Following The Light (Out of the Dark Book 3)

by Arlene Gonzales

  He smiles, but doesn’t take my hand. Instead, he hugs me. When he speaks, it’s very slowly, as he is attempting to say everything in English. “Alexis, family does not shake hands. We hug.” The three of us laugh.

  Aiden walks over to us with his parents. His father is first to reach me. He takes my hands in his and gives me a warm embrace. Pulling back slightly, he kisses both my cheeks. “My new daughter Alexis. We have heard many wonderful things about you.” Again, he gives me a hug.

  “It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Steffan.”

  He smiles and shakes his head. “Mr. Steffan. That is for people who are not family. You call me Papa.”

  “Yes, of course, Papa.”

  Aiden’s mother tells him, “My turn. Let me meet our new daughter.” He moves aside. She stands there smiling, but there are also tears in her eyes. “Bella molto bella, Alexis.”

  I stand there not moving. Finally, after a minute, she hugs me. She whispers into my ear, “Thank you for waking my son’s heart.”

  Now it’s my eyes that are filled with tears. I look over at Aiden. He is smiling from ear to ear, watching us. He blows a kiss at me, then winks.

  Once the introductions are finished, we get into the car. On the ride to the television studio, his mother asks Johnny’s whereabouts. Aiden informs them that he and Shannon are meeting us at the station.

  I lean in and whisper to Aiden, “Their English is better than I thought.” He whispers back that besides a few trips to the States, they have been practicing to be able to talk to me. Ysabel went to UCLA, so she has had several years of English already.

  It takes a while to get to the station because of the traffic. I’m not sure how the rest of the family is feeling at the moment. I can only guess what they are going through. I, for my part, am kind of relieved that we have a few more minutes to gather ourselves together. Aiden squeezes my hand. His palm is cold, but moist; he must be nervous. Then his father lets us all know he is also nervous. He says, “Given that we have more time until we arrive, we should use it to gather our thoughts.”

  Chapter 10

  There are other TV station vans as we pull into the parking lot of the studio. We’ve prepared ourselves for the media. We knew this was not going to be easy. My heart is breaking for Aiden and his parents. Anthony has to drive slowly through all the newscasters and cameramen. Brandy had anticipated all this would happen. Thank goodness there are also policemen there to keep them at bay. We’ll need that when we come to a stop and get out of the SUV.

  None of us answer all the questions being thrown at us. There’s one comment that makes Aiden smile, which in turn puts a smile on my face as well. It’s from one of the news commentators. It’s short and simple. “We all stand behind you, Aiden. We love you.”

  ***

  I sit and watch them getting prepped to go on the air. A young woman walks over to me. “I just need to put a little powder on you. You don’t want there to be any shine on your chin or cheeks.”

  I look at her in confusion. “What? No. I am not going to be interviewed.”

  “Mrs. Steffan, they have a chair for you by your husband. You are part of the interview.”

  Aiden comes over to me and the young girl. “Nobody said anything about my wife being in the interview.”

  The anchorwoman approaches us. “Aiden, Alexis, we would love to get both of you on camera. It will show the public that she supports you. This is a very sensitive story. I know you’ll want to get your voices out to the world, expressing how you feel about this coming out, how it has affected you both. But if you wish to not have Alexis on the air, we understand.”

  Aiden is about to speak. “I’ll do it, Aiden,” I say. “I want to show the world that I stand by you. They need to see the love we have for each other.”

  We are all directed to our seats. There are four, and across from them, one chair for the woman conducting the interview. Aiden’s jaw tenses up. I take his hand in mine and lean in closely. “I love you.”

  I hear a man say, “Ready on the set. Three, two, one.”

  “Welcome to Good Day New York. I’m Tracy Caltabiano here with the world’s top male model, Aiden Steffan. Along with him is his wife, Alexis, and his parents, Johnny and Analisa.” As she says our names, we all nod and smile.

  A wave catches my attention. I look to the side and see that Johnny and Shannon have arrived. They are both hugging and saying hello to Ysabel and Gianni. She blows a kiss to us, hugs herself, then points to us, showing her support.

