101. Mother and son.

KIKI.

After Giovanni zoomed off, I returned home to Grace and Jojo who was playing around still happy about having someone other than his opposite gender to play around with.

Grace on the other hand was not about to let me rest with those wiggling eyebrows of hers as she kept teasing me.

“He’s so annoying, he’s so workaholic and arrogant. I hate him so much.” She started, trying to mimic my choice as those were statements that I had said to her about my boss. I smiled shyly as I felt embarrassed.

Talk about falling for what you pretended to hate.

“Oh stop it, Grace. That’s life, it just happened, I didn’t plan it, we didn’t.” I replied as I kept smiling.

“Of course, I know dear, I’m only joking around. Love comes at the most unexpected times and places, there’s a thin line between love and hate and I’m so glad that you’re so happy right now, I pray for it to last as long as It can, you deserve every single happiness you can get, you’ve gone through quite a lot at a young age and I’m sure your dad will be very proud of you.” She said and I found myself tearing up as she spoke, the memories of my dad came rushing and I almost cried at it all.

He would have been so excited to meet my boyfriend, he might have threatened him jokingly but they were surely going to get along so well. On the other hand, my mind suddenly went to the story Giovanni had told me about his family and mother who had abandoned him and I found myself pitying him, we both had similar stories too, two broken souls uniting to form a whole one.

And then, I suddenly paused as my mind seemed to make some weird calculations, what the hell!

Grace was a maid in Italy who was sent out of the house and whose sin was snatched from her with threats, Giovanni is a son who has a different mother and never really met her but he was told that she was an homebreaker and she abandoned him as soon as she discovered that she couldn’t use him for her plan anymore?

Could it be what I’m thinking right now? Could Giovanni and Grace be mother and son?

I didn’t want to say anything to raise Grace’s hopes yet so I immediately rushed to get my phone, I went through the Giovanni’s Instagram and Facebook pages but I couldn’t find full family pictures, them I decided to just search for the Callistos on Google and various pictures of them immediately came up.

As soon as I found the clearest pictures of their parents when they were younger, I rushed to meet Grace as I almost shoved the phone in her face.

“Do you know those people?” I asked, hoping that I was right and this would end the search for her son, that both Giovanni and Grace would get their happy ending.

Grace studied the picture very well and it didn’t take her long before she spoke, “that’s them. Them, my bosses. The ones… the…” She started stuttering as her hands shook.

I knew I had to complete it for her, “your bosses? The same people in the story you told me about, right?” I asked and she nodded in affirmation.

“That’s the man that raped you and got you pregnant?” I asked again and she nodded vehemently.

My hands flew to my mouth as I began to add two and two together, this was not a coincidence, I went silent for over ten minutes until Grace pulled me out of the moment I was stuck in, “what is it, Kiki?” She asked, looking scared.

“Uh… I think I might have found your son, Grace.” I blurted out, shocking her as she almost dropped my phone.

“My… my son? That fast? You found my son? Kiki? Are you sure of what you’re saying?” Grace questioned fearfully, I know what she’s thinking, she didn’t want to get happy and excited over a false info but I was not wrong, I definitely wasn’t.

If I had not heard Giovanni’s story, then I might have been skeptical about it, but since I heard his story already, the shots and loopholes have just been connected, it’s way too obvious to just be coincidental. Giovanni is Grace’s son, no doubt.

“I’m very sure, Grace. Infact, I am so sure of what I am saying right now. He’s your son, it’s him.” I said to her, so sure of myself.

“Who… who… who… is it? Can I have a picture of him?” She stuttered.

“You’ve seen him before, Grace. Infact, you saw him this morning, you even ate on the same table with him, Grace.” I said, not wanting to mention his name just yet.

Grace thought absent-mindesdly for a few minutes before she thwn snapped her head up suddenly after realizing, Your boss?” She asked, confused and looking at me like I was out of my mind.

“Yes, Grace, my boss, Giovanni Callisto is your son, he told me his story yesterday of how he was told that his mom abandoned him and how she was a golddigger and what not. Technically lying to him as a kid, he even said that his mom was a black woman too, and now that you confirmed his day as your boss, the one that you got pregnant for? It’s all just plausible, it’s not rocket science that Giovanni is your son.”

Grace went silent for a lot of minutes and I gave her the chance to drink in all that I had just said to her, tears began to stream down her face and I walked over to engulf her in a warm and comforting hug.

“It’s not the time to cry, Grace. It’s the time to set things right, to say your story to your son and scrape that fake one that those wicked people have engraved in him. He deserves the truth, he deserves to know his biological mother, he deserves a motherly love that he had not been given for years. We need to get to him now.” I said to her and she nodded.

She immediately rushed out to go to her apartment and dress up and I did the same for both Jojo and I.

Along the way to Giovanni’s office, I dropped Jojo with Rose, after telling her that a whole lot came up and I’ll tell her all about it later.

But then, on getting to the office, Giovanni was no where to be found and no matter how much I called him, his number refused to go through.

Just then, his new assistant came out, “Oh Kiki, if you’re here for Mr. Callisto, I think you need to know that he traveled to Italy some hours ago and according to what Matteo told me, he’s not coming back. Matteo heads the branch now.” She said to me.

And I could feel Grace’s wall come crashing down, same as mine.