Sylvia: What the fuck is taking you so long?
Sylvia doesn’t like it when I’m late. We’re having lunch with my sister-in-law, Lizzy, today. Lizzy is pregnant with twins and has been having an extremely hard time since my brother, and her husband, died suddenly. She refuses to leave her house, so if we want to see her, or have lunch with her in this case, then we have to go over there.
Finally pulling into Lizzy’s driveway, I throw my SUV into park, switch off the engine, and get out. I jog up to the door, pushing it open without knocking. Lizzy is standing, hands on the back of the couch, and I hear Sylvia moving around in the kitchen.
“Everything okay?” I ask quietly.
Lizzy shakes her head, her gaze on the ground. “My water just broke,” she says softly in a casual tone. There’s no panic at all, but her words hit me immediately and induce my own panic.
“Sylvia!” I shout. “It’s time! Grab her bag!”
“Shit! Really? Okay, hold on!” She runs around the house while I walk over to Lizzy and take one of her hands in mine.
“Let’s get you to the car,” I say softly. I’ve been tiptoeing around her ever since my brother, Roger, died. She’s been devastated and the last thing we want to do is something to upset her even more. She’s fragile. I’ve never seen Lizzy like this before and it kills me. She used to be this strong, fiery person who spoke her mind. I haven’t seen that person since my brother took his last breath.
She shakes her head again. “No. Not yet.”
“What? Why? We need to get you there.”
She leans forward, winces, and grabs her stomach with one hand while squeezing my hand with the other. Fuck, is she having contractions?
“Lizzy,” I start, keeping my voice calm, yet a little firm.
“No!” she shouts. Lizzy starts crying as Sylvia comes into the room and glares at me like I did something to upset her. All I did was try to get her some help. Lizzy’s crying quickly becomes hysterics. “I can’t do this. Not without Roger. I can’t. I just can’t. I am not going to that hospital.” She lifts her head to look at Sylvia and me. “Adopt them. Take them. Raise them as your own. I can’t do it. I can’t. Please, tell me that y’all will. Please.”
“Lizzy, we—” Sylvia starts.
“Promise me you’ll do it!” Lizzy demands, her words turning into a groan as pain grips her. “This is the worst time for me to be a mother. I can’t do it without Roger. I just can’t. But y’all would make great parents and these girls deserve better than me. I’d have no say. Promise you’ll adopt these babies.”
“Okay. We promise,” I say. We have to get her to a damn hospital as soon as possible. I don’t care what her demands are, I’ll promise anything to make sure we keep her and those babies safe.
Lizzy nods, makes some comment about me calling our lawyer to make the adoption official, and finally lets me lead her out of the house and into my SUV. The rest is a bit of a blur as we rush to the hospital and get her checked in. We’re both with Lizzy when she gives birth to the first little girl.
I send a worrisome glance to Sylvia. Lizzy has no reaction and she refuses to acknowledge the nurse and the baby. This isn’t good.
Lizzy does the same for the second baby. When asked if she wants to hold them, she says no and even goes as far to as telling the nurse that we’re going to be the parents. Surely, she’ll change her mind. Surely, she’s not serious. I can’t see her actually going through with this.
In the meantime, Sylvia and I each hold a beautiful baby until they want them back. We give Lizzy some time to rest, but before we leave, she tells us to name the girls whatever we want.
We stand just outside of the room where the baby girls are wailing. Sylvia has her arms around my waist.
“She’s serious, Scott,” she whispers. “She wants us to take the girls.” Her voice trembles, letting me know she’s close to tears.
I’m torn over how I feel about this. Sylvia and I have always wanted kids. We’ve been trying for as long as we’ve been married and then, after many trips to a specialist, we were told that it would be impossible. Sylvia wasn’t meant to get pregnant. It took entirely too long for me to get my wife to accept that. It’s a hard thing to accept, I know. I was as devastated as she was, but it was nothing compared to my Sylvie.
We recently decided to try the adoption route, funny enough considering Lizzy wants us to adopt her twins. So, if she’s serious, then I’m elated that my wife and I will finally be parents. However, I hate the expense at which it’s coming. If Roger was still alive, Lizzy would be over the moon right now. Instead, she can’t see past her grief. I hate that I agree with her, too. She’s in no shape to take care of babies, but I’ve been praying that once she saw those cute, pink, screaming faces, she’d find some strength to do what needed to be done for those girls.
Then again, maybe she is.
“What if she changes her mind six months down the road when she’s recovered from her grief?” Sylvia glances up at me, the tears freely falling down her cheeks. “I can’t get attached and pretend that I’m their mom for her to change her mind, Scott. But I don’t want to do the paperwork now and have her change her mind, and this be something we took from her. What are we going to do?”
“Let’s do what she wants for the time being, but hold off on making anything official. Maybe now that they’re here, she’ll find a way to get through her grief.”
“She wants us to name them. This just feels so wrong. I feel like she’ll be mad at us or change her mind at any second.”
“Has she mentioned any names to you?”
Sylvia shakes her head. “She barely talks anymore, and before, she never said.”
We’re definitely between a rock and a hard place. “Let me talk to her one more time before we do anything. Stay here.” I kiss her gently and return to Lizzy’s room.
The moment I step inside, she opens her eyes. “I’m not changing my mind. Have y’all picked names yet?”
I cross the room to sit in the chair next to her bed. I take her hand in mine, wishing my brother could be here. Today would be so different if he were. “Are you sure, Lizzy? You know we’ll help and—”
The tears are as sudden as her interruption. “I can’t, Scott. Not without Roger. And we both know I’m not in any shape to take care of someone else when you and Sylvia have been taking care of me. If I can’t take care of myself, I can’t take care of them. Roger would want this.”
She had me until that last part. It seems like such an odd thing to say.
“He would want what’s best for them,” she adds. “Please.”
“Okay. But if you change your mind—”
“I won’t.” She winces as she turns on her side away from me. “You can go now.”
Fuck. She’s already withdrawing from us again. With a deep breath, I stand and return to Sylvia. Our priority is those two beautiful girls and then helping Lizzy heal. We’ll hold off on the adoption papers until we see what happens with Lizzy.
“Well?” Sylvia says when she sees me.
“Let’s think of some names and move forward with caution.”
“I like Stephanie and Stella.”
I laugh. “You already decided without me?”
She takes my hand and leans against me. “Those are my suggestions.” Her voice lowers to a whisper. “Our names start with S and those were names on my girls list that started with S that I liked.”
That’s right. Sylvia used to keep two lists, one for boys and one for girls, and she had names she liked for each letter of the alphabet. The list is currently buried in the bottom of her nightstand drawer because that’s something she just can’t throw away.
“I think those will be perfect.”
Sylvia’s chest starts to labor. “Don’t let me get too attached, Scott.”
“They’re family either way, Sylvie. You can’t love them too much, and if she changes her mind, we still get to see them. We’ll be parents one day, I promise. Let’s focus on making sure we take care of them and give them a bunch of love. They deserve that whether we’re their parents or their aunt and uncle.”
Turns out, Sylvia worried for nothing. Three months later, at Lizzy’s demand, we started the process of adopting our girls.