  I squeeze Aiden’s hand. He looks over at me and smiles.

  “Good morning, Aiden. How are you feeling today?”

  “Well, Tracy, I have a lot of mixed emotions since all this came to light.”

  “First of all, let me say to you, your wife, and your parents how truly sorry I am that this happened to you. You went through such a horrible ordeal as a child. None of us can comprehend what you felt back then and are feeling at this very moment. I also want to say that we here at Channel Twelve think you are very brave. It takes courage to be able to sit here with us and talk about it.”

  “Thank you, Tracy. That means a lot to me and my family.”

  “So Aiden, you were abandoned as a young child by your birth parents?”

  He takes a deep breath. Again, I squeeze his hand, signaling him that I am here. “My parents were addicts. They sold me when I was four for drugs. They walked away and left me with strangers because their next fix was more important to them than I was. The dealer who brought me sold me into sex slavery.”

  I can see the sorrow on Tracy’s face. “Aiden, when you say sex slavery, were you sold to one person or a group of people?”

  “I was chained and put into a kennel just like a dog. Men and women would come in, pay for me, and would rape me. When I got older, I was kicked out of the cage, thrown out of the house where they held kids like myself.”

  “Were there other children there as well?”

  “Yes, there were quite a few others there too.”

  “When you say they threw you out, did you escape then? How did you escape?”

  “I was hungry. They wouldn’t feed us much. I was walking from café to café in search for food. I fell asleep on the street. That’s when my real, true mother found me.”

  She looks over at his mother. “Mrs. Steffan, would you tell us about the day you found Aiden?”

  Mama adjusts herself in her seat. I can tell she is searching for the right words to say. I feel like I should interject, so I do. “Tracy, as you know, Aiden’s parents have always lived in Tuscany. Their English is limited. We have an interpreter here to help with the language barrier.” A man walks out and stands by Mama. Again, Tracy asks the question, and the interpreter relays it to her.

  She speaks, answering the questions. I know she could have answered them in English, given time. I also know that she feels more at ease speaking in their own language. After all, she is sharing very private information with the public. The man turns back toward Tracy and tells her, and the watching cameras, of the day the Steffans had their first child. He adds that to them, Aiden is every bit as much their own child. The only difference is that she gave birth to Aiden when he was nine.

  After an hour-long interview, when all the questions have been asked and answered, it is over.

  When the cameras stop rolling, several of the crew come over to us. They shake Aiden’s hand and tell him how brave he is to talk of his ordeal. The studio manager also approaches us.

  “Aiden, I want you to know that bringing this all out in the open will help. You could very well be helping someone out there going through the same ordeal.”

  We walk off stage and greet Shannon and Johnny. Aiden introduces Shannon to his parents. They hug and embrace her just like they did to me earlier. Mr. Steffan says that their family is growing.

  We exit the station. Anthony has the car door open; we climb in and head for the penthouse.

  ***

  The perfume
of Ms. Miller’s cooking hits us all. Mama is the first to speak up. “Cosa odori cosi buono?” She looks at me. “That means, what smells so good?”

  “That is the smell of our lunch being prepared.” Aiden shows his parents and Ysabel to the guest rooms. Then he takes Gianni to another guest room where he will be staying. I go into the kitchen to see if I can help with anything, but I am instructed to leave and told that lunch will be served in fifteen minutes.

  Entering our bedroom, I plop on the bed. Aiden walks in and lies next to me. I turn to my side, place my hand on his heart. “I am so proud of you. You faced your demons and were completely honest about everything. Carla has nothing left to blackmail us with.”

  He looks at me and smiles. “How did I get so lucky to have you as my wife?”

  “Baby, it’s me who is lucky. I get to wake up every day with the most gorgeous man on the planet.” He pulls me so that I am lying on him. “Aiden, the door is open. Your parents might walk by and see us on the bed.”

  He starts to laugh. “Alexis, they know we are married and they know we sleep together. They were young once too. Besides, they’re Italian.”

