An older man in a wheelchair appeared at the door, Gabriel and Ariel backed up a couple steps so he could wheel himself in. The gruff voice of the man in the Wheelchair belonged to Gabriel's step-dad, Kristof Draganov. He was older than his mother by 10 years but although being in a wheel chair for the last 7 years, you would think that his body would degrade a bit but not Kristof. He worked out every day and was as fit as man can be at his age.

He had military style short hair that was dark black with specks of grey and a short trimmed full-face beard that was salt pepper in colour. With a commanding aura he never lost from his years in the army and being an instructor. He had his usual sweats on after his workout.

Kristof was ex-Spetsnaz from Russia and met his mother when he was posted over here as a bodyguard for a Russian diplomat, staying in America. They fell in love at first sight and although Ariel was 4 months pregnant with Gabriel and basically destitute. He couldn't care less. Ariel explained to him she ran away from an abusive relationship out of fear of her ex forcing her to lose the child. Kristof accepted the story, even though with his training in espionage, he knew there was more to the story but he didn't care. His thought was 'if she didn't want to talk about it was none of his business'. He treated Gabriel like his own flesh and blood from the moment he was born. Kristof never wanted to lie to his adopted son and Gabriel could tell from a young age just by appearances, that he was not Kristof's son but he treated him the same nonetheless.

Deciding that he wanted to be with Ariel, Kristof moved from Russia officially and bought a nice house in the suburbs of Brooklyn to start a family with his new wife. He worked as a bodyguard for V.I.P costumers and made a good wage. They had two more children, Jane who was currently 12 years old and Max who was 7 years old.

However things took a turn just after Max was born and tragedy struck the budding family.

Kristof was taking Jane for a walk when a drunk driver mounted the curb with his SUV and was coming straight at them. He managed to throw Jane to safety but as he fell to the side of the car, the car ran over his legs, crushing them both.

Gabriel's parents spent a lot of money to repair his legs, as losing them would cost him his livelyhood too. But the current surgeries that would fix them to almost brand new were done with nanobots and therefore, only the uber-rich could pay for them. The other second-rate operations only managed to save his legs from being amputated doing little to restore functionality in them. Meaning that, he had to use a wheel chair most of the time, as putting his full weight on his legs hurt like hell.

This sent the family into the red, financially, and with Kristof suddenly not working as well, things went from bad to worse. They had to sell their house and moved into a 3-bedroom flat; one of Kristof's friends let him rent on the cheap luckily.

Kristof was a strong man and pulled himself together quite quickly considering most people would fall into depression after losing the use of their legs, especially an ex-military man like Kristof. He managed to get a job working for a training facility that teaches bodyguards, the money wasn't great but better than nothing and his mother picked up a job at the local supermarket as a teller.

They barely made enough to support three children but they made sure the kids never truly missed out on anything or went hungry. Although quite stern, he was a loving husband and father.

Once Kristof entered Gabriel's room his eyes swept around looking at all the details, not missing a thing.

He expected everyone's personal room to be tidy, as he said it was a judge of a person's character, whether they were the lazy sort or not. Whenever he entered one of his children's bedrooms, he always did a general sweep looking for any slacking before he spoke.

"So, Gab what has got your knickers in a twist this morning. Your eyes are bloodshot, you better not have stayed up all night again on those damn video games. You also seem to have started your mum's machine-gun mouth..."A sharp look form Ariel made him change his words. Kristof continued after a fake cough.

"I mean you seemed to have worried your beautiful and ever caring mother".

Kristof looked at Ariel from the corner of his eyes and saw her stop glaring and the sides of her mouth curled up a little. Kristof continued after checking he was in the clear.

"Well Gab, what's going on with you? Speak"

The difference between his mother and his father was that Kristof only asked one question and would stare at you in silence until you gave him an answer, he seemed to be able to tell when you were lying too, it was very eerie. He would just stare at you and not respond until you felt forced to tell him the truth.

This would usually be a worry for Gabriel but after absorbing the last 8 years of life, he learnt how to school his face and show only what he wanted people to see or else he would have not been able to rise to the top. Gabriel looked at his Mom and Dad, calming himself down.

"Sorry Mom and Dad. I was a little emotional this morning, as it has only dawned on me now that I have finished college and will have to move out soon".

Some of the suspicion was gone on his parents face but not all, so he knew he needed to just add a little more to his explanation.

"Also, mom you are right, Melissa broke up with me last night. She dropped me for Todd VanKempton. So, I was a little upset" The last part he said in a sad voice, with his cheeks having a tinge of red in them from the embarrassment of telling his parents.

That action was not faked, as Gabriel's now ex girlfriend-Melissa dumped him the night before over text, for the rich second scion of the VanKempton family. Gabriel remembered in the past this had hit him pretty hard, as they had dated for two years and he thought he would be with her forever. He can safely say at this time though, that he couldn't give a bag of bullshit about her. She was a vain woman and quite a two-timer to boot, as Todd VanKempton will find out soon enough.

Ariel scrunched up her little nose and a cute frown matched it shortly after.

"That little bitch! She wasn't good enough for you anyway. I never liked her. She will live a miserable life with her head so far up her ass, that she barely even knows she smells like shit! She has the body of a bucket anyway. Ugly little trollop!" Ariel retorted, her face started getting redder, as she spouted insults that didn't make much sense. She looked at Gabriel with a face full of motherly love and ran over to him, hugging him again.

"It's alright my beautiful boy. You don't need another lady in your life. You have me! I don't like the idea of some other woman taking you from me to begin with. So how about you don't date any other women till you're 30. That will give you plenty of time to help with the heart break. Sounds good? Great, its decided then! You will stay here and live with your mom forever." Ariel cooed, like she was talking to infant.

Gabriel's back was drenched in cold sweat just thinking about a such a scenario. There was one downside to having such a loving mother, she could be far too loving. Insufferably so. He also didn't know how it went from staying with her until 30 years old and then it morphed into "forever" by the end of it.

"Well, she was boring to talk to anyway. Plenty more fish in the sea lad." Kristof barked out.

That was all Kristof said as he slowly wheeled himself out of the room, he noticed Ariel was going into Kathy Bates mode from Misery. Gabriel gave him a look of betrayal when he noticed him trying to leave.

Kristof just chuckled and then hauled his ass down the hall. Gabriel could've swore he saw the tires on his wheelchair let out some smoke. After 15 mins of talking to his mother and promising her things like, "she will never stop being his favorite woman in the world even if he got married". She left his room satisfied with his answers and went to finish preparing breakfast for everyone.

"Well hurry up and you need to eat some breakfast before you go to your graduation. Also can you go wake up Max." Ariel ordered, her voice carrying down the short hall.

Gabriel looked at his small desk and moved towards it, taking a seat on the computer chair, he sat down and took out a blank note book. "Time to plan" he said (to literally no-one).