I heard the kids come in downstairs and worked my way out of the chair, which wasn’t easy with my seven months belly. I started down the stairs, but he was already on the way up while the kids went into the kitchen with my mother, who was always waiting for them with cookies or some other treat she’d made them that day.
Gregory had brought her to live with us after he sold the old house and bought this one that was a full estate with mother-in-law quarters right next door that we could get to through a connecting hallway and enough acres for the kids to run around.
“No, stay there, don’t come any further.” I forget how cautious he is about everything when I’m pregnant. That first time after I’d thrown up a second day, he’d taken me to the doctor who proclaimed me to be three months pregnant or thereabout. Apparently, I’d gotten pregnant that first time or close.
Gregory had gone in to manic mode. The wedding I was planning could not happen, we had to get married right away. It was fine by me because I didn’t have many friends to invite anyway; I was doing it for him, for his friends and family who were happy for him for taking the plunge with someone he loved this time.
There was a lot of talk about the age difference, and I’m sure a lotta people still think I’m a gold digger, especially once Darla-Sue started her shit. According to her, I’d trapped her father with a baby. Then when the twins were born, and they were both boys, she lost her shit again, claiming I was trying to rob her of her inheritance.
I blame her father and grandfather for that because they were both too pleased at the news that we were having twin boys and had spread it around so much that by the time the twins were born, everybody in town knew pretty much everything about them, including the names that we'd chosen to give them. Garrick and Gavin.
They were all anybody would talk about for weeks, and I hear tell Susan was not too happy either. She was especially pissed when Gregory told her he would sue her for continuing to use his family name because he didn’t want his kids sharing a name with her.
He has no chill, but then again, that had come at the end of a rumor that she was planning to use the fact they had the same name to kidnap my children. I’m not sure how true it was, but knowing her crazy ass, which went into overdrive after we got married, I wouldn’t put it past her.
Personally, I think she’d broken her head in the accident because she comes up with the nuttiest shit. First, Gregory doesn’t even speak to her; he acts as if she doesn’t exist if they happen to be in the same space together. That’s because he blames her for their daughter’s continued misbehavior.
He still refused to see or talk to Darla-Sue unless she apologized to me, and when I told him that it was okay that I didn’t need it and he could talk to her if he wanted to, he had enough sense to know that I was just saying that shit and that I’d resent him for life if he even thought of giving in without a sincere apology. He gave up caring if she came to her senses after the twins were born, and she ramped up the crazy, not only against me but now my kids as well.
She has a serious hate for her little brothers, and their existence seems to trigger her. Then Jasmine came along not even two years later, and her new line of crazy is that I was trying to steal her father’s love by having a girl. All the while, all she had to do was apologize to him, admit her fault and move on, but no, her pride was too good for that.
With this last pregnancy, twins once again, the story had changed once more; now, it was Gregory who was treating me like a broodmare. I’ve given up listening to the gossip mill because it’s too stupid to be believed.
Gregory reached the last step and put his hands on my tummy to feel his babies. “What did the doctor say?” We’d both held off on finding out the genders of the babies but couldn’t wait. We’d had so much fun getting the nursery ready for the last two pregnancies, and we were missing that.
Knowing what we were having help with colors and themes as we’d changed it after Jasmine was born. “Let’s see, how should I put this? We may not have to change the color scheme, but we’re going to need one more of everything.” It took him a second, and then his eyes widened.