Page 110 of Seduced By Contract

I never thoughtI would give birth laughing, but once my water broke, I didn't do anything other than laugh between contractions until the moment the labor really got going.

I spent the last month terrified because hospitals and I don't mix. I'm the type of person who hates medicine, so when the doctor said that with a natural birth the recovery would be faster, I didn't hesitate.

As the day of birth approached, however, all my courage vanished. I speculated about what could go wrong with me and the babies, and I started having nightmares almost every night.

Today, without planning to do so, the men of the Kostanidis family made me relax. It was comical to see those four terrified giants, as if it were the first time in history a woman had given birth. While Ares drove, Zeus stayed with me in the back seat of the car; he asked Odin for instructions over the phone, like there was a tutorial for having babies.

Well, our girls proved that wasn't the case, because either the doctor got the date wrong or the twins decided they didn't want to wait to make their debut. About half an hour ago, Dimitra and Angeliki, who are the spitting image of their father, came into the world.

Until the moment I held my girls in my arms, I had doubts about whether I could be a good mother. Not that I didn't want to be. Forming my own family was like a dream come true. The problem was having come from the parents I had.

The moment I looked at them, however, I knew that I would be the best mother in the world to both of them.

Zeus attended the birth, and sometimes I had the feeling that I was the one who needed to calm him down, because with every groan of pain I made, he seemed to suffer along with me.

When he finally heard the cry of our first little girl to be born, Dimitra, he managed to breathe again, only to become anxious seconds later and ask why Angeliki hadn't “come out” yet, as if I were a free hot bread oven from which she was being extracted.

Normal birth is a hell of a pain—may the brave ones forgive me.

I would do it all again, of course, because nothing compares to the emotion of feeling my daughters being removed from my body, but that doesn't change the fact that it was hours of pain and a lot of effort.

"You were incredible," Zeus says, all smiles, holding our youngest while I breastfeed Dimitra.

"They're beautiful, aren’t they?"

"Yes, they are. Thanks, Madison."

"For the babies?" I try to joke because I'm really emotional. I haven't done anything other than cry over the last nine months.

"Also that, but mainly for teaching me how to live. Before I met you, I only existed."

"The best thing that ever happened to me was dancing for the wrong client," I joke.

"Fate, wife. You were born to be mine."

Three months later

I watch enchanted as my sister walks hand-in-hand with her children in the garden of our house. Mom has been with her the whole time and has been tireless in helping her with her recovery. Brooklyn is a fighter, always has been, and has tried hard to get her life back.

She hasn’t said anything about the episode in which she almost lost her life, much less the damned father of her babies, who almost got her killed. It's as if her existence began the moment she woke up in the hospital.

I don't force her. If she wants to forget, I think she has every right. I'm the one who hasn't managed it yet, and sometimes, out of nowhere, I go up to her and hug her.

Of the two of us, I was always the tougher one, but having children seemed to cause a metamorphosis. Everything makes me emotional now.

"Daydreaming?" my husband asks as he adjusts the stroller cover to protect our girls from the sun. Then he sits down and pulls me onto his lap.

"Thinking about how my life and my sister's life has been turned upside down but finally it seems like we've found peace."

"I don't know if I believe that. Peace as an absolute concept, I mean."

"Why not?"

"No life is perfect, Madison. People just deal with their problems in different ways. Some need to shout to the four corners of the world when they suffer, for some reason; others just try to sort out their own shit without announcing it to the entire planet. But in the end, it doesn't mean that the obstacles for one or the other are greater or lesser. Everyone has problems. There is no eternal happiness."

"Are you trying to tell me that fairy tales are bedtime stories, Mr. Prince Charming? Because no matter how reluctant you were, you ended up becoming my prince."

“If being a prince means I'm devoted to you and our daughters, then I'm your prince, Madison, but what I'm trying to say is that no one is safe from the type of trouble Brooklyn went through. Maybe not in the same way, with a killer coming into your house in the middle of the night to kill you, but illnesses, misunderstandings... A lot of shit that life can throw at us along the way. What I can promise you is that, no matter what happens, I'll never give up fighting for both of us. No matter what we have to face, we'll be together."

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