AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bella still needed to be stitched up, and I stayed there, right by her side. The nurse came back and asked if I’d like to see the babies.
I looked at Bella. It didn’t seem fair that I would get to meet them before she did, she was their mother. But she was still being stitched up and recovering from surgery.
“Go,” she said. “I want our babies to meet one of us right away.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to leave you.”
“Yes, absolutely,” she said. “I’ll be fine, but I want our children to know we’re here for them, and if I can’t be there, I want you to be.”
The nurse led me toward where the incubators were. As soon as I stepped into the room, it all became very real to me. These were my sons and daughters.
The emotion that poured over me was unreal. My knees felt like jelly, and I had to hold myself up against the wall as I stared down at their tiny little bodies. For some reason, I couldn’t stop looking at their itty, bitty hands. I wanted to let them wrap those tiny fingers around one of my own, but I wasn’t able to touch them yet.
I spoke to each of the babies, telling them that I loved them already, more than life itself, and I knew their mom did, too.
“It’s going to be okay. We’ll all be home together soon, as a family, just you wait and see.”
My heart was full. It was in that moment that I felt it happen, the shift from being a regular man to being a father.
19
Bella
After several days in the hospital, I was released to go home. I was relieved but that meant leaving my babies behind. Being at Gabe’s place felt weird without them. They had been a part of me for several months, and now we were separated.
Gabe’s brothers had come to town to visit and we were all enjoying some drinks in the living room. I stuck with tea, mostly out of habit.
Ava looked to be enjoying having her brothers back together, and she couldn’t seem to stop smiling. Gabe appeared more reserved, cautious, and I couldn’t blame him. We’d talked about his feelings a lot, about how he wasn’t sure he could trust Roman and Dante, not fully, but he was open to trying. I knew he missed them.
“Do you remember the time that Dad took us all fishing?” Dante, the youngest of the brothers, asked.
“Ugh, yes, he got so fucking wasted he passed out in the boat, and we had to swim to shore to get something to eat.” Roman chuckled at the memory, Gabe did not.
“I don’t find that memory as amusing as the two of you. Ava almost drowned,” he said.
“I was fine,” Ava mumbled, brushing it off.
“You were caught up in the currents, and I had to swim out to get you. I almost couldn’t grab you,” Gabe said. “All because of Dad’s incompetence as a father.”
Ava didn’t say anything else. I knew she wanted her brothers to all just get along.
“Yeah, true,” Dante said. “I forgot about that part. Dad was pretty shitty at typical dad stuff, wasn’t he?”
“You can say that again,” Gabe muttered.
“I got the feeling he never really wanted to have kids, that Mom was the one who wanted us,” Dante continued.
Of the three of them, Gabe was the most serious, most grown-up. Dante, while mischievous and always enjoying a little trouble, was pretty harmless. Roman, on the other hand… well, based on what Gabe had told me, he had gotten himself into some major Mafia business. I understood why Gabe wanted to keep his distance from him.
Gabe seemed to relax a bit with his brother backing him up. “I think Dad wanted us because he wanted a legacy to leave behind, to not be forgotten once he died.”
“I agree,” Dante said.
Roman didn’t argue, he just looked at his brothers with an odd smile on his face. Of the four kids, Roman was closest to their father, and often defensive about him. But he didn’t say anything, and I was grateful for that.
Before long, the four of them were laughing about fonder childhood memories and inside jokes, it put a smile on my face.
It was nice being surrounded by family, even if it wasn’t my own.
