Page 5 of Uproot

"So what is it that you want?" I ask cautiously.

"It's notsomethingthat I need you to take care of this time," he says, an uncharacteristic sadness lacing his voice.

"It's someone."

2

Beckett

"How on earth do you plan on just dropping everything and going to the middle of nowhere?"

I throw a few pairs of socks into the suitcase on my bed as I listen to my best friend, well only friend, Bobby rattle on about me rearranging my schedule this week.

Bobby has not only been my life-long friend, but he's also the COO of my company, Kade Technology. My sudden decision to fly to some mountain town he's never heard of to help my derelict half-brother I had disowned didn't sit right with him, for obvious reasons.

"I'm not staying there long, B. I'm just going there to sort this shit show out. Helen and Dragana are coming with me so I can work and keep things running while I'm there," I explain gruffly, running a hand through my hair and looking around my closet. It's difficult to know what to even pack when I have no clue how long I'll be gone for.

"I already have a Private Detective trying to locate Maria so she can bring her ass back to Upwood and take care of the sonshe disowned. It's time for her to grow up and be a mother," I continue, plucking more shirts off of their hangers.

Hearing Charlie tell me that he had an entire five-year-old child that I have never even heard of was by far the most shocking thing he's ever said to me. Apparently around the time he and Maria bolted off to New Jersey to start over, he got her pregnant.

She swore she would change her ways, and he did too, so they took the last bit of inheritance he had left from our dad and settled down there. He claims they were going to NA meetings, and keeping themselves clean for a year. But after Edison was born, the reality of parenthood set in, and they both became a mess again, now dragging a poor kid along with them.

Charlie claims that Maria would pull this disappearing act often, sometimes leaving for weeks at a time, causing him to lose whatever job he was doing at the time so he could be home with their son.

I can only imagine the horrible things that poor child has seen in his five years on earth. More than he deserved to.

Edison Scott Kade.

Feels so strange that there is another extension of our family out there. There aren't many of us left, my father, Scott, having been an only child, and my paternal grandparents being gone. There are some relatives scattered around the world from my mother’s side, but I don't know them personally.

Bobby's voice draws me out of my thoughts, "Ok, so you go up there and babysit and continue working. What happens when you can't find Maria?" he rationalizes.

"Bobby, Maria could be hiding under the water in a submarine in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and my detective would find her and drag her ass out of there. She will emerge, trust me," I say confidently. "Charlie said he heard that she moved back up here to the East coast somewhere, shouldn't be too hard to find her. I just need to go down to Upwood before the poor kid ends up in foster care. He's been through enough shit already."

Bobby lets out a heavy sigh as I zip up my suitcase and head out of my bedroom. "Beck, I just don't know if you're being realistic about all of this. The odds that Maria will show up ready to be a loving mother are about as good as me winning the mega millions without even playing. Then the responsibility of your nephew will fall on you while you're there for even longer trying to sort everything out. You have ashitton of work to do while we try to get this meeting with Global Games. You can't have Dragana watch Edison while you do your 60-hour work week. Be real Beck, the woman is, what, pushing seventy? I mean, God bless her, but she can't keep up with an active 5-year-old boy."

"He's going to be in school most of the day, B. And Dragana is more than happy to be a Nanny again. She's been champing at the bit to have me procreate for 5 years now," I assure him.

Dragana was my housekeeper and Nanny my entire childhood, and worked exclusively as a housekeeper and cook for my father after I moved out. I brought her on to work for me after my father passed away seven years ago. She is a 5'2 Serbian tyrant who keeps me on my toes, and I love her like a mother. I know that there isn't anything she can't handle, even at 65 years old.

Bobby chuckles, "She is super eager to be a grandmother," he muses, his voice relaxing.

"It will all work out, man. You know I'm going to find a way somehow. I always do," I say, setting down my suitcase by my elevator.

"Well that's one thing I have faith in. Just don't overextend yourself, Beck. If you need back up, Natalie and I are just a flight away, ok?" Bobby offers, sounding calmer.

"We will be fine. I need you here to hold things down for me," I say walking down the hallway, looking for Dragana.

"Ok. Call me when you get there," he says.

I agree and we hang up the phone just as I knock on Dragana's bedroom door. She calls out, giving me a muffled response through the door that she will be out in 10 minutes, and I know that means at least twenty.

I go through the apartment checking over everything one more time before we leave. Despite assuring Bobby that I was fine, the thought of leaving my penthouse and my office for an unknown amount of time is a bit unnerving.

Besides being born with many advantages, I've worked my ass off for the life I've created, and honestly, everything in my life had been going very well before Charlie called me and blew up my week.

My company, Kade Technology, had just broken another sales record after launching our newest App last week. It was the fifth game we had launched in the past three years that passed ten million downloads in its first month being released.

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