Maddison rushed over to them, throwing herself into Asher's legs hard enough that her feet left the ground and she was able to crawl into Asher's lap, with his help of course.
"What do you mean ‘Zeke left’?" Asher questioned as he wrapped his arms around his daughter so she wouldn't fall off.
She had nestled herself nicely in his lap so her legs dangled over the edge but she was able to look up at them both with her big blue eyes.
They adopted Maddison out of the orphanage when she was six years old, soon after Ezekiel had come up to them one day and asked if they were ever going to adopt another child.
It was completely random and out of the blue and had taken them both by surprise so much that they didn't know what to say.
They honestly hadn't thought about adopting again, but when Ezekiel explained that he was only wondering because he thought it might be nice to have someone to play with, they had to give it some thought.
They talked it over for a few days and brought Ezekiel back in to talk it over with him to make sure this is what he wanted.
After that, Cailen couldn't get the idea out of his head.
He went about a week thinking about it and found that, yes, he did want another child. He spoke to Asher again and found that Asher had been thinking about the same thing, so they set up an appointment at the orphanage and were soon leading Ezekiel into the same playroom both him and Cailen had spent so much time in.
It went a lot like the time William had found him in the playroom. They told Ezekiel to go talk to the children and watched as he went.
He was older than most of the kids there at the time but he didn't have problems talking with them.
Cailen and Asher were surprised to say the least when Ezekiel approached a little blonde haired girl and took a seat infront of her and started playing with the Barbie dolls she had out.
It shouldn't have been that much of a surprise but they supposed they had just assumed Ezekiel had been talking about another boy, not a girl.
When Cailen and Asher asked the orphanage worker about the girl, they found out her name was Maddison and that she had just turned six.
She told them that little Maddison had been taken from the care of her parents after discovering they were unsuitable, having been leaving Maddison home alone for days on end with nothing more than a box of cereal to feed herself.
She was tiny when she was brought into the orphanage and her muscles were weak from not being taken outside or even having anyone to play with as she was growing.
It was obvious the worker was fond of the girl by the way she talked about her. She explained that not many parents gave her a second look because she couldn't walk as well as she should have been able to and when they did try talking to her, her speech wasn't exactly up to their standards.
It made Cailen angry thinking about it. It’s not as if it was Maddison's fault, and it had Cailen walking over to where his son sat, Asher following him, and soon they were signing the papers to bring her home.
It was more than her story that had Cailen and Asher adopting her. It may have been part of the reason they considered her, the other being that Ezekiel seemed to like her as well, but it was the way she smiled at them that had Cailen signing those papers.
She smiled at them brightly, as if none of this affected her.
Cailen realized she was only six at the time, but he could tell she was a strong girl. He could tell she wasn't one to give up or let the little things get to her.
This was proven when they got her home and she immediately adapted to her surroundings. She was nowhere near as scared to let anyone in as Ezekiel, or even Cailen, had been.
Her spirits hadn't been crushed yet and Cailen could tell it wouldn't be crushed easily. She was an energetic little girl, always on the go and always determined to get what she wanted.
That's why Asher had learned to say ‘no’ as well as he did.
He had to or Maddison would be running the house and not them.
"He left. He went out the front door." Maddison explained, blinking up at them with an innocent look in her eyes.
"And you didn't tell us because..." Cailen said, stepping towards Asher and kneeling down infront of her.
"I am telling you, Papa." She said with a roll of her eyes, like this was obvious.
Cailen could see the amused smile fighting it's way to Asher's lips but chose to ignore it.
"So he just left? Before you came in here?" Cailen asked, knowing the answer already.
"No. He left a while ago." She explained, shrugging her shoulders.
Cailen snorted at this and stood again, folding his arms over his chest.
"You should have told us then." Cailen sighed but it was hard to keep the laughter out of his voice.
Maddison may have adapted easily enough when they brought her home, but she's gotten increasingly more comfortable over the three years and wasn't afraid to be a smart ass. Cailen thinks she's gotten it from Ezekiel.
"Maddie, why don't you go put your dress on, yeah?" Asher said, placing a chaste kiss to her cheek as he lifted her from his lap and set her on the ground. "People will be arriving soon." Asher explained.
"But I wanted to play outside." Maddison pouted, looking up at her father.
"You can play outside tomorrow. We've got company coming over, remember?" Asher asked, guiding her towards the kitchen entrance.
Asher gave Cailen a look over his shoulder, indicating he would take care of Maddison while it was up to Cailen to find Ezekiel.
Honestly, this was his party, you'd think the boy would realize he should be here when his guests arrive. Cailen gave a slight nod and dug into his pocket for his phone.
"Like Noah? Is Noah coming?" Cailen heard Maddison ask excitedly as they turned down the hall.
"Yeah, and Uncle William, Matthew and Hazel." Asher went on, their voices fading as Cailen thumbed through his contacts and found Ezekiel's name.
"And Aariyah?" She asked around a gasp.
"Of course, now go on. You don't want her to have a prettier dress than you, do you?" Asher asked.
Cailen smiled at this as he placed the phone to his ear, listening to the ringing sound.
Maddison and Aariyah were always competing to see who had the prettiest dress or the prettiest hair or prettiest whatever they decided to compete on.
They even had a beauty pageant in the living room once and had Asher, Cailen, Matthew and Hazel be the judges. Obviously, they made it a tie, claiming they were each equally as beautiful but the competition never ended there.
"No!" Madeline exclaimed and then Cailen could hear the thumps as she raced up the stairs to her room.
On the phone, Cailen heard Ezekiel's voicemail message come on, telling him to leave a message and if Ezekiel felt like it, he would call them back.
Cailen hung up the phone and slipped it into his pocket, heading for the front door.
He had a pretty good idea where the boy had gone and why he hadn't mentioned to Asher or Cailen that he was leaving.
He's been going there for a while now, Cailen had followed him once or twice, unknowing to the boy, but it was strictly to make sure he wasn't off getting into trouble.
Cailen wasn't the kind of parent to invade their kid's privacy, they were allowed to have their own lives and secrets, to a point, and Cailen always respected that.
Once he had found out where Ezekiel was running off to, he stopped following and decided to wait for Ezekiel to come to him.
However, it's been a while since he's decided this and Ezekiel wasn't coming to him so he supposed it was time to let the boy know he knew, that they both knew and it was okay.
Cailen grabbed his coat and keys at the door and made his way outside to his car.
Before he got in, he sent Asher a message letting him know he was going to pick up Ezekiel and then he was climbing into the car and pulling out of the driveway.
It wasn't a long drive, Ezekiel was able to walk there after all, so it wasn't long before he was pulling up beside the local cemetery and getting out. He locked the doors and walked to the entrance, smiling briefly at the groundskeeper as he passed.
The cemetery was of course filled with headstones, all varying in size and detail. You could tell which families had money and which didn't. Some of them had a simple message engraved into the stone, some had full images engraved into a much larger stone, and some didn't have a stone at all, just a simple plaque in the grass.
There were flowers sitting at some of the ones that Cailen passed on his way to the gravestone he knew he would find Ezekiel at, some of them wilting, some of them fresh.
When Cailen drew closer, he saw Ezekiel seated in the grass infront of a stone, his head ducked as he plucked at the grass in front of the stone.