Page 130 of Koroleva

"It means to relax and listen calmly; no one wants to hurt you, everyone here cares about you, and it’s essential you hear what your father and Nikita have to say." He huffed uncomfortably again.

"Okay, what?"

I reached for his small hand on the table, much smaller and softer than mine.

"Let me tell you a story, okay?" As agreed with Julieta, I was going to skip the part about his conception and give him a truth suitable for his age. "A long time ago, I had a best friend whom I loved very much. His name was Yuri, and he was Nikita's brother." My son blinked.

"So, your brother was your friend?" he asked incredulously.

"That's right, we met at university and were best friends until he passed away," my sister showed no surprise at the revelation.

Women tend to have a sixth sense for these things, and although my father believed that Yuri and I had ended our friendship, she kept her suspicions without saying anything about it.

"Did your friend die like mom?"

"Unfortunately, yes. He, your mom, and I were very close friends at university. So much so that something developed between Yuri and Adriana, and you were the result. Do you understand what I'm saying?" I could almost see the speed of Adri's thoughts.

"Was your friend my father?" I always knew he was a smart boy.

"That's right. Yuri also knew nothing of your existence. Your mom hid it from both of us, and when she passed away, your father had already died, so she asked me in a letter to take care of you as if you were my own. I adored Yuri, so I didn't think twice and adopted you as my son. I want you to know that this won't change anything. We will all continue to love you the same way, you will continue living here, but you will know who the person who fathered you was, thanks to everything Nikita and I will tell you about Yuri."

The little boy, still in disbelief, looked scared at my wife.

"Adriano, I am not your stepmother," Nikita added, "but your aunt. You are a Korolev, the son of a wonderful man who was my brother and whom you will honor as soon as you know his story. You are one of us, as determined by the medical tests we took on Monday."

"I am not a Korolev! I am a Capuleto Ramírez!" he exclaimed nervously.

"No, you're not. For now, you carry the surname of Romeo, but we'll talk to the lawyer so that you can have the one that rightfully belongs to you. We'll change it," he abruptly stood up.

"No! I don't want to change anything! I have nothing to do with you or that Yuri! You're evil! You're making it all up to separate me from my father!"

"Adri!" Julieta called out. "That's not true. No one is going to separate you from anyone. And of course, you can still consider Romeo as your father from the heart. But it's not fair for you to deny your origins. If Yuri were still alive, he would have loved you very much, and it's not right that, because he is no longer among us, you are not his son, just as you also don't want your mommy to stop being your mom, even though she's in heaven." He pursed his lips. "You should feel fortunate, because you're a child who has not just one father, but two."

"I don't want two fathers! Nor do I want to know anything about that Yuri! I hate him, I hate you!" he yelled, pointing at Nikita and then ran off. No matter how much I called, he ignored my cries. Julieta shook her head and commented that it was not the time to pressure him.

"He needs to process it. Let's leave him alone. It wasn't an easy news to digest, and even more for a child like Adri. Since he came to live with us, he has been very distrustful and emotionally unstable."

"Why?" Nikita inquired interestedly. "Was he beaten, mistreated, bullied at school? What's wrong with him?"

"There's a part of Adriano that remains blocked and that he doesn't tell... I've tried everything, but he still won't talk about part of his past. I haven't been able to discover it through talks or drawings, I only know that he is distrustful, and that when he's nervous, he suffers from nightmares."

"Don't be offended, but it might be better to take him to a licensed psychologist specialized in children, maybe, two years of college are not enough for such a complex case. Or it might be a good idea to make a visit to the grandparents, they might know what the kid is not telling," Nikita adjudged. Her visit to the grandparents was something I already knew what could entail.

"I'm not offended. In fact, we tried that. We took Adri to one of the best child psychologists in Málaga for a week, but it was much worse. He would sit in a corner, not cooperate, and the nightmares he suffered were worse. The doctor who treated him, who was my professor, told me to study him myself little by little. He considered it useless to pay when the blockage was so big. If Adriano wasn't receptive, we couldn't force him."

"Well, you guys say what we do..." My wife crossed her arms to look at us one by one.

"It would be good if you put the fatherhood issue on the back burner, now that he knows. One option would be to start doing things together, the three of us, before school starts, and gradually introduce Yuri's figure. Let him be the one to ask and be curious. Maybe, through comments or games."

"We could show him your photo box," Nikita suggested.

"What box?" my sister became interested.

"One that I have with pictures and memories of the two of us..." I confessed, slightly embarrassed for having hidden it from Julieta.

"Not a bad idea, but before shoving images at him, I'd opt to create an atmosphere of trust among the three of us. Find at least one hour a day that you can dedicate exclusively to Adri, quality time where every second is just for him. No mobiles, work, or anything else that means not being fully there."

"I don't know if I'll be able to do it right," Nikita confessed quite disoriented. "You see that I'm not his favorite person and kids are not my strong suit..."

---