever little bro.

  Check it out Big sis finally finished a book.

  I miss you every minute of every day.

  Prologue

  Tristan

  “Hello?”

  “Tristan Callahan?” a female voice on the other end of the line asked.

  “Yes?”

  “This is the Los Angeles Police Department. I’m sorry to inform you that your sister Shannon has been involved in an automobile accident. She’s at the hospital.”

  Tristan sat up abruptly, immediately breaking out in a cold sweat.

  “What! Wait… Is she okay?…. She’s okay right? Tell me she’s okay,” he managed to get out.

  “I...uhh...I… I'm on my way. I… I’m in Connecticut; I’ll get there as soon as I can,” Tristan stammered out, not giving the person on the other end of the phone a chance to get a word in.

  He ended the call, tossed the covers aside, and hopped out of bed. He called out to his roommates, “Teo. Lain. Cris. Shannon’s had an accident. I think it’s bad; I need to get to LA now.”

  He hastily pulled on his clothing and pushed his feet into his shoes. He shoved his cell phone and wallet into his pocket and hurried out of his room.

  “Tris, hold on. What’s going on?” Teo asked groggily as he came out of the room opposite Tristan’s. “I got a call from LAPD, Shannon was in an accident, and they need me to get there as soon as possible,” Tristan replied.

  “Hold on, Tris, let me call my mom and dad. They can get there sooner than we can,” Teo said, quickly pulling his phone out while trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes.

  He felt like he couldn’t breathe. Shannon was fine; she just had to be. She was his only family left, and he hadn’t seen her in nearly six months. He hadn’t gone home for the break. Since it was his final year at Yale, he’d been super busy. He had projects and finals, plus he figured he’d be moving back immediately after graduation anyway.

  He’d spoken to her yesterday, and they’d been texting all day before he fell asleep. She’d sounded great; she just had to be alright! Right? She’d sounded fine when he’d spoken to her, was the only information his brain seemed capable of processing right now.

  “Breathe in and out,” Lain said. “Breathe, Tris, you’re having a panic attack. You need to breathe, Tristan,” Lain said urgently. Tristan could hear his best friends and roommates talking around him but couldn’t focus on anything they were saying. He knew he was having a panic attack. They only ever happened when he was terrified or under extreme amounts of stress.

  Why did he have this dreadful feeling in the pit of his stomach? They’d said it was an accident, so why did he feel cold everywhere? He felt like he couldn’t get enough oxygen into his system no matter how hard he tried.

  Shannon wasn’t only his big sister; she was his biggest supporter, his best friend, and constant cheerleader. She’d stood by him after their parents threw him out for having the audacity to come out at sixteen. She’d cut off all contact with them too. Because she said if their love for him was conditional, then she didn’t want to have anything to do with them either.

  That was his Shannon, his champion; she just had to be okay. They’d just celebrated his final exam over the phone and were planning to celebrate properly when she came down for his graduation.

  Plus, she had sounded so excited the last few months. Every time they had spoken, she’d kept dropping hints about having a huge surprise for him. She’d sounded so animated and joyful about something. That meant she was fine, right? It just had to. Tristan could feel himself grasping at straws, but he couldn’t help it. He had this empty, cold feeling in his stomach… heart… body. He didn’t know where, but he felt deep down that all wasn’t right.

  “Tris! Tris! Tristan, focus,” Teo said, snapping his fingers in his face trying to get his attention. “I’ve just spoken to my parents, and they’re on the way to the hospital now. Although I don’t know how much they’ll tell them, seeing as they’re not related. I’ve booked us on a flight home, and I'm going with you.”

  “Are you sure?” Lain interrupted.

  “Yeah, yeah, I am. He can’t travel by himself. My last exam was two days ago, and my final project is done. You can hand that in for me or Cristian can. Tristan’s already had his final exam yesterday, so he’s covered,” Teo replied.

  Tristan could see Teo’s mouth moving, but the blood rushing to his ears meant that he couldn’t hear a word of what was being said. It all sounded like gibberish to him. It felt like Teo was talking from miles away, even though he was right in front of him.

  Teo tried to be the voice of reason. “Tris, I’m sure it's not as bad as you're imagining. Shannon is going to be alright.” Part of him wanted to scream, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” But it wasn’t his fault. Teo had been his best friend since the first grade. Mariana, Teo’s sister, and Shannon were pretty tight too, having all grown up together.

