Epilogue
Brent
Three months later
Rena was huge. It was her first pregnancy, and according to all the books we’d read together, she shouldn’t have shown this much, if at all. Most women still weren’t showing at twelve weeks, but Rena looked like she was close to six months.
I was worried about that. Something didn’t feel right. I didn’t know much about pregnancies, but her mother and Zoe had said the same thing, and I tended to agree with them.
Rena’s parents hadn’t taken the news of her pregnancy very well at first. They had worried that we wouldn’t last, that it would be too hard on her emotionally and physically, and that she would have to sacrifice everything. It had taken them a while to get used to the idea, as it had taken us all.
Now that we were this far down the line, they seemed to have changed their minds about it. They had gotten to know me better, and Rena had moved in with me. It was official. I had told her about a month ago that I loved her. I had mustered up the courage to say the words. After that, she had brought her bags and told me she wasn’t leaving.
I still wasn’t quite used to the idea of being a father, but that would come. I was reading up on it, and I let her tell me week by week how the baby’s development was progressing. It helped me keep things in perspective.
“How are you going to deal with it if she loses the baby?” Joe asked. I had gone to his place to drink a cup of coffee. We had to talk about business, and I wanted to tell him what was going on in my life, too. I was nervous, and he was the only person I could talk to. He had kids and understood what I felt for Rena.
“I’ll be there for her, of course. Do you think it’s serious?”
Joe shrugged. “I don’t know. I know how it was when we were expecting these two, and what you’re going through sounds nothing like it.”
We watched Joe’s kids playing on the grass. This was my future, I thought. Joe had a nice place and an easy life, and he dedicated himself to his family. It was how I wanted to do it. It was what I wanted, too.
“If she loses the baby, it might affect you. I hope it’s nothing too traumatic. Maybe it’s good news.”
“Like what?”
“Like twins.”
Two babies? I hadn’t even thought about the possibilities. We hadn’t planned on any children, and now there might be two? Zoe had twins, though. And Zoe and Rena had been part of a set of three. Maybe it was a family thing.
“Are you ready for this?” Joe asked.
“Honestly, I’m not,” I admitted. “But I don’t think Rena is, either. We made a decision, and we’re riding this one out. As long as we’re together, we can make it work.”
“That’s the best thing you can do. You know, when I realized Rena was gunning for you, I didn’t think it was a good idea. I thought she was a silly kid. But now that I look at the two of you together, I don’t think you could have ended up with anyone better. She’s perfect for you. She keeps you young.”
I nodded. “I agree. I love her, man. I’m waiting until the time is right, and then I’m marrying her. I don’t care what happens. Even if we lose the baby and there’s no reason to stick together, I want to be with her.”
Joe smiled and shook my hand.
“I couldn’t be happier for you.”
I headed home to collect Rena, and we headed to the medical center together. She was nervous, I could tell. We were both preparing ourselves for the worst.
When we went to see Rena’s gynecologist, she was just as worried about Rena’s weight gain as the rest of us were. She suggested we do an ultrasound to find out what was wrong.
Rena undressed and put on the little gown they offered. She lay down on the examination table, and her stomach protruded, looking even larger than usual.
“Let’s have a look what’s going on in here,” the gynecologist said, squirting jelly on Rena’s stomach, making her gasp. Rena looked nervously at me, and I squeezed her hand. Whatever happened, it would be okay.
Zoe had been over the moon when she’d found out Rena was pregnant. We had gone to Boston together after we’d broken the news to Rena’s parents, and we told Zoe. She was so excited that her girls would grow up with cousins, saying that we would arrange play dates with the kids. Rena had laughed and beamed about it. I had gotten the feeling that because of Zoe’s excitement, Rena had become excited, too.
Rena was nervous about the pregnancy, often. The baby grew in her stomach, but she was the one who struggled the most to wrap her mind around it. She was in a different place in her life than I was, and maybe that played a role. Since Zoe had found out, she called Rena often on the phone to chat about the pregnancy. She flew to Chicago now and then to take Rena out and pamper her, and through the course of the past couple of weeks, they had become very close.
