by Fiona Murphy
I blink fast. “Okay.” Wow. “In that case I want six girls.”
Dominic laughs as he shakes his head. “Let’s see how we do with the four and we’ll talk about it then.”
Chloe smacks my leg. “You’re up, Dominic doesn’t care where he lives. What do you want in a house?”
“Um, something with character, none of those slick four-storied brand-new houses. I want a yard with grass too.”
“Could you be any more vague, my dear?” Chloe mutters as she starts typing into the computer. “Five bedrooms, I’m going to go with at least four bathrooms because with all those girls you are going to need them. I’m going to go with at least five thousand square feet and a double lot to get the yard. And zip codes, okay.” She hits enter.
“We have twelve.” She clicks on one. “What do you think?”
I frown and shake my head. “No, I like that it’s brick but it’s right up against another building, so that side won’t have any light coming into it. It reminds me of houses in New York. Ooh, click on that one. Oh no, it’s got four levels. I don’t want all those levels carrying the baby up and down the stairs and our room being on another floor. Wait, that one, oh, click on that one. I love it.”
“Of course you love it. It’s ten thousand square feet and the main living area is on two floors with a basement that’s completely remodeled. The yard is over two thousand square feet. There are five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. And it was built in 1909.”
“Look at all the wood, and that library. Dominic, they have a library already. That master suite is gorgeous, it’s a little boring but with some paint it will be perfect. I want that one. Wait, that’s the house at the end of the block.”
Dominic curses, Chloe laughs. “Yep, and it’s already under contract. Contingent on it passing inspection.”
No, that’s our house. It’s perfect.
Dominic swears again. “Call them, Chloe. She wants it. Call them.”
“Don’t you want to see it first?”
I look up at Dominic, afraid to hope and shake my head. “I don’t need to see it.”
“Hold up, I cannot in good conscience allow you to put in an offer on it without seeing it first. It’s less than a five-minute walk. The owners are out of state already, it’s got a box on it for us to get in with the code. Let’s go look at it.”
Once we get downstairs, Enzo orders Chloe into their SUV, it didn’t matter it was a five-minute walk. If she didn’t get into it on her own he’d put her in it. Dominic and I start walking hand-in-hand as Chloe and Enzo argue behind us, with Allegra chattering at them both in her baby Italian.
“Do you mind us living so close to Chloe and Enzo and Bethany and Dante?”
“No, not really. They’re just going to be all up in our grill, no doubt. I’ll get over it.”
We’re to the gate when Enzo and Chloe finally pull up.
“I like the gate, it’s nice and secure. I’m not in love with it being on the corner, we’ll need to put up some bushes for privacy and cameras,” Dominic murmurs as he scans the area around the house.
“You and your cameras.”
He chuckles as he pulls me close. “I seem to recall you liking them yourself.”
Chloe keys in a code on a little blue box around the doorknob of the front door. She opens the door and gestures for me to walk through it first.
“Oh wow, it’s better than the pictures.” I sigh.
For the next fifteen minutes I fall in love with the house more and more. I leave Dominic with Enzo in the basement as they discuss whether to turn it into a movie room or game room and find Chloe on the roomy low sofa looking out to the interior garden solarium. She pats the sofa beside her.
“You love it?”
“I love it. I can’t wait to fill it with a bunch of baby girls.”
Chloe tilts her head. “You can tell me to shut up and it’s none of my business, but why are you going through in vitro when you are so young?”
I see Dominic out of the corner of my eye frowning, and I shake my head lightly. “I didn’t want to say anything, but we’ve been trying since we made up, or rather we haven’t been trying to prevent me getting pregnant. I was sure each month it would happen. When it didn’t, I got scared. Like you said, I’m young. I thought I would get pregnant easily.”
I shake my head. “Dominic is more than healthy. It’s me. It’s not likely I’ll be able to have a baby without help. The doctor says there’s always a chance, but I don’t want to wait for a chance. I want a family now. And I’ve always wanted girls. Dominic is letting me decide everything since I’m the one who has to go through it all.”
“I’m sorry, honey.”
“It happens. I feel bad it’s my fault, but things happen.”
“How much was it on sale for?” Dominic asks Chloe.
Chloe looks from him to me. “Two nine, it looks like it’s selling for two seven.”
“Offer them three five. She wants the house. She gets the house.”
“Thank you.” I catch his hand in mine as he comes closer.
Shaking his head, he sighs. “Anything you want, it’s yours.”
I pull him down to me. Dominic moves, sitting down and settling me into his lap. With my arms around his neck, I whisper into his ear. “I shouldn’t say this because I do want this house, but I already have everything I want. Just you—everything else is extra.”
***
Regina
I come awake to Dominic watching me from the chair beside the hospital bed. Without thinking, I reach for him. His hand swallows mine in a grip so tight I wince.
“How are you feeling?”
“Not bad, really. I don’t understand why I had a reaction to this sedation and not when they did the surgery to remove the fibroids. It’s egg retrieval, hardly the stuff of medical emergencies.”
Running a hand through his hair, he shrugs. “They used a different kind, they made a note for in the future. Fuck, Regina, that was the scariest fucking thing ever.” He leans down and presses a kiss to my mouth, gentle as if he’s afraid to hurt me. “I’m sorry. All this is my fault.”
