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Chapter Ten
Six Months, Three Weeks Pregnant…
“Mom, stop worrying, you know you look amazing!” Haley said, adjusting the veil. “You’re going to do great at the ceremony.”
Brenda waddled—at just over six months pregnant with triplets there was nothing else she could do—over to the foot of the bed she shared with Jamsheed: the man who would be her husband in only a few short hours.
She loved her fiancé and she loved her children. Thanks to the influx of hormones and at triple the rate of her last pregnancy, Brenda would sometimes find herself bursting into tears just because of how happy she actually was. However, she was still ready to be done with the pregnancy. She wanted her children there so she could hold them in her arms, so that she could see into their eyes and see their father reflected back at her. She just knew all of three sets would be amber.
What she wanted was to no longer feel were the night sweats, the back pain, the swollen feet, and, recently, the dizziness from her climbing blood pressure. Soon, they’d have to induce, even earlier than Dr. G wanted if they couldn’t get her blood pressure down.
The hard parts drained her, but soon she’d have her children—all four, now that Haley graduated early—under her roof.
“I think I might look like I’m wearing a circus tent,” she said, trying to fan herself with part of her bed sheet. It was hot in Zomelia under the best of circumstances, but when she was wearing a wedding dress and almost seven months pregnant, it was like being in the ninth circle of Hell. “I just… every dignitary, every person who matters is going to be there. Ugh, they even had to invite Abir. ‘Formal custom,’ they said.”
“The guy who looks like he’s auditioning to be Rasputin? Yeah, I saw him. Talk about a total creeper.”
Brenda chuckled. Over her second trimester, it had been such a joy to have her daughter with her, even if the revelation of her siblings had thrown Haley at first. Of course, everyone took time to adjust to triplets. Brenda still was, and she might be until they were older. Like in high school.
“I’m glad you’re here. I mean what I’ve said before. I don’t want you to feel like the babies are replacing you, or like things will change just because you have a new stepfather. We’re still us, that dynamic duo we always were. We just have something extra.”
Her daughter laughed. “Oh, we definitely have something extra going on. I’ll say!”
“I’m serious. How do you really feel?”
Haley laughed and twisted a finger through one of the curls of her auburn hair. “The horse is out of the barn now. We can’t go back, and I wouldn’t want to. I can’t pretend to understand how fast this all happened.”
“Well, you’re not alone in that. I know it was a whirlwind.”
“And maybe just a little hint of ‘shotgun,’” Haley continued. “But you’re smiling. Mom, I haven’t seen you smile like this, maybe ever.”
“I have with you.”
Haley snorted. “Yeah, sure, we have a blast but I mean there’s this other smile, this like secret smile you had and I only see it when you and Jamsheed look at each other. That’s what I mean. There’s something about your love that gets to both of you, that makes you glow.”
“He hasn’t. I mean, well, we haven’t said the ‘I love yous’ yet.”
Haley frowned and patted her knee. “I don’t understand. Why not?”
“Maybe we were saving it for the big day today. I know that I didn’t say it first because I was scared that, you’re right, it happened so fast. Maybe he’s with me because of obligation. I’m afraid even now, as crazy as this is, if I say ‘I love you first’ that I won’t hear it back. It’ll be like being pantsed, just open air exposed and embarrassed.”
“Mom, trust me, it’s going to be fine. You’ll say your vows, kiss, and then over the cake—because as pregnant as you are a first dance is so a no—you two will look into each other’s eyes and the I love yous will come. It’ll be totally Disney.”
Brenda laughed at her daughter’s way with words and then patted her belly. “I don’t think Disney really anticipated triplets.”
“He did have 101 Dalmatians.”
“Well, most of those were adopted. The point is, I think I’m always just a little bit scared. I know how hard it is to cobble yourself back together.”
“You won’t have to this time,” Haley said, hugging her as best she could. As they pulled apart, a loud clapping sounded out in the air around them.
“Well, well,” Abir said. And, to her horror, as he entered into the bedroom, he did so with a gun in his hand and five men in suits as armed and angry-looking behind him. “I think everything looks like a happy ending… until now.”
Brenda couldn’t leap up. Her body wasn’t made for that now. Hell, it was hard for her to move much at all. Sometimes Haley joked that she was like one of those huge, unwieldy Weebles, those bobble-shaped kids’ punching bags. The comparison seemed to fit. She felt like she bobbed like a blob most days; seeing her feet was a pipe dream.
Still, Brenda tried to stand, struggled and groaned to get to her feet to protect Haley, who, currently, was standing between her and Abir.
Reaching her hand up, Brenda set it on her eldest’s shoulder. “Honey, don’t do that. Let me talk to Abir.” Of course, judging from the from the armed men he surrounded himself with and the semiautomatic in his hands, he wasn’t going to do much talking. Her heart sped up and sweat beaded on her brow. “What’s going on? Just leave my daughter alone.”
