“I can, and I will. So start talking! And this had better be good!”
Stevie ducked under his arm and moved to the far end of the kitchen. He noticed she stayed by the windows. So she could watch the kids? Reluctantly, he had to give her credit for being vigilant. He’d read too many horror stories about kids stolen from their backyards.
“I don’t owe you anything, Janus! Get out of my house before I call the police!”
“You don’t think that you owe me an explanation for why you’ve kept my children from me for four years?” he hissed. “Four years! Do you know how much I’ve missed, Stevie? Their first steps! First words! Hell, their births! I’ve missed everything! And you stole that from me!”
She shook her head. “Don’t you dare try that ridiculous revisionist history, Janus! I tried to contact you! I called and texted, begging you to meet me. Then, when I didn’t hear anything from you, I even went to your office, only to be escorted out by your security guard. By the time I got home, there was a letter threatening me with prosecution if I didn’t stop trying to contact you!” She took a deep breath, trying to calm down.
Janus blinked, his thoughts spinning. Had she tried to contact him? Yes, Tom had said something along those lines earlier today. But still, that had been a miserable period in his life and…what if she was telling the truth about the phone calls and texts? Mary had been hired by the football league to help him after the injury and she might have simply deleted the texts. She’d mentioned something about women texting him night and day, offering their solace…among other things.
And Tom had mentioned sending a letter.
Rubbing a hand over his face, he shook his head. “Yeah, okay. So…” No, he wasn’t willing to concede that she’d done nothing wrong. “So, why didn’t you send me a letter?”
She inhaled sharply and glared daggers at him. “Are you kidding me? You threaten me with legal action, with fines and jail time, then ask why I didn’t call your bluff?”
Okay, she had a point there. Janus hadn’t realized that Tom had threatened jail time.
“Get out!” she yelled. “Get out and don’t ever come back here!”
Janus walked over to her, stopping only an inch from where she stood trembling by the fridge. “I’ll leave, but just for now.” He pointed through the kitchen window. “Those are my children.”
“They are mine!” she yelled back at him.
He shook his head. “If I remember correctly, it took both of us to create those children out there.” He smiled, but it wasn’t an amused expression. “My father left my mother to raise me all alone. He was a bastard of the first order and I absolutely will not abandon my children the way my father abandoned me! So get used to it, Stevie. I will be in their lives. If you want to take this to the courts, then so be it!”
And then he was gone. He didn’t slam the door, but Stevie moved over to the window, watching as he went down the steps. He was just about to get into his car, but paused and looked back. That’s when Stevie saw it. The look. The longing. The yearning in his eyes as he stared at his offspring for the first time.
Stevie knew that look. She understood the miracle that were her two little darlings. Yeah, they could be hellions as well. But she didn’t care. They were her hellions.
When he finally turned away and headed towards his car, Stevie acknowledged that her little hellions…they were his hellions too.
Sitting down on one of the kitchen chairs, Stevie imagined how she would feel if her babies had been taken from her. The idea was so horrific, she couldn’t stand the thought.
And yet, she’s the one that spent all of those terrifying nights when she’d curled up on her bed, praying that her babies would be healthy. That she would survive the birth and wondering who would take care of her little babies if she died in childbirth. The long nights when she was up feeding twins, both crying because she could only hold one at a time. Nursing one, feeding the other with a bottle, then reversing the feedings forty-five minutes later when they woke up for more food. She’d learned to shower in less than three minutes with Halley and Harrison in their bassinet in the bathroom with her. She’d lost so much weight after giving birth that her obstetrician had threatened to put her in the hospital if she didn’t start gaining weight. It wasn’t that she’d didn’t want to eat. Stevie smiled, remembering one night when she’d walked into the kitchen to make herself a bowl of cereal for dinner only to fall asleep on the floor, leaning against the fridge with the box of cereal clutched in her arms like a teddy.
And then the first time that Harrison had smiled at her. Yeah, that had made everything worthwhile. Of course, Stevie had been changing his diaper and he’d peed straight up into the air. Still, that had been a precious moment. Stevie had laughed and cried, hugging her precious baby boy.
“Momma!” Halley called from the backyard.
Stevie jerked her attention back to her children, grinning as Halley and Harrison came running across the backyard, Herbie’s pink tongue flapping as he raced with them. Herbie had impressively long legs for a dog and he could easily outrun her babies. But Herbie was protective of his “siblings” and wouldn’t dare run ahead of them.
“What’s up?” she asked, opening the door for the three of them.
Herbie immediately flopped down on the floor – right in the middle of the kitchen. And because that seemed like a good idea, Halley and Harrison flopped down too, using Herbie as