I was glad for Rena that it had turned out so well, meeting her sister. Zoe was a great person, and I liked that Rena had friends who would be there for her.
I had met some of her other friends, too. Holly was a sweetheart as well, but I didn’t get the idea that she approved of our relationship. I wasn’t too worried about that. It was hard to be rejected, and there would be people out there who didn’t think our age difference was right. I didn’t mind. I knew what I felt for Rena and what she felt for me, and as long as we went back to love, we could get through anything.
The gynecologist moved her probe around Rena’s stomach, frowning at the screen. Her face was pinched in concentration.
“Is something wrong?” Rena asked. She was as curious as I was.
“I can’t say something is wrong, per se,” the gynecologist said. “But I’m trying to figure out what I’m seeing.”
That didn’t sound good, and Rena tightened her grip on my fingers.
“Did you have this baby conventionally?” she finally asked.
Rena and I glanced at each other. “Well, it wasn’t exactly planned,” I offered.
“The condom broke,” Rena admitted. “Does that count?”
“So you had normal intercourse? No fertility drugs?”
“Not at all,” Rena said. “Why do you ask?”
The gynecologist glanced at me and then at Rena.
“At first I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. Usually, it’s tough to find the limbs if we don’t quite know how the baby is positioned, but today it’s like I’m watching a baby mash-up.” I would have chuckled if I didn’t think something was seriously wrong. “I finally figured out what it was.”
She turned the screen toward us so we could look. All I could see were gray shapes on a black screen.
“What is it?” I asked.
“There’s more than one. In fact, there are four in there.”
“What?” Rena and I both asked.
“There has to be some mistake,” I said. “Four babies?”
The gynecologist nodded. “It would explain why she’s so big, of course. It’s very rare for someone so young to have so many babies at once, naturally. Were you a multiple?”
Rena nodded. “Triplets.”
The gynecologist smiled. “That explains it. It’s still nothing short of a miracle, but it makes sense at least. You’re lucky. Some people have to be pregnant four times to get the same result.”
“My sister has twins,” Rena offered.
“That’s quite normal for your family, then. We’ll have to take some precautions, though. You’ll need support for your belly fairly early on, and all the things a pregnant woman should avoid, you should avoid like the plague. I’ll need you to come in more often as well so we can monitor the health of you and your babies. Does that sound good?”
Rena nodded in a daze. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Since the moment I’d met Rena, my life had been like a hurricane. Everything I had known and thought had been tilted on its axis. But I couldn’t be happier with Rena in my life. She brought chaos where order had been everything to me, and for the first time in years, I was starting to feeling alive again. It was so easy to roll over and die. It took one special woman to change it all.
And our adventure was only just beginning, by the looks of things.
“I’m going to give you two a moment alone,” the gynecologist said. “Come to my office when you’re ready.”
When she left the room, Rena sat up and looked at me.
“Are you ready for this?” she asked. “Four babies in one go? It’s a bit difficult to take in right now.”
“It’s a lot, but I’m not going anywhere. We’ll get through this together. We have the resources to get help. With you and Zoe together, you’ll have a whole troop of babies.”
Rena laughed before she sighed. “It’s just one thing after the other,” she said. “First finding out about my sister, then that there was another one once, then the pregnancy, and now this? What’s next?”
I kissed her. “Happily ever after.”
Rena smiled. “Every day we come across a new mystery. A new adventure.”
“I love that we’re doing them together,” I said.
I helped Rena off the table, and she walked behind the screen to change back into her clothes. When she was dressed, we walked to the office for the medication we needed and to book the next session. I was coming with Rena to every single one of them.
When we were in the car headed back home, I pulled Rena against me.
“It’s a good thing I love you,” I said. “A lesser man might have run for the hills.”
When Rena looked at me, there were tears in her eyes. She cried a lot these days, being pregnant and all. “I love you, too.”
We would make it together. I knew we would. All it took was faith and love and a tough skin to get through whatever life threw at us. Rena and I and our four babies would get through without a hitch.
I just knew it.
THE END
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