“No, don’t. We promised we wouldn’t do that. No blame. Please don’t, then I’ll start feeling guilty and we’ll just go around and around.”
He sighs as he nods.
“Did they tell you how many good eggs they were able to retrieve? Any number on embryos yet?”
“Yeah, they got fourteen eggs, of that there are eleven embryos. The testing isn’t done yet, though. I mean it, we make sure they are healthy before we move further. From there, they know to destroy the boys and just tell how many girls we end up with.”
I sigh. We agreed.
“Are you sure about destroying the boys—”
Vehemently I nod. “Absolutely sure. Do not feel guilty. I get it. I’m going to admit a part of me worried I would change my mind. There is no guarantee any single one of those would become something more. This was a part of all those hard decisions you warned me about from the beginning. It’s okay. Right now, I just need you to hold me. Please.”
Without hesitation he puts down the arm of the hospital bed, sits down and pulls me into his arms. His hold is so tight it almost hurts. It’s a good hurt, though.
***
Dominic
Pop is waiting with a glass of scotch, thank fuck. I take the glass with a nod and throw it back.
“That bad?”
“It didn’t take, again.” I shake my head. “I don’t know how much more of this she can take. We only have five embryos left. Two damn implantations, two months of this and I don’t know how she doesn’t hate me yet. At the doctor’s office today the bitch doctor says there are some drugs she can give at the next try she hadn’t before because the odds of it working were so high. Why the fuck didn’t she do it after the first time? They are only allowing one embryo per implantation. If it were two or three and they were worried about multiples I get it, but not giving her everything they can
for one embryo to take?”
I’m still pissed they weren’t willing to do two embryos the way Regina wanted. It would only be a twin pregnancy, not an octomom situation, for fuck’s sake.
“Forty fucking grand each time we do this, and they aren’t giving us everything they can to make sure it works? I called that clinic in Athens. We’re going next month. They’re contacting the clinic here and getting everything sent over. And the clinic in Athens is half of what all this is costing us. It’s not the cost, it’s what they’re willing to do.”
He pats my shoulder, taking my glass from me he refills it. “I’m sorry.”
I shrug. “It’s no one’s fault but my own. I can’t talk about this right now. What’s going on with Emilio?”
“He thinks someone is digging into him. An alert on his computer tripped but he can’t backtrack. I looked into it, no Fed or cop I could find.”
“I’ll have Valdez look into it. He has a bunch of people just to dig into shit online.”
Pop spits out a curse.
“What?”
“You said Valdez would find her. It’s been two months and he hasn’t found her.”
I go still, it doesn’t compute for a minute. “Pop, if he can’t find her. She could be dead.”
He doesn’t even pause. “That’s what he said. No, she’s not dead. I’d know. She’s alive.”
There is no doubt in me Pop knows if his woman is alive or not. The same way I know if Regina is happy or upset and I’m not even in the same room with her. He knows. “What aren’t you telling me? It could mean the difference between finding her or not.”
His eyes are locked on the liquor he’s swirling in his glass. “I put my mother’s ring on her finger. When I woke up she was gone.”
Fuck. No wonder it’s been five years and he can’t move on. Valdez answers on the first ring. “Christina Teller, the woman you’re looking for for Pop, stop looking for Christina Teller. Look for Christy Sabatini.”
Pop’s head comes up, Valdez answers. “Will do.”
I let him know what I need on Emilio, he promises he’ll find out.
“You really think?” Pop asks as he finishes his scotch.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. If Valdez couldn’t find her it’s because she isn’t Christina Teller anymore. You put a ring on her finger. She was your wife before you ever gave it to her. For some crazy fucked-up reason, she loved you and it enough she kept the name when she left you. Which means she’s hiding something really fucking big.”
As Pop considers it, he pours himself another drink.
***
Regina
Chloe is careful as she presses the cup of hot tea into my hands. “I should have brought a lot more chocolate. Sorry.”
“You brought more than enough. I’m sorry. I had no idea I was going to start bawling at you showing me pictures of baby Anthony. He’s just so cute and I—”
“Stop apologizing. You are going through so much right now. What’s a few tears between friends?”
I snort. “A few.”
“Hey, cut yourself some slack. It’s a huge disappointment. I couldn’t imagine. I do think it’s wonderful Dominic is saying fuck your doctor and taking you off to Athens. I’ve read up on the clinic, it’s the absolute best. It’s also sweet you guys are going to just relax and enjoy a few weeks there in the sun and sand. This winter is miserable.”
“Dominic is always so amazing. He is doing everything he promised and more. Every time I’m a crying mess he’s there holding me. He doesn’t say a word, just holds me. Then he’s sat through a dozen watches of The Princess Bride because he knows it’s my favorite and he puts it on to cheer me up. He is even reading Jane Austen with me so he can understand why I love her so much. Then when we’re done reading we watch the movies together and fight over which ones are good or not.”
Chloe chuckles. “You’re lucky. I can’t get Enzo to watch any of the movies except the one with Kiera Knightly in it.”
