I Need Your Love

- Carolina:
We had arrived to Leo's family home just a couple of hours ago, and I've had a difficult time thinking, it feels as if my head's about to explode. I was second guessing everything, and I was over thinking and analyzing my life, trying to find something that possibly would indicate that my parents had been lying to me. I wish I would find it, but I couldn't, no matter how hard I thought about it. At the same time, I somehow trusted Elena and Alejandro, since Leo trusts them, and I know that he'd never lie to me, and on top of that, Leo's parents trust them too. Even Eddie seemed to be softening towards them, and I just wish it was that simple. I sighed and ran ahand through my hair as Leo joined me on the couch.

"How are you feeling amor?" he asked as he sat next to me, rubbing my shoulders.

"Like shit." I said and he frowned, moving closer to me.

"Have you tried contacting your parents?, maybe talking with them will solve it." he said and I closed my eyes before nodding. He was right.

"I should probably call them just now." I said and he nodded, kissing my cheek as I grabbed my phone, quickly dialing mom, knowing that dad was probably with her, watching tv.

"Hey sunshine!, how's Barcelona?" mom asked and I gulped, I hadn't told her about anything, so she naturally thought that I was still in Barcelona.

"Ermm it's great, mom do you have a minute?" I asked, swallowing, as Leo whispered soothing words in my ear, rubbing my shoulders.

"Of course sweetie!" she said and I frowned, I knew this would hurt her, and I hated when she was hurt.

"A couple of days ago, I got a call from my biological parents." I whispered and she gasped.

"And?" she asked stiffly and I sighed.

"I wanted to meet them, so did Eddie, so we flew over to Argentina." I said softly and she gasped once again. I told her about everything that happened, how Leo and his parents knew my biological parents, and about the whole thing. She was silent for a while before cursing slightly. I stiffened, my mom never swore under any circumstances.

"I didn't want to tell you this, since I was hoping you and your brother never would find out." she said and I frowned.

"You see, me and your father were hired for your grandparents, so we could adopt you and your brother, so they'd get back their daughter, but over the time that we've raised you, we started loving you for real, no more pretending, and that's why I never told you that you were adopted until two years ago, and why I never told you where you were born." she said and I just froze, a woman I called my mother for my entire life, did this to me, to Eddie?

"I can't believe you did this to us." I whispered, hanging up the phone, tears running down my face. Leo wrapped his arms around me and held me. I just broke down in his arms, sobbing.

"Shhhh it's ok nena, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere." he whispered and I just kept crying. I cried for a long time, before I eventually ran out of tears.

"What happened amor?" Leo asked and I sniffled before taking a deep breath and looking at him.

"The people I called my parents, just admitted that they were hired to adopt me and Eddie, but that they eventually started loving us for real, and that's why they never told us we were adopted, until we figured it out ourselves, and where we were born." I said and Leo just shook his head.

"That's heartless, I'm sorry for what you've gone through." he said and I nodded, kissing him softly.

"Thanks for being here, I'm sorry I ruined your shirt." I said and he just shook his head.

"I'm always going to be here querida, te amo con toda mi alma, and I can't believe you're worried about my shirt when you're obviously heartbroken." he said and I smiled slightly.

"I love you too, I just really don't know what to do right now." I said, hinting at him giving me some advice. He sighed.

"I think you should give Elena and Alejandro a chance to explain, from what I know about them, they'd never hurt you, they're great people nena, bad things just happened." he said and I nodded.

"I should probably tell Eddie about what happened." I said, and Leo nodded, getting up and giving me a hand. I grabbed his hand and got up, we walked back into the kitchen where everyone was, and Eddie frowned when he saw that I'd been crying.

"Hey, what's wrong sissy?" he asked, joining me and Leo.

"They were right, our parents were hired to adopt us, I just called mom and she confirmed." I said, a fresh wave of tears running down my face. Eddie growled and ran a hand through his hair. I just noticed that Elena and Alejandro were there, and they were looking at us, their eyes filled with tears.

"I'm sorry I put you through this, I never should've forgiven my parents and letting them come to the hospital, I'm so sorry." Elena said, with tears running down her face. I looked at her and frowned, it wasn't her fault. I got up and slowly walked towards her, taking a look at her, before shyly hugging her. She gasped and hugged me back tightly.

"It's not your fault, I'm just sorry that I never let you explain fully." I whispered and she cried, hugging me tighter. After pulling away, Eddie moved in and hugged her as well. I stepped aside and stood in front of Alejandro, looking at him before giving him a hug as well. He hugged me tight, twirling me around. After that, we walked into the living room, where Thiago was watching cartoons with his cousin. I grabbed Thiago, as he ran towards me when he saw me, his tiny feet padding across the living room. He giggled and smiled at me, leaning his head on my chest. I smiled and kissed the top of his head.

"Mama" he said and I stiffened. Leo raised an eyebrow, before joining me and Thiago on the couch, I noticed everyone was silent, watching us,

"Mama's not here mi hijo, this is Carolina." Leo whispered to Thiago, and a part of me grew sad.

"Mama." Thiago said again, holding on to me tight, pouting at Leo. I looked at Leo, biting my lip.

"Is it ok?" I asked softly, and a wide smile spread across his face.

"More than ok, I was just worried it wasn't ok for you." he said and I smiled before kissing Thiago's cheek.

"I'll be your mama if you want to Thiagui." I whispered, and he giggled.

"Mama, Mama." chanted over and over again, making me smile. Leo kissed me softly, before everyone else cleared their throats.

"Sorry." I said, blushing and they all laughed.

