Page 137 of Ruining Vanessa

He picks up a paper from the tray and holds it up for us to see. It’s the picture from the ultrasound.

Giulio grins widely. “Here it is! Our cause for celebration. A little white blob that’s fifty percent Vanessa, and fifty percent one of us crazy fuckers she wishes she’d never met.”

Truer words have never been spoken.

“It’s not a blob,” Damien interrupts. “It’s… It’s a tadpole.”

Slayer barks out a laugh. “Dude, the two of you are fucked in the head. A blob, a tadpole… It’s a baby, guys. Well, the start of one.”

Giulio ignores Slayer to rotate the photo a bit. “Huh, y’know, I could see it. There’s the tail, there’s the rest of the body. Frogs aren’t quite as cool as reptiles, but I do like me a good giant African bullfrog.”

Of course Giulio would compare the baby to his creatures—though he loves his reptiles, so it’s a little strange. After today, I have no doubts at all that he cares about the white blob, the tadpole, whatever they want to call it, but the thought makes me sick instead of feeling sweet.

“Anyway.” Giulio raises his glass again. “The point is, congrats to us for knocking up Vanessa despite all the… obstacles in our way. I look forward to meeting the frog when it’s born.”

Damien snorts, but he lifts his glass too. “To our little tadpole.”

Slayer dutifully follows suit, raising his own glass and elbowing me so I do the same. “To the tadpole!” he says cheerfully. “And many more.”

I stare up at him, wide-eyed, and give a quick shake of my head. The thought of one is bad enough; the idea of more… No. Just no.

But I see how expectantly Damien is looking at me, so I force a smile onto my lips.

“To the tadpole,” I say, as though this is utterly normal.

To the baby.