  “What does being Italian have to do with anything?”

  “Baby, we Italians are very romantic people. We are all about love.”

  I playfully slap his arm. I have to get up to go to the bathroom. When I walk back into the room, I find that Aiden is fast asleep. Standing there watching him sleep, I think about how he must have felt revealing his past to the world this morning. My husband is normally a force to be dealt with. Every time he walks into a room, no matter where we go or who is there, all eyes fall on Aiden. He is a magnet for attention. Right now, he looks like a person who just needs all the love we can give him.

  He seems so peaceful. Not wanting to wake him up, I gently cover him with a blanket, resisting the urge to kiss him. I know he must be feeling drained from what has been going on. I tiptoe out of the room.

  Going downstairs, I inform everyone that he is asleep. “After a good night’s rest, he’ll be good as new.”

  Ysabel pouts. “Aiden is asleep? I haven’t seen him in so long. Plus it is so early in the day.”

  “Yes, but he has had so much to deal with because of everything coming out. I think it’s best we let him rest. There will be plenty of time for the two of you to catch up.”

  As I am telling the family this, Shannon and Johnny arrive just in time for lunch. “Did I hear you right? Aiden is asleep? It’s so early.”

  “Yes, he’s tired. I know it’s early, but he didn’t really sleep last night. These past few days have been stressful.”

  Papa orders everyone to let his son get the rest he needs. “Saremo qui una settimana intera. Poi andranno a casa con noi.” He catches both Shannon and I looking at him. “Oh, I am so sorry. I was simply stating that we are going to be here a whole week, and the two of you will be going home with us to Italy when we leave. There will be plenty of time for Ysabel and us to spend with my son.”

  Mama chimes in, “Our son, Papa.”

  He puts an arm around her. They lovingly look into each other’s eyes and kiss, not just a quick peck but a lingering one. It is not until Johnny clears his throat that they stop. Ysabel speaks up. “Papa, Mama, please. You are embarrassing me.” Everyone starts to laugh. I can’t help but remember what Aiden just said earlier. We Italians are very romantic people. I grin, hoping Aiden and I are still that in love when we are their age.

  We all go into the dining room. I tell Papa, as head of the family, that it is only right for him to sit at the head of the table. “Grazie, Alexis.”

  “You are most welcome, Papa.” Well, at least I knew what that meant.

  Ms. Miller walks in with two bottles of wine. She has both red and white. Papa says to take the white and bring in another red. Irene turns around. “My Alexis will only drink white.” With that, she leaves. My face turns red. Asking everyone to forgive her forwardness, I excuse myself and walk into the kitchen.

  Ms. Miller is pulling the casserole out of the oven. She turns to look at me. “I’m sorry, Alexis—I don’t know what came over me. It’s just that I know you and my boy have gone through so much recently. I guess I was just being overprotective.”

  “No, no need to apologize. I love you for wanting to protect us. I’ll just take an additional bottle of red for them. Keep the white for me.”

  As we both walk back into the dining room, Papa tells Ms. Miller that he is sorry. He will remember his manners next time. Mama gives him a nod in approval. I can certainly see where Aiden gets his spirit from.

  Because their English is hard to understand sometimes, Shannon and I have to listen closely. They both promise to try and speak to us only in English to improve their command of the language. Aiden was right. I was worried for nothing. They are kind, caring, compassionate people, a family who stands together as one should. They remind me of my family.

  Ms. Miller takes the top off the casserole and we all inhale the delicious aroma of the shrimp fettuccine. She puts out two baskets of breadsticks. For an hour, everyone enjoys the huge meal, eating, laughing, and listening to stories from Papa and Mama about Aiden, Johnny, and Ysabel growing up. The trouble they would get into. How they would cover up for each other. They tell us they’ve brought photos with them of the three children. I can’t wait to see pictures of Aiden as a young boy.

  After a while, the dessert is brought in. We are having cannoli with authentic cream.

  Papa rubs his tummy. “Ms. Miller, the meal was delicious. The cannoli look very good as well.”