"So how did you and Leo meet?" Elena asked curiously, she had been eager to know more about me and Eddie, and I didn't blame her, she had missed out on twenty years.

"When Eddie got signed to Barcelona, I flew over to meet him, without telling him,after a month, because I missed him and wanted to surprise him, I ended up crashing his house and Leo was there along with some other friends, and things just happened from there." I said and Elena smiled.

"Our plan was to try and get you and Leo together since you were born, we've been eager to unite our families for a while, but then it didn't happen and Leo met Antonella." Celia said and I nodded, cringing slightly at the mentioning of Antonella, and the whole arrangement thing.

"So you're telling me you'd arrange for us to get married if things went your way?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, we'd never force you to anything, more like fix up play dates and let you meet Leo more often, then maybe you'd like each other, there was never force planned." Elena said and I nodded.

"What about Eddie?, no suggestions of him getting to know someone?" I joked and they all laughed.

"No, Maria Sol was born way later, so that wouldn't work." Alejandro said and I just laughed. Eddie was by now shaking his head and chuckling.

"It's nice to know that you have faith in me finding my own special someone." Eddie said and I burst into laughter once more. Eddie looked at me curiously.

"Hey!, I can handle meeting someone." he said, crossing his arms and glaring at me playfully. I just shook my head.

"You have no idea how many girls my dearest brother have had over for the night since we turned 16, my room was next to his and the walls were thin, so I had to listen to everything and it was traumatizing." I said, shuddering at the memories, before smiling.

"Ha ha very funny, miss VirginMary." Eddie said and I raised an eyebrow.

"Well I'd rather be Virgin Mary then catching STD's." I said, smirking, causing Leo to laugh.

"Virgin Mary?, what does he mean, I certainly don't see Virgin Mary in you at all." Leo said, winking and making me blush.

"I may have been a bit more restricted when it came to dating, and since I hadn't gone out with anyone by the time I turned 18, he thought it was weird." I said and Eddie laughed.

"Oh man, if it weren't for her meeting David by that time, I'd think there was something wrong with her." he said and I stiffened as he mentioned David. When Eddie realized what he'd done, he immediately stopped laughing and looked at me, his eyes filled with guilt.

"I'm sorry sissy, I didn't mean to bring it up." he said softly and I just nodded, smiling at him reassuringly.

"Who's David?" Leo asked curiously and I sighed.

"I met David in school when I was 18, he was a new student and was so different then myself, he was exciting, reckless, a rebell, which was mostly what drew me to him. We started dating and were together for two years, until he broke up with me a couple of days before me and Eddie turned 20, he said he didn't love me anymore, but I discovered later that he'd been cheating since day one." I said, and they all gasped, and Leo growled.

"It's in the past, I was stupid and ignorant, almost desperate to be with someone because I had low self esteem and didn't want to be alone, I'm not anymore, and I don't think I would've been the person I am today if it didn't happen, as disgusting as he was, he helped me evolve and change when he hurt me." I said and Leo nodded.

"Not to mention that he was a complete control freak, wouldn't let Caro hang out with me because he got jealous, got her to wear specific stuff that he wanted as well, he was crazy and if I ever see him again, I'll make sure to ram his face in." Eddie said, his voice laced with malice. I just rolled my eyes.

"He wasn't that controlling, he was just a bit different, in a weird disgusting way." I said, making Eddie raise an eyebrow.

"Different how?" Leo asked, he was getting angrier and angrier by the things Eddie had said about David. I sighed.

"He wanted an open relationship, and he was controlling and there might have been sometimes when he might have threatened to physically harm me." I said, grimacing as Eddie glared at me. This was something I had left out, and never told Eddie.

"You failed to mention this." Eddie growled out and I sighed, Leo was shaking with anger by now.

"Hey, I'm fine ok?, it's in the past, and I doubt I'll ever see him again." I said and shook my head.

"This is important Carolina, what if he tries something with you?." Alejandro said and I now noticed how angry everyone else were as well.

"He won't, and if he does I can handle him, I'm not scared of him." I said and they all sighed.

"What more did he do that you kept from me?" Eddie asked and I sighed. There was something that he'd done, something that I had tried to forget, burying it deep in my head. This was something I was good at, to forget things that were horrible and almost deny them, never telling anyone. This was my way of coping.

"Nothing, now can we please stop talking about David?" I asked, feeling slightly nervous, both Eddie and Leo noticed this, giving me a look before nodding. I knew they'd never let go of this.

"How come only Carolina knows spanish Eddie?, why don't you speak it as well?" Elena asked and I laughed.

"Because we got to choose a foreign language in school, and I chose german because it was the easiest, and Caro chose spanish because she likes to wear herself out with studying." Eddie said and I laughed once more, before hitting his shoulder playfully.

"Yes, but I wasn't a nerd, Eddie was just stupid and reckless, caring more about football then he ever did for school." I said and Eddie rolled his eyes. I noticed both Alejandro and Elena looking down.

"Hey?, what's wrong?" I asked softly and they looked up, their eyes filled with tears.

"We just missed all of this, and I just wish there was someway to turn back time and stop this from happening." Elena said and I frowned, giving Thiago to Leo before getting up and hugging her.

"It's not your fault, and I know this is going to be difficult, but I'd love to get to know you and dad better, mom." I said and she smiled widely as I called her mom and hugged me. I knew that if I wanted to move on, I also had to accept the fact that Elena and Alejandro were my parents, and a way of doing that was starting to call them mom and dad. This was all overwhelming, but I liked change, and I wanted to embrace it, not let it go.