THE CEO'S RUNAWAY BRIDE

4. ON THE ROAD

5. THE FLIGHT BACK HOME

Rosa Ferrari felt free for the first time in years. The guilt of keeping her children a secret has been weighing on her for so long. She felt guilty for hiding them away from her family, for making. Rosa loved Daphne and Damien with all her heart, and she would love to shout it from a rooftop and to all of the world, but since when they were born, she has been unable to do that, because then her secret would have been exposed. At first, she was scared that her parents would make her marry Sebastian after all, and she would have to live so lonely and frustrated all her life. Then the fear that Seb will take the children away from her came. Rosa would not be able to live without her children. She didn't think she would survive if Sebastian decided to take them away. Right now though, there was no other option, hiding them away from her family could not be done forever. Rosa was quite lucky that she was able to pull it off for this long. She was comfortable in the life that she had built with her children. She didn't want anything to disrupt it. The disruption though seemed inevitable. Matteo was here and now her entire family was aware of the existence of her children. He had told everyone via a phone call.

"Rosa is fine. She is right here, enjoying Oslo, and hiding your grandchildren from you," Matteo said on the call.

The varying gasps had been loud.

"What?"

"Grandchildren?"

"Just calm down Papa, it's not really a big deal. Don't stress yourself too much. You will see me soon." Rosa was just trying to make the situation as minimal as she could. She was trying to douse it before it became something else. Her father was sick and in the hospital. She would not be able to take it if for some reason he became worse because of her.

"Calm down? I have grandchildren that I don't know anything about. When are you coming home, and when can I meet them?" Her father asked. Rosa should have really doubted if her father was truly sick at that point because he sounded so sure and his voice strong, but so many things were going on in her head and that was not a priority at that moment.

"We are coming back on the first flight out of here. You are meeting your grandchildren soon."

"Send us pictures Rosa. We want to see them. How old are they? Is there somebody new? How come we have never had this discussion? This is all so much. I can't wait to spoil them rotten." Isabella, Rosa's mother sounded so happy, confused, but happy, that was good enough for Rosa. Her family wasn't angry with her. Well maybe Matteo was, but it was just him and the rest of the family who wanted to meet her children. She smiled as she realized that Damien and especially Daphne would be so excited to finally meet their grandparents.

After Matteo had informed her family about the children she was told to prepare to go home. The relief that Rosa felt, fueled her to fold her clothes and pack her bags, to tell her children about their grandfather, grandmother, aunt, and uncle. She couldn't even think of how she would tell them about their father. Rosa knew that was inevitable and that there was no how she could escape it, but she chose to put it at the back of her mind at this point.

*****

"I can't believe you are leaving Rosa," Astrid said, hugging her tightly and sniffing. Rosa could barely hold back her own tears. Astrid had been her friend and quite literally her family for so long. Even if she knew she was only going for a short period of time, it was still hard to let go of her friend.

"It's alright, Astrid. We will be back before you know it. Just take care of the restaurant. I just need to see my family and I will be back. I will miss you though," Rosa said. Astrid on her own part could tell that this was the beginning of the end. She would never really have her friend again, not when her family who loved and cared for her were so far away. There was also the issue of the children's father.

"Aunt Astrid, won't you come with us to the US?" Daphne asked. Rosa almost broke down at the sound of her daughter’s voice. Damien and Daphne were so used to Astrid, she had been there all their lives. This was the first time they would be away from her. No wonder her children were so distraught. Rosa began to rethink everything all over again. Her decision, whether it was right or wrong to bring her children to a new country just like that, with no preparation. Before her thoughts could go very far, Matteo cleared his throat, reminding her of the reason they were all at the airport in the first place. Her Papa was sick.

“We are going on vacation Daphne, before you know it, we will be back to Oslo and you will see Aunt Astrid again.” She was speaking to Daphne, but Damien looked at her skeptically. She could tell that her son did not believe her. The little annoying noises Matteo was making in the background were not helping matters.

“Don’t you guys want to meet grandma and grandpa?” She asked. Daphne sniffled a little and hugged Astrid and Damien just shrugged. Last night when she explained to the children, Damien had told her he didn’t want to meet a grandma or grandpa who didn’t care about him. Rosa felt very guilty when her son said those words. It made her realize the damage that had been done so far. She was hoping that this trip would mend those wounds.

“Our flight is being called now, we need to go,” Matteo said. Rosa looked back at her big brother, making sure her annoyance at him showed before she hugged Astrid one last time.

“Alright kids, it’s time to go see Grandma and Grandpa,” Rosa said and her children put her their hands into hers.

“Does Grandpa have white hair?” This was the twentieth question Daphne asked Rosa about her grandpa, she was keeping count.

“Just a little,” Rosa said, the same time that Matteo said, “A head full of it.”

Rosa looked up to her brother and tried to push down the unsavory feeling. She couldn’t even ask when he’d grown all that white hair. It was when she was no longer in touch with her family. Time had passed since when she last spoke to them. Of course, her father had grown white hair. It wasn’t something she noticed during the few video calls they had together. Rosa had made sure not to do too many video calls with her parents. The last thing that she wanted was for her parents to see something in her house and realize that she was hiding children.

As they boarded the plane, Rosa wondered what would have happened if Matteo never came to Oslo, if she was never told about her Papa’s sickness. Would she have remained here until her parents died only calling and texting? Rosa could not tell. She was however grateful she had a chance to make amends.

“I have always wanted a GrandPa. Can I call him Papa?” Daphne asked. That hurt Rosa a little bit because he was her Papa.

“I am sure, he will like that,” Matteo said, and Rosa smiled. It was true. Alessandro Ferrari might be scary and commanding to everyone else, but he doted on his daughters. By the way, he spoke on the phone, she knew he would dote on his granddaughter too.

“When are we coming back home?” Damien asked. That was the first thing he said since they left the house. Rosa wasn’t too worried at first. Damien was more of an observer and this was a big change, for him and probably for any child, even older than his four years. Rosa didn’t know how she would answer the question. She couldn’t distract Damien or try to divert his attention. Those things didn’t work with Damien, she had tried.

“I am not sure Damien. I told you that Grandpa was sick and we had to go see him in the hospital. After that, we will spend some time with Grandma and Aunt Lily before we go back home,” Rosa said. Damien looked fairly satisfied with her reply and he nodded his head. Rosa let out a breath, she didn’t even know she was holding.

They were told to fasten their seat belts as they were preparing for takeoff. This seemed to distract both Daphne and Damien. Matteo helped them fasten their seat belts and that conversation seemed to be over, at least it was then. The children quickly became comfortable and in a few minutes, they were dozing off. Rosa tried to think about the future and what it had in store for them, she thought of her parents and her sister. She thought about Sebastian as she drifted into sleep.

“Who is Sebastian?” That was the question Rosa heard waking up. She was groggy at first and it felt like she was dreaming.

“What?” She asked her son, who was looking at her with curiosity in his eyes.

“Who is Sebastian?” Damien asked again.

“Is he our Daddy?” This time it was Daphne. It felt like a ton of bricks had fallen on Rosa.