  Upon finishing dessert, we retreat into the family room with our glasses of wine. Once we are all seated, we start to talk about the wedding back home in their family church. Johnny opens up the cathedral’s website on my laptop. It is a very old building that according to Mama is one of the oldest churches in Tuscany. It’s where they were married twenty-four years ago. Mama tells me that at the time of finding Aiden she was twenty-five, and so was Papa. They had been married for five years already and were desperately trying to have a child.

  To the Steffans, Aiden was a gift sent from God. She talks about the love she felt for him instantly. How when she took him home, Papa said he was the son his heart needed. They didn’t see him as being adopted. He was their child, their son in every way that mattered.

  To hear them talk of him in such a loving way makes my heart melt. Even though I try not to, I still tear up. I glance over at Shannon, and there is a single tear gliding down her cheek. When she looks at me, we both laugh at each other. We are such wimps when it comes to matters of the heart.

  The church is huge. Papa says that’s a good thing because Aiden wants most of Tuscany in attendance. Well, as much as it can hold. Not to mention the people I work with will also be there, as well as Shannon’s parents. The media will undoubtedly be covering the event. Plus we have given Tracy Caltabiano, the anchorwoman who interviewed us, an invitation to cover the event. She will be the only one allowed in the church itself. We want her to cover happy events in our lives as well.

  Next, we start going over the color scheme of the wedding and choice of the flowers. Since it is going to be an old-fashioned Italian celebration, the centerpieces for the tables will be blue and green glass bottles with small candles inside them and surrounded by grapevines. The lighting will be enormous crystal chandeliers that adorn the massive outdoor tent.

  Mama asks who the bridesmaids are going to be. I turn to Ysabel. “I would really love it if you were one of my bridesmaids.”

  Her eyes light up as she leaps off her chair, runs over, and hugs me. “Nothing would make me happier than to be standing next to my new sister on her special day.”

  “That will make me and your brother very happy. You can have Gianni be your escort.

  Shannon reminds me that I have a meeting tomorrow with the world-famous designer Renata Rossi for my wedding dress. She is also making the dresses for the girls. Her designs have been wor
n by royalty and all kinds of celebrities. People have to wait a very long period of time just to be able to get an appointment with her.

  When Brandy told me that she got us in to see her this weekend, I was completely surprised. Then I found out that she’s also from Tuscany and her family is friends with the Steffans. The appointment is at two in the afternoon. I ask Mama to go shopping with me in the morning to buy my bridesmaids their gifts. She is delighted that it will be just the two of us. Papa tells me he has the perfect set of musicians for the ceremony.

  My laptop pings, letting me know of an incoming email. It’s from Brandy, the final draft of the invitations. I show everyone. Nobody says a word. I am in awe of the invitations. They are perfect.

  The lettering is in elegant rose gold and navy blue glitter with gold mirror paper on the bottom. It is wrapped in a cream-colored lace with a navy blue bow as the finishing touch. Each invitation will be placed in a satin box. The wording is simple, yet sentimental. Not only are Aiden’s parents included in it, but my parents are mentioned as well.

  Johnny tells me to read it out loud. I start to, but get choked up. Shannon puts her hand on my shoulder. “Let me read it.” All I manage to do is nod in acceptance.

  Paul and Lindsey Moore

  and

  Johnny Sr. and Analisa Steffan

  Cordially request the honor of your company

  At the marriage of their children

  Alexis Moore

  and

  Aiden Steffan

  Join us as we celebrate two lives becoming one

  On Sunday the Fourteenth of February

  Two Thousand Sixteen

  At one o’clock in the afternoon

  Pieve di San Cresci church

  San Cresci, Greve in Chianti

  Reception to follow at the

  Steffan vineyard

  Come dance, drink, laugh, and love

  For a moment we all remain silent. Mama slides a hand under my chin and lifts it up to look at me. “Alexis, we will make sure that the spirit of your family is there with us, that they are not forgotten on this day. I am sure that your mother will be looking down on you and smiling.”