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Forty
Damian heldhis breath as the ultrasound technician ran the wand over Aria’s slightly rounded lower abdomen. He didn’t care if the baby was a boy or a girl. He just wanted it to be okay. Wanted it to be given another clean bill of health after the trip toThailand.
His worry was irrational — Aria had done nothing but fly in an airplane and wait at the house while he’d gone to kill Malcolm Gatti — but a clean bill of health for the baby was the final benediction Damianneeded.
The technician turned a few knobs on the machine and it crackled tolife.
“Let’s take a look,” shesaid.
Damian looked down at Aria and gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. It must not have been convincing, because Aria laughed alittle.
“Lighten up, Cavallo. Everything’sfine.”
“Are we a football team now?” he asked, shaking his head. “You going to call me by my last name and slap myass?”
Before she could answer, the ultrasound technicianspoke.
“Well, if you want to start a football team, I’d say you’ve got a good start here with not one, but two newplayers.”
“Two?” Damian blinked trying to make sense of what she wassaying.
She smiled, her eyes still on the screen. “Look,” she said, pointing to one of the orbs floating on the slightly yellow screen. ”There’s ahead.”
It was clearly visible as a head this time, the machine transmitting three-dimensional images instead of the two-dimensional ones they’d gottenbefore.
“And here’s the other one,” she continued. “It’s playing peekaboo, hiding behind itstwin.”
“Its twin?” Aria tried to sit up, then realized she still had gel on herbelly.
The technician nodded. “I can’t tell the genders yet, but there are definitely two babies in here. Or two new members of your team, if you prefer to think of it thatway.”
“They never said anything about twins,” Damiansaid.
He didn’t want to be a skeptic, but it seemed too good to betrue.
“Sometimes they hide behind each other, especially early on,” she said. “We don’t always spot both babies until they get a littlebigger.”
He tore his gaze away from the screen. Aria was looking up at him with a question in hereyes.
He bent to kiss her. “We’re going to havetwins.”
“Are you happy?” she askedhim.
He looked into her eyes. “I’mhappy.”
He wanted to say more. Wanted to tell her that he’d been nothing before her. That he’d been a shell of a man living a shell of alife.
That he hadn’t even beenbreathing.
The technician spoke before he could sayanything.
“It’s a good thing you’re young,” she said with a smile. “You’re going to have two times thetrouble!”
Damian bent down and pulled Aria into hisarms.
Two times thelife.
Two times thelove.
His cup runnethover.
TheEnd
