It was Monday in the middle of the day, so they would all have to be home if they were at work. Luckily, I had taken a half day, so I was in the clear. But I did manage to mumble, “Our cars are back there.”
“Don’t worry about it, my sweet,” Daniil murmured against my hair. “It’ll be taken care of.”
And it was. Not even two hours later our cars were there, along with Daniil’s kids, Kirill, Chloe, and Ember. Daniil and my parents were all having a glass of wine together—me with water—when everyone rushed into the study, looking frazzled, and more than a little worried. Daniil stood and grinned at them, walking over and hugging and kissing each of their cheeks, grinning like an idiot still. It was as if he couldn’t lose the smile. I, on the other hand, was yawning and about ready to pass out since I had stuffed my face once we had arrived.
Everyone he embraced wore a dumbfounded expression, standing there with their mouths gaping as they stared at the overly proud man in front of them, and when the round of over exuberant greetings were done, Grigori asked, “Papa, what’s going on?”
Daniil’s smile somehow…well, it increased, and he walked over to me where I sat at the desk, trying to keep my head up. He grabbed the sonogram photos and brought them over to them, handing them to Grigori first. He thumped them as Grigori stared down at them. “They have pictures now inside the womb. It was amazing!”
Grigori looked at his father as if he was crazy, and I tried not to laugh, coming a little more awake. Ember hiccupped her way into a chuckle, leaning on Grigori, who asked, “Papa, you had us come home from work to show us pictures of the baby?”
Kirill was even starting to chuckle deeply, and Chloe was snorting a little.
Daniil nodded. “Yes. But that’s not all.”
They all stared at him, and his smile positively gleamed as he rubbed his chest proudly, then pointed at the pictures, just the way the doctor had done. “One. Two. Three.” He beamed into their even further dumbfounded faced. “Triplets! We’re having triplets!”
Predictably, everyone’s jaw dropped. Then it was like the open gates as a racetrack as they all swarmed around Grigori, staring over his shoulder…or, in Eva’s case, dropped to her knees in front of him, and squirmed her way to stare at the pictures an inch from her nose. She asked even as the rest started yelling at her, “Show us again! What’s what? I never can tell with these things.”
Grigori growled and pulled the pictures up a little so her head wasn’t blocking the pictures. Daniil reached a hand over them and did the ‘one, two, three’thing again. And everyone stared.
“Three babies,” Ember whispered into the quiet, and I was pretty sure her voice caught. She glanced over at me, clearing her throat, stating, “You don’t know how blessed you are to be able to do that without fertility meds.”
Staring at her, realization hitting me that she wanted more children, and God, by the shock on her face, maybe she was even just realizing it, too. Grigori blinked and glanced at her. She hadn’t even noticed, her gaze back on the photos, a tiny smile lifting her lips. It almost matched the rest of the family’s faces except for it was a desolate smile.
Right then and there, I knew I needed to say a small prayer. My dad, sadly, was right again. Apparently, in the real world, not everyone was blessed to be able to have children the good old-fashioned way. And here, Daniil and I were lucky enough to have three on the first go.
Daniil watched each of his children’s faces, absolutely not missing the interaction between Grigori and Ember…or even Kirill and Chloe for that matter, both of them with glistening eyes and covertly glancing at the other.
Eva looked up at her dad, and her eyebrows puckered. “You may actually get a boy like you said. Anotherbrother.” She scowled.
Daniil turned to me. “What do you think they are?”
Everyone stopped breathing—at least, it seemed and stared. Yawning, because I couldn’t help it, I murmured, “Healthy.”
Daniil smiled softly, nodding. “Yes, I agree.”
“What does that mean?” Chloe asked, turning her attention from me to the photos, trying to edge her way in closer, and getting a gentle, but firm elbow in the gut from Artur, who had finally gotten in place beside Grigori.
Daniil’s eyes turned serious, and he cleared his throat, gesturing at the couches were my parents were sitting. “Why don’t we all have a seat?”
Just like that, everyone’s expressions hooded and they all sat down, passing the photo’s between them as Daniil sat on the edge of the desk, holding my free hand. I only heard a little of his speech, informing them what the doctor had said. Somewhere in there, I knew I murmured tiredly, “He pulled a knife on my doctor…” Right before my face hit the desk, and exhaustion took me under.
That evening, we all had dinner at the table—my parents included. Zane, Stash, Carl, and Anna joined our group, Grigori having called them to tell them the news. Everyone congratulated us, carefully staying on topic of a healthy pregnancy. I ate only healthy items, but sadly, plenty of them since I was starving again, and watched the reaction of our news.
Daniil was still grinning. Grigori was watching Ember covertly with pinched eyebrows. Ember kept glancing at the sonogram photos with a slightly wistful yet confused look on her face. Carl and Anna were giving each other eyes and the same as Kirill and Chloe. My parents were still thrilled, but they were back to watching Daniil and me closely. Artur, Eva, and Roman were all arguing about what the sex of the children should be. And Zane and Stash were taking bets of said sex of the babies.
It was a fun time had by all…until my phone rang.
I rifled through my pocket, happy I was still able to wear regular jeans for the time being and pulled it out, answering, “Hello?”
“Is this Elizabeth Forter?” asked a male with a heavy Russian accent who I didn’t recognize.
“Yes. Who’s this?” I put a finger in my free ear to hear better over the racket everyone was making.
The man chuckled. “So, this is the woman who got knocked up by Daniil.”
I pulled my phone away from my ear, staring at the readout—unknown. Placing the phone back to my ear, I said, “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Who is this?”