  It was Teo and his parents who took him in when his parents kicked him out and cut him off. His sister Shannon or S
hay, as she preferred being called, was at law school at the time, and he didn’t want to go away and live with her so close to his senior year. So they had let him stay and unofficially adopted him into their family.

  He wasn’t quite sure how he ended up dressed and at the airport. Tristan felt like he was in a daze or some sort of trance he couldn’t seem to snap himself out of, no matter how hard he tried.

  The next thing he knew he was leaving LAX and on his way to the hospital. He had either slept through the whole flight, or his mind was… he didn’t know what his mind was doing, but he couldn’t remember a single minute of the almost five-hour flight.

  Now he had to snap out of it and be there for Shay! Like she had always been there for him. He took a deep breath bracing himself, then walked up to the nurse’s station and said, “I need to see someone; I got a phone call that said my sister Shannon Callahan was brought here.”

  He was trying not to imagine the worst, but when the police called you about an accident it was never good. He watched all the crime shows. The police only called the family when it was really bad. He just knew. Deep down in the depths of his soul he knew. Especially because Shay would have called him. She knew he would worry, so if she was capable of it, she would have called him herself. He felt like his mind was sending too much information through all at once.

  His mind kept screaming at him, “Why hadn’t Shannon called him herself? It was bad, right? It had to be bad, or Shay would have called. That meant it was bad. Oh, God.” He felt like he was losing his freakin’ mind.

  Too many thoughts were coming at him at once. None of them good.

  A man in rumpled clothing who was standing off to the side talking to a harried-looking doctor in scrubs walked up to him. He gently pulled him aside and introduced himself as Detective Kingsley. He must have overheard Tristan ask about Shannon because he said, “Are you Tristan Callahan?”

  Tristan nodded. “Yes. Where is my sister?” he asked.

  “May we see some ID, please?”

  “I said where is my sister?” he replied, this time impatiently.

  “Sir, please calm down. We cannot release any information till your identity is confirmed,” the detective said.

  He pulled out his wallet and showed the detective his driver’s license.

  “What happened?” he asked again.

  The detective finally replied, “A truck ran a red light.”

  At the detective’s news, Tristan curled in on himself, like he was trying to hide away from what he just knew was coming next. He was too stunned to speak, his mind going completely blank. He felt like the information was not adding up, like two plus two equals ten.

  Beside him, he heard Teo gasp, “Oh no!” His friend immediately hugged Tristan around his waist like he was trying to share his strength and keep him upright.

  The detective continued the explanation. “From what we gathered at the scene, it appears the other driver was intoxicated, but as it’s an ongoing investigation, we cannot reveal too many details.”

  He was going to be sick! “Is she,” his voice cracked, so he swallowed and cleared his throat. “Is she okay? Please tell me she’s going to be okay.” he managed to croak out.

  “She was in a very bad way when the paramedics were trying to stabilize her and her baby, as the ambulance left the scene of the accident.” The detective replied evasively. Tristan couldn’t help but notice the man hadn’t actually answered the question.

  “Baby! What baby? I think you have the wrong person,” Tristan said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Shannon wasn’t pregnant,” he added. The detective looked down at his notebook and said “Shannon Marie Callahan,” and gave Shannon’s address. Tristan nodded. “Yes, but Shay wasn’t pregnant. She would have told me!”

  “She was, Tris.” He heard from behind him. He turned around and saw Mariana, Teo’s sister, standing there with her fiancé holding her tightly. “She was pregnant, and she was so excited to tell you, but she wanted you to be done with school and back home because she knew you would worry about her since the baby’s father wasn’t in the picture.”

  “She was going to surprise you at your graduation, even though she would totally have been too pregnant to fly. She swore she wasn’t going to miss it, even if she had to drive all the way to Connecticut. She knew you were each other’s cheering sections.”

  He turned to the detective after hearing what Mariana had to say, waiting to hear what the man said with a dreadful knot in his belly.

  Another detective approached. “Can we have your parents’ details so we can notify them?”

  Tristan felt like his head would explode. People kept hurling words at him, but nobody had told him if his sister, and he guessed her baby, were okay.

