118
118 The prank
The members of the Delgado didn’t wait for the doctor to state the obvious from the look on his face before they began mourning.
“Grandpa can’t be dead yet, he’s a fighter, he can’t just leave us like that” Edna cried bitterly.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.
“We are sorry, we did our best to save him but his organs were failing, and like I had said earlier. It was a fifty out of fifty. I am pretty sure if he was younger then he would have survived” the doctor said sadly.
“Then can we go in?” Mason asked and the doctor nodded at him.
Taking a deep breath, the Delgado family slowly walked in. The monitor wasn’t beeping anymore and there was a body covered in a white cloth from head to toe and they could already tell that he was the old man.
Some of them couldn’t move anymore, they slumped on the floor and began to cry. It was Mason who courageously and slowly moved forward.
He slowly brought his shaky hands to the white cloth and pulled it down gently. Presented before him was the lifeless face of the old man.
His eyes were closed and even though he didn’t plan to die now. Mason could tell the old man was at peace knowing everything was in place and knowing he experienced his great-grandchild calling him great-grandpa.
A tear dropped from Mason’s eyes as he slowly covered the old man’s corpse with the white blanket.
“He’s gone, grandpa is gone” he muttered with a sad look on his face.
“Who said I’m gone?” The sudden voice made all of them pause for some seconds before slowly turning to where the voice came from.
The old man who looked dead some minute ago was suddenly wide awake like nothing had happened. The Delgados were looking too stunned to speak.
“I don’t understand, what is happening?” Carson was the first to speak, nothing but shock filled his entire system.
The doctor then walked back in with an apologetic look on his face. “Your grandpa insisted we go for a little prank not me, please don’t get mad at me” he apologized to the family that was still in shock.
“Do you have to put on this show old man!” Mason didn’t know how to feel. He was happy and angry at the same time but happiness got the best of him.
At least the old man wasn’t dead.
“Don’t do that again Grandpa” Skyler went to the hospital bed to hug him followed by the other Delgados.
After a bit of tears of happiness. The old man faced Mason who was standing with Jacob.
“Are you trying to say that you wouldn’t even burst out in tears if something happened to me?” Grandpa Mario had some sort of disappointed look on his face as he stared at Mason then his eyes moved to Jacob.
“And you’re slowly following his footsteps. I think it’s about time I force both you and Hudson to get married” he also scolded.
“So this was what it was all about?” Mason frowned before walking out of the ward.
The old man sighed in a bit of regret for playing with his family’s feelings like that.
“I truly apologize for the prank, it’s the last time I’ll do something like this, I promise” he gave them a pleading look.
“We forgive you grandpa” Edna smiled and the family turned happy once again.
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FEW DAYS LATER; DELGADOS’ MANSION★
Grandpa Mario was forced to stay a few days in the hospital before he was released. Ivy and Maya were also out of the hospital and the moment Maya was out, she was taken to jail to serve her life punishment.
Currently, the family is gathered in the living room. It was time to have a good discussion, the old man walked in and passed an envelope to Mason.
“Today we are letting everything out in this family. I’ve been hiding something from everyone for long” The old man sat down.
The family knew about what happened days back. What Dylan and Maya did and they were down about it, especially Emily not knowing she had a daughter who had been in this family all these and Rosa who had been blaming herself for her husband’s death.
Ivy has also been down ever since she was released. She had been down with the thought that she had been in a relationship with her brother all this while.
“Your grandma committed suicide” the old man started. “But before she did that, she left a letter and she said I should give it to Dylan and also Mason when he gets mature” Grandpa Mario urged Mason to open the letter.
When Mason did, he found out that Dylan wasn’t only his father but wasn’t the old man’s son too. When Juliana and Mario married, their parents didn’t approve and Juliana wasn’t feeling well. After giving birth to her first son, the doctor said the chances of the boy surviving were low.
Juliana exchanged her baby with a woman who claimed she was not ready to have kids yet which was Dylan and ever since then what she did has always haunted her. Each time she closes her eyes, she hears the cries of her son as she puts him in the arms of another woman and she isn’t even sure if he is alive or dead now.
She wrote the letter because she was so afraid to tell them to the late head of the Delgado, Sergio Delgado the late father of the old man that ruled the family with an iron fist.
Mason folded the latter when he was done.
“I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do with this information. It has nothing to do with me, Ivy should be given this instead” Mason said and Ivy looked at him.
“He’s right Ivy, Dylan is not your father. He’s not my son and he’s not a Delgado, you’re not related to him or Blake in any way” Grandpa Mario said then continued.
“Your real father is from the Salmond family. He divorced Emily when he thought she couldn’t give birth” the old man said before looking at Mason again.
“When Maya was put behind bars, I came to visit her and I asked about your whereabouts. She told me everything, I went there and you wouldn’t believe that the man she ran from was the son Juliana abandoned” the old man finally let it out.
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NEXT DAY★
Mason arrived with Skyler and the old man to an old familiar house. He looked at Grandpa and when Grandpa Mario nodded at him, he slowly knocked on the door.
It opened revealing Miguel in a white singlet. He seemed like he was just waking up from sleep.
He looked surprised to see the Delgados standing on his doorstep. Mason and Skyler were also surprised to see him.
“Is your father in?” The old man asked.
Miguel was still stunned to reply when a hoarse male voice sounded from behind.
“Let them in Miguel”
Mason, Skyler, and the old man were sitting and paying attention to all they just heard. Johnson, Miguel’s father was Julian’s son that she gave out. He wasn’t dead and was surprisingly cured of his illness.
He married Maya and she abandoned him, taking his baby (Mason) to the Delgado family. Mason and Miguel were brothers of the same father and Mason was a Delgado and still the Grandson of the old man.
“I knew he looked familiar when I saw him,” Skyler said while looking at Miguel. There was a tinge of familiarity between his face and Mason’s. Turns out they were brothers all along.
That was why Miguel stepped back from Edna when his father explained to him. The person who adopted his father from Juliana told him everything before he died.
“I don’t blame you, I know that if you had known I was your son all along then you would have come to find me since. It’s still so weird to accept that we are a part of you guys and we would need some time to accept it” Johnson said to the old man.
It would also take Mason and the other Delgados some time to get used to what they just found about themselves.