Page 6 of Eleven of a Kind

“I can’t be a father to that kid, bro. I know nothing about raising a teenager.”

“Luckily for you, we have an entire village to help. You can’t send her back to her grandparents. Look at what they did to Ariana. I’m here for you and her. We all are, bro. I think the best person to talk about this with is Nathan. He went through the same thing, so he gets it.”

“But Ella wasn’t a teenager,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter, Gabriel. She’s your daughter regardless of her age.”

“We don’t know that for sure yet.”

Grayson walked over to where I stood and placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah, we do, brother, and you need to accept it.”

CHAPTER3

Gabriel

“Riley,” I shouted from the patio. “Can you come back inside?”

“I’ll let you two talk,” Grayson said and went back to his house.

I stared at the fifteen-year-old girl with dark hair and blue eyes as she walked through the sand and up to the house.

“Let’s go inside,” I said as I opened the sliding door.

“Are you going to call the cops?” she asked.

I stared at her for a moment. “No. You look just like your mother.” I smiled.

“Yeah, I know. Everyone always thought we were sisters.”

“For fifteen years, Ariana kept you a secret from me. Why?”

“She told me that you had big dreams. She loved you and didn’t want to disrupt your life. She told me that if I ever wanted to meet you, I had to wait until I turned eighteen, and she would help me find you.”

“Were you going to?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged as she looked down.

“We need to figure this out, Riley. Is that all you brought?” I pointed to her backpack.

“Yeah. I was in a hurry to leave. I didn’t even bring my phone because I knew they’d track me. Please don’t send me back to them,” she begged.

“I’m not denying you’re my daughter, but we have to make sure before we do anything. We’ll get a paternity test done tomorrow and go from there. In the meantime, I only have one guestroom with a bed in it. Let’s take your backpack upstairs.”

I grabbed her backpack and took it upstairs while she followed behind and set it on the bed.

“Where did Uncle Grayson go?” she asked.

“He went back to his house. He lives next door.”

“That’s cool. What about my grandfather?”

“My dad?” I asked.

“Yeah. My mom told me that your mother died when you were a baby, and your father raised you.” She sat on the edge of the bed.

“Unfortunately, he passed away.”