Page 36 of A Stolen Christmas

Five Months Later

“No, I’m sorry, but you're wrong,” Sirah gasped. “No, this isn't happening.”

I blinked at the screen that clearly showed two babies in her womb.

The sonographer tried a different tactic.

“Do you see this?” she pointed to the screen.

“Yes, that's our baby,” Sirah said as she dug her nails into my palm.

The baby vanished for a second before two of them appeared again. I swallowed down the lump in my throat.

My babies, our babies.

We had been preparing to welcome one baby all this time, but we were having twins.

“There,” she pointed at one baby before she pointed at the second one beside it. “Do you see? This is one baby, and there is the second one. It must have been hiding when we did the scan last time.”

“No, I don't see it,” Sirah said desperately, clearly in denial. “I want a second opinion.”

“Honey, I can see them,” I said softly before kissing her cheek and avoiding the crazy look in her eyes.

“How am I going to getbothof them out?” she cried out. “How?!”

Katya was due any day now, and I hoped to God she had an easy birth because Sirah was beginning to freak me out. She had two babies to push out.

“I’m going to be there with you every step of the way. You will have the best of care, baby, I promise you,” I said, kissing her again.

She took a deep breath before blowing it out against my neck.

The sonographer began to explain how multiple births transpired, and we hung on to her every word. I couldn't deny the rush of excitement and joy as I glanced at her swollen belly.

She wasn't going anywhere now.

Epilogue

Sirah

December

Our three-month-old twin girls were the perfect revenge against Saul. Isla and Aria had changed our lives in many unexpected ways, and we were finally finding our way to managing our baby girls. Their cousin Stella was almost seven months old, so Katya shared many tips and tricks about parenthood with us.

Saul constantly worried that his girls would fall for fuckboys, and he would be sent to prison for murder. He had a new religious calling and would often repent for his old womanising ways. The only joy he found was needling Seth about his prowess in producing twins, even though it turned out that my great-grandmother had been a twin on my mum’s side of the family.

Our parents were crazy about the girls, and everyone was going to his parent's house for Christmas. This included Katya’s parents. With all the families together, Saul had booked our Winter Wonderland tickets for Boxing Day again. I hoped that was part of our new Christmas tradition.

It had been a wild year, and I couldn't believe it was almost Christmas again. I had gotten rid of his ghastly black Christmas tree, but we left his creepy black angel on our new tree. Saul had refused to part with it, and it didn't matter that he was the butt of his family’s joke over it.

The bedroom door opened, and the love of my life walked through with his signature smile. If he could be, he would sleep in our daughter's nursery. His promise to be there for me during the birth wasn't all he accomplished. He took time off work and stayed home to be with us. He was with me every step of the way in caring for Isla and Aria. I had a feeling his paternity leave would last a while.

“They were smiling in their sleep,” he said with a grin as he rushed over to me with his phone. “I took a video.”

“Back to stalking, are we?” I said with a smirk.

That explained why he had taken so long to put them down. I wasn't unusual to wake up and find him in the nursery, staring at our girls. They had his dark brown hair with a mixture of our skin colour, giving them a beautiful golden glow. However, he couldn't get over their eye colour that they inherited from me. The man was obsessed and had so many pictures of the girls on his phone that I never needed to take any.

We were due to have our Christmas photos shot tomorrow in the comfort of our home. He had the girl's clothes all laid out. The man was fixated with matching Christmas jumpers and outfits. I couldn't have asked for a better father and husband. As he sat next to me to show me the video, I was busy watching the love and excitement in him over his family.

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