As soon as they were done shopping, they looked for a restaurant where they can buy takeout order. Stefan asked Dominic if there were any allergies his families suffered from before ordering the food. Since everyone's fine with anything, he just bought everything that can serve four to five people. In that way, they can share it with everyone.
"We'll them for dinner later." Stefan commented when he looked at the time on his watch. It's almost five in the afternoon, which was few hours away from dinner time.
They waited for their food and after half an hour, everything was finally ready for them to take away. Dominic was holding the bag containing the food boxes while Stefan held the things the just shopped earlier. As for Cayenne, she's empty-handed once again. She's only responsible for paying the things they bought using her husband's card.
"Is your house far from here?" Stefan asked Dominic as they walked back towards the parking lot.
"If it's not traffic, you can get there half an hour with a bus if it's traffic, you can get there after an hour or so. But the traffic here in this city isn't so heavy like the one in City A."
"Since you went to X University, do you go home everyday or did you stay in an apartment?"
"I stayed Marnie's home. I helped them with their small farm and house chores as a repayment for taking me in. I also gave them some of my allowance to add up for the bills or for the groceries."
"I see. So, they've been helping you all these years." Stefan commented upon hearing his response. "How many are they in their family?"
"Not so big. Marnie has two little sisters. His father works in their small vegetable farm and his mother is a cashier in a convenience store. He has no grandparents since they died early."
Hearing his responses, Cayenne already knew what he was thinking and she could only smile at him. 'He's got such a big and warm heart.' She thought while watching her husband.
When they reached the parking lot, she opened the car for them. They decided to place the takeout orders at the backseat so that Dominic can look after them in case some of them would be spilled.
And because it was already peak hours, they were stuck in the traffic just like what Dominic described earlier. However, it wasn't really a heavy traffic jam so they were still able to move forward.
Dominic told Stefan the direction of his home while Cayenne watched the things outside, remembering which direction the turn left and turn right.
After several turns, they arrived in a suburb where less cars were passing by. It wasn't overly populated like the city and you can see some farm animals on the roadside.
"So, the only public transportation here is the bus?" Cayenne asked Dominic when she saw the scenery outside.
"Hn. Only buses and private vehicles would come here. It's very seldom that you can see taxi here. It's very expensive after all."
They continued to drive until Dominic told them to turn right and stop. In front of them was a small road with many flowers on each side. It was like an aisle and at the end of it, you can see a small house. It was a bungalow type of house and even though it was small, it was quite lovely to watch with all the flowers around it.
"Who planted these flowers?" Cayenne asked as soon as she stepped out of the car.
"When my grandma still got good eyesight, she likes to plant flowers. When her sight has gone bad, grandpa planted them for her. She likes the scent of the flowers permeating our home."
"It does smell good."
While they chat, the door of the house swung open and a middle-aged man, came out. "Dom, is that you?"
"Pa, we have some visitors."
"This late? Come here. Come inside." His father called to them and opened the door widely for them. "Sorry we didn't prepare anything. We didn't know we'll have visitors at this time of the day." He was looking at them nervously and since the light outside the house was dim, he didn't see Stefan's face clearly.
"Excuse our intrusion." Cayenne politely bowed at the man. "Good evening, uncle."
"Uh…good evening…good evening."
Stefan was standing right behind Cayenne and was holding the things they shopped earlier. "Good evening." Stefan also greeted them and when he showed his face clearly under the lights, the man in front of them was stunned.
He blinked his eyes several times and rubbed it several times as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing at the moment. Instead of greeting him back, he ran to the small living room and took several magazines out of the drawer.
When they saw what it was, Cayenne couldn't help but smile.
Dominic's father flipped through several pages of the magazines, looked at the picture before looking back to Stefan who was standing right inside their house.
"Ma! Pa! Come outside! Come here! Stefan's home!"
"What did you say?" an old man came out from the room on their right and looked at Cayenne and Stefan standing in the middle of their living room. With staggering steps, he walked towards Stefan and touched his arms. "Is it really you?"
"Hello grandpa. I'm home." Stefan answered with a faint smile.
The old man couldn't contain his happiness anymore and hugged Stefan with tears on his face. How many years has it? How many years have they been watching him from a far, seeing him secretly until he grew and become a young man? How many years has it been since they started buying the magazines which features him just to know how he's doing?
Cayenne took the bags from Stefan and placed it on the sofa next to Dominic. Her nose was also stinging and she was about to cry from this family reunion. Stefan had been alone for so many years. He had no idea of his true identity and it was just recently that he found the truth about his mother's death. He had been looking for his maternal family and now, they were right in front of him.
He's finally come home to the family that he was taken away from.
Stefan hugged his grandfather and cried silently. He was just so happy. He didn't know how to express this happiness at all and all he could do was hug his grandpa back.
"I'm home. I'm home." These were the only words he could say.
His uncle came to get his mother and when she came out, she didn't walk to Stefan. She was just standing there, listening to the commotion in the living room.
Stefan let go of his grandpa and walked towards his grandmother. "Granny, I'm back. Stefan is back home. I've come home."
"Stefan?! Really? You are my grandson?" She asked but all she could see was a blurry face in front of her. "Too bad, I can't see you now."
"It's fine granny. Everything will be fine." Stefan held his grandmother's hand and placed it on his right face. "Can you feel me? I'm warm. I'm alive and kicking. I'm alive because you gave me the chance to live.
I'm home granny. I'm home."
His grandmother cried and slowly walked towards him. Stefan hugged his grandmother warmly, feeling the weak body tremble in his arms. She was so thin and small.
He looked towards his uncle who was also crying on the side. "I'm home uncle. Thank you so much that you've all waited for me to come home."
Cayenne turned around and secretly wiped the tears that she just cried. Dominic was also crying on the side. Twenty-eight years. His family had been waiting for Stefan to come in these twenty-eight years.