Chapter 86
Alex and Aurora: 2 and a half years old.
“Mama?” Alex called me, and I smiled at my little boy. He had spoken for the first time almost a year and a half ago, but it still made me grin every time he called me mama with his little voice.
“Yes, baby?” I cooed, picking him up in my arms and carrying him outside, letting his sister sleep.
“Play?” He blinked his huge eyes, and I nod.
“Of course, my love.”
I carry him to the twins‘ little play area in the house, and he happily hops out of my arms and into the soft area where his blocks and cars were kept along with Aurora’s dolls and a soft ball pit that they could jump into.
I watch as he puts a few blocks on top of one another, making a tower.
I
“Wow. That’s so tall.” I sit next to him, passing him the blocks one by one as he adds them onto his creation, careful not to topple them,
It was a quiet afternoon in our house, Gabriel was at work, and this was usually the time for the twins to nap but Alex had a sugar rush and couldn’t sleep. Even then, he wasn’t making noise, aware his sister was sleeping in the room next to ours.
“Mama… look!” He pointed at the tall tower, satisfied by how much he had managed to pile on.
I was just about to praise him when he punched right in the centre of it, watching with a spark in his eyes how all of it fell down into many pieces.
“FUN!” He shouted, the grin of his mouth endless, his brown eyes showing so much sudden enthusiasm.
I sighed, resisting the urge to face palm.
It’s bothersome how much destruction excites him.
“You’re supposed to build, my love. Not break.” I remind him gently, smiling at his antics.
“If no break, then how build again?” He pouts, and I nearly laugh.
Oh, my sweet, naughty boy. He had always been this way. Always inquisitive, always observing, always witty. And his knack for watching things break? It was concerning for Gabriel although I always laughed it off. He was just a child being a child.
“Mama…” He called me again while in the middle of racing his cars into the soft ball pit.
“Yes Alex?”
“Dada.” He pointed behind me. Having somehow missed the jiggling of the keys or the sound of footsteps, I turned around just in time to catch Gabriel walk in.
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“Hey?” I called him with my eyebrows furrowed. “You’re home so early?”
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“Mh–hm.” A little smile covered his lips as he walked over to the play area through the little white gate, k*ssing me softly. “How come he isn’t asleep yet?”
“He had a cookie after lunch,” I told my husband as he settled across from me, and took Alex in his arms.
“Sugar monster,” Gabriel cooed his son, placing a big k*ss on his cheeks.
“Dada_ play!” Alex was busy running the car over Gabriel’s coat, dropping it in his suit pocket.
I giggled.
Who knew the man I met would one day let a little child run his toy car over his suit?
“Why’re you home, Gabriel?” I asked again.
“I was missing the kids.”
“And not me?” I pout.
“You too,” he chuckled, but it wasn’t as open as I had gotten used to.
Alex wiggles from Gabriel’s hold, diving into the ball pool.
Gabriel shifts closer to keep a closer eye on him, dipping his feet in the soft balls.
I inch closer to him, sitting the same way. His shoulders were tense, and he wouldn’t look at me.
“What’s wrong, Gabriel?” I ask again, passing my hand through his arm to be able to rest my temple on his shoulder. “Don’t lie to me. Why’re you tensed?”
“Everything’s good, Freckles.” He k*sses the top of my head, taking a deep breath over my head as if to absorb my presence. “I had a bad dream last night.”
My forehead creases. “A bad dream? What kind?”
“There was a fire,” he barely whispers. “In the house. I was coming back from somewhere… from work, I think. And I came to see the house on fire.”
My hold on his arm tightens
He continues, “I could save only one of you. You, or the kids.”
“Oh, love,” I mumble, striking his palm with my thumb of my free hand, and he intertwined our fingers, bring it closer to his lips to place a k*ss on my knuckles.
“I saved you, Freckles.” He answers the question I didn’t ask, and I shut my eyes for a brief second. “Since I woke up, there is a certain suffocation, a certain guilt in me.”
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Chapter 86
“It was just a dream, Gabriel,” I reassure him.
He turns to me only briefly. “I know.” He looks away again, to Alex. “But if I was ever given such an impossible choice, you know I would put myself through a hundred deaths before giving up on you or the kids, right?”
“Of course I know that,” I whisper. “You’re a good father, Gabriel. And a good man.”
“Do you..” He hesitates, “Do you think the twins will hate me when they grow up, when they find out I missed their birth?”
“No, they wouldn’t.” My eyebrows furrow, my voice a little sharp. “They will never find out. And even if they do, they wouldn’t hate you because you’ve been the best dada to them.”
“You think 2-
“You think so?” He asks me, still sounding unsure.
“I know so.”
He gives me a small smile, almost leaning down to k*ss me, stopping only when Alex pulls at Gabriel’s pants to get his attention.
“Alex, you’re supposed to wait till I k*ss Mama.” Gabriel says with a grin, and my eyes widen as I playfully slap his shoulder.
Alex giggles even though he doesn’t understand it, climbing up in Gabriel’s arms. “Dada… story!”
“Story?”
Alex nods. “With tiger!”
“Okay.” Gabriel feigns a salute with two fingers, and Alex tries mimicking him but fails.
I laugh.
My husband places a quick k*ss on my nose. “I will entertain him. Why don’t you catch a nap? You seem tired.”
“Are you sure?”
“A hundred percent,”
I smile watching Gabriel place Alex on his shoulders and walk into the twins‘ room making airplane noises. Alex holds Gabriel’s hair with all his strength, his laughter echoing in the room.
I stare at them disappearing and then at the closed door till his laughter silences.
Actually tired, I end up catching a nap in the living room itself, on the couch.
I wake up when the sun had set, the house being dark. Not hearing the twins‘ voices was scary for a moment, but the fear vanishes when I enter their room and see both of them cuddled up to their father, Alex in the centre.
A smile covers my lips as I make my way to the bed, sleeping on the bed on Gabriel’s other side, hugging him from behind. He shifts in his sleep to turn to me, enveloping me in his arms.
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I happily fall back into the slumber I woke up from, Gabriel’s bad dream not having the least affect on me because I knew that as long as this man was by my side, I will always be safe. All of us would be.