“One night early into all this, I lay there wishing we didn’t have to do all of it. That we could do this like any normal couple, because I was hating the way my body felt like it wasn’t my own. Then I swear Dominic could feel it in his sleep, and he pulled me close into him. And I remembered we aren’t a normal couple, nothing about us is normal, so why should this be any different? I don’t regret it, not any of it.” I sigh, I really don’t, and I feel a little guilty about it.
“Before this we were slowly coming together. Our time together was him teaching me Latin and how to cook. I was attempting to teach him he could trust me with everything. As stressful as the surgery and injections are, and as painful as the tries and fails have been, it added up to us becoming stronger together faster.”
“It’s crazy how stress and pain cuts through all the bullshit. Things get clear fast. I think it’s why so many couples break up going through infertility treatments. All the bad things become worse and everything you tried to ignore becomes bigger. I’m sorry you had to learn the hard way just how much you guys love each other.”
I nod. “Last night I had the best dream since all this began. It wasn’t filled with babies, and a dog and this beautiful home. It was just us, the two of us lying on the couch while he held me close. If he’s the only thing I can have, there isn’t anything better in this world than having him.”
Chloe bursts into tears. “That is so beautiful. You are so cruel. I just had a baby—my emotions are all over the place right now.”
***
Dominic
My cell pings with a notification of an email, then before I have a chance to open my phone it starts ringing. Interesting. “Yeah?”
“Mr. Sabatini, your father is unavailable.”
“Pop turns off his phone at night. Says he’s too old to be disturbed with bullshit anymore in the middle of the night. You found her.”
“Yes, you might want to be the one to tell him.”
I go cold. “Tell him what?”
“She is indeed going by Christy Sabatini. I have sent you all her information. She currently resides in Round Rock, Texas, a suburb of Austin. His daughter will be five next month. A beautiful girl, her name is Sophia Rose. She goes by Rosie.”
Sonofabitch.
***
Regina
As we watch the sun go down I sigh in awe at the sight. Dominic’s arms tighten around me. “Thank you.”
“For what?” His lips are against my ear, he licks the skin there.
“For being so amazing. The last two weeks have been a little slice of heaven. I mean it. Even if we don’t leave here pregnant, I have not a single regret. I’ll still go home happy because of you. You have been so patient, especially with the whole sex thing, and I—”
“Okay, it’s not the sex thing, it’s the way we make love. And I have to tell you, being restricted to having my cock in your incredibly tight ass and all the mind-blowing blow jobs you keep giving me to make up for it when I feel like I’ve won the lottery has me feeling even more guilty. Once again, I’m getting all the benefits.”
I turn and study him and I have no idea where it comes from. Laughter starts pouring out of me until I’m breathless with it. His eyes are wide with surprise, bright blue, clear with all of his love and awe. “How about we stop apologizing and just love each other?”
His kiss is so sweet. “I can do that.”
“I have a confession to make. I rescheduled our plane for the day after tomorrow. The idea of one more night was too much to pass up. That was naughty of me, I should have talked to you first.”
The light in his eyes sends a hot wet rush to my panties. “That was very bad of you. I think this calls for a spanking.”
“Oh no, not a spanking.” I exhale the words against his mouth.
“Oh yes.”
***
Regina
I don’t think either of us has blinked. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Yeah, that one is a plus sign,
that one is a pink line, and that one says positive.”
Thank god for Dominic’s arms around me holding me tight. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to stand without him. “Thank you.”
He hugs me tight, then he pulls back to look down at me. Air is trapped in my lungs at what I see on his beautiful face. “No, Regina, thank you. Thank you for not giving up on me and loving me even when I was fucking up every damn way a man could. When I was standing up at that alter waiting for you, I promised I would give you everything I had, anything you wanted would be yours. It scared the hell out of me when I figured out it was me, just me, that you wanted. But then I gave in and got so much more back than I had ever thought was possible. Me giving in on the kids thing was all about making you happy, keeping my promise only now I can’t wait. I can’t wait to hold a baby girl that I pray looks just like you. Can’t wait to watch you be an amazing mother and enjoy us being a family, together.”
I have no words so I bring him down to me and kiss him with all the love and hope I have in my body.
Epilogue
“If you don't untie me right this minute, the second I get free I'm going to kick your balls in so hard you choke on them.” I warn.
The fucker just laughs as he rolls the covers over my naked body. No, he can't. "Dominic, let me get dressed at least! Oh my god, I hate you even more. You cannot carry me out of the house naked.”
"If I don't, then you'll try to get away." He says it as if I'm an idiot. And I know I'm not getting out of this. That doesn't stop me from struggling when he slings me over his shoulder. "We talked about this, Regina. If you had been a good girl and agreed to come quietly, then you could have walked out of here dressed on your own, but no—"
"It's our baby's birthday!" I yell at him for what feels like the hundredth time as he carries me out of our bedroom.
"I'm not a baby!" Eva yells at me as she watches from the open door of her bedroom. "I got you the gag for a reason, daddy. Mom, for the thousandth time, I'm turning nineteen, not nine. You and daddy need time to yourselves. It's your twenty-fifth wedding anniversary for fuck's sake."