  “CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW MY SISTER IS, OR TAKE ME TO SEE HER,” he practically yelled at the detectives.

  Tristan fought back the tears. He could tell by the expression on their faces that something bad had happened. Teo held onto him tighter, almost like he thought Tristan might splinter apart if he didn’t hold on. He wasn’t entirely sure he wouldn’t if he was being honest.

  The detective motioned to a haggard-looking young doctor standing beside him, his eyes were grave, scrubs covered in blood and what he imagined were other things that came out of the human body. He really didn't care at this point. He just wanted to know about his sister. He was sure the detective had it wrong. Right? He just had to be wrong!

  “Dr. Lane here can give you more details,” the older of the two detectives said. Tristan couldn’t even remember the man’s name. But who could blame him?

  “I'm sorry, Mr. Callahan, your sister didn't make it. Her internal injuries were just too severe, and we couldn’t stop the bleeding,” the doctor said.

  “I delivered the baby. It's a healthy baby girl.” Tristan slumped against Teo and let out a wail that sounded like an animal dying. He didn’t want a baby; he wanted his sister. She was all the family he had in this world.

  The tears he'd been holding back slid down his cheeks. “But I just spoke to her. She was fine; she has a surprise for me.” He looked at Teo. “She said she had a surprise for me. Teo, tell them.”

  Tris could see the tears glistening in Teo’s eyes, but he felt numb. It was like his body had shut down, refusing to process the information it was being given.

  The doctor gently touched Tristan’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Mr. Callahan, she was pronounced here at the hospital.” He felt like they were speaking a foreign language. He said again, “But I just spoke to her. She’s good. She was coming for my graduation.”

  Teo held him tighter. He felt like he was going to disintegrate into nothing and his heart was being pulled out of his chest while he was still breathing. “I have to see her. I have to see her,” he repeated. “She can’t be dead. She just can’t. I need to see my sister,” he wailed. “Shannon wouldn’t leave me. She would never leave me.”

  He kept repeating “She wouldn’t leave me” like it was a prayer and saying it would stop what they were telling him from being true.

  “Teo, you know Shay wouldn’t leave me. She wouldn’t leave me… tell them Shay would never leave. She promised she’d always be there. She swore it. She said it was the two of us against the world. Tell them, Tee, please tell them,” he begged, looking pleadingly to his best friend.

  Teo looked helplessly over at his parents and sister, almost hoping they knew what to say or do. He certainly didn’t. At the identical looks of sorrow on their faces, he shook his head, looking down at the floor, unable to meet Tristan’s eye.

  “I’m so sorry, Mr. Callahan, I wish I could tell you otherwise, but your sister did pass away. We did everything we could to save her, but she made her wishes clear to do anything necessary to save her child that she was the top priority. Would you like to see your niece?” the doctor asked compassionately.

  “Give him a minute,” he heard Mr. Wright, Teo’s dad, say. He had somehow missed Teo’s parents being
there. He was in a complete fog, with his mind muddled. He was hoping this was just some cruel trick because the alternative was simply unfathomable.

  Tristan was drowning, his chest burning, like someone had physically ripped his heart out.

  “Your sister's last words were that she loved you and that you should take care of her baby girl. I'm sorry for your loss,” the man said before walking away after leaving Tristan with those parting words that he wasn’t sure what to do with.

  Tristan sank down to the floor in shock, breath hitching. “What do I know about raising a baby? I'm just twenty-two. I’m just about to graduate, and Shannon is gone. I can’t be a father. What am I supposed to do with a baby?” He gave in to the tears, sobbing uncontrollably in Teo’s arms.

  1

  Nathaniel

  Four and a half years later

  “You cannot be Emma’s biological father.” He felt like that statement was on repeat in his head, and he couldn’t turn it off.

  Blood Type B and Type O cannot equal A was all Nathaniel remembered the doctor saying.

  No matter how many ways he turned it around in his mind, the facts remained the same. It all added up to his baby girl not being his biological child. How was that even possible? Was there a mix-up at the lab, did the wrong eggs get implanted, did the surrogate get pregnant while on the hormones? These were just some of the thoughts that raced through his mind over the last nearly two and a half weeks since he’d been given the life-changing information. Seemed like a lifetime, he thought wearily.