Three Months Pregnant, I Left With His Twins Chapter 06

Three Months Pregnant, I Left With His Twins Chapter 06

“Text me when you land.”

Maeve stopped at the security checkpoint and turned around.

Her eyes were already red.

“I will.”

“Don’t overdo it.”

“I won’t.”

“Can you really handle two babies alone?”

“I can.”

She nodded and hugged me tight.

When she let go, tears fell.

She wiped them with the back of her hand, turned, and walked away fast without looking back.

I watched her disappear into the crowd, then went through security.

I landed in Vancouver at three in the morning local time.

Vivian’s assistant picked me up.

She was efficient, took my suitcase, and got me to the apartment.

She opened the fridge and showed me everything she had stocked.

“Ms. Hart said you should settle in and not worry about anything. Call me anytime if you need anything.”

“All your prenatal appointments are booked. The first one is next Wednesday.”

“Travel documents, insurance, and temporary housing arrangements are all handled.”

“Thank you.”

After she left, I stood alone in the empty living room.

Outside was an unfamiliar city skyline.

A few office buildings still had lights on.

I opened my phone. Messages flooded in.

Nate had sent over a dozen.

The first few were normal.

“Where exactly did you go?”

“Vivian took you?”

“Sloane, answer me.”

The later ones were different.

“Did you leave the country?”

“Maeve won’t say.”

“Did you block my number?”

The last one came in the early morning.

“You left without even a word?”

I read them all and didn’t reply.

I set the phone on the nightstand and lay down.

Unfamiliar ceiling.

Unfamiliar smell.

The curtains weren’t fully closed. A strip of light came through.

I turned over, put my hand on my belly, and whispered:

“We’re here.”

“It’s just the three of us from now on.”

Nate found out I had gone to Canada a week later.

Maeve told me.

He had come to her three times.

First, she said she didn’t know.

Second, she said it wasn’t convenient to say.

Third, he cornered her outside her office building.

Maeve told him:

“Sloane went to Canada. Stop looking.”

He asked where.

She said she didn’t know.

He asked why.

Maeve said:

“You should ask Margaret that question.”

The next day, Maeve texted that Margaret had called and yelled at her for siding with me and questioning the Westburys.

Maeve had replied:

“The Westburys gave up their responsibility first. Now someone else is protecting Sloane, so you don’t get to play the victim.”

Margaret went quiet after that.

Nate found out it was twins in the third week.

I don’t know how he heard.

Maybe Margaret slipped up.

Or maybe one of the nurses or doctors who heard it in the waiting room that day let it slip.

He sent a long message.

Basically:

“Why didn’t you tell me it was twins?”

“How are you going to take care of two babies alone?”

“What did you think I was to you?”

I read it twice.

Not because I was thinking of how to reply.

But to confirm the direction of his anger.

He wasn’t angry that Margaret tried to force me to give up the babies.

He wasn’t angry that after I broke up with him, he said he would wait for me to calm down and then went to be with Elodie.

He wasn’t angry that he had put Elodie in every place that should have been mine.

He was angry that I hadn’t told him.

He had been kept in the dark.

Excluded.

But when had he ever included me?

I replied with four words.

“None of your business.”

He called.

I hung up.

He called again.

I hung up again.

He sent a voice message.

I didn’t play it.

That night Maeve asked how I was.

“Fine.”

“What about him?”

“Don’t know. Don’t want to know.”

“I found out one more thing.”

Maeve paused.

“Elodie was already in frequent contact with Margaret while she was still in London. At least a year.”

“Margaret had been planning her return. She sped things up right around the time you got pregnant.”

Over a year.

That meant this had started before I was even pregnant.

“Also, Elodie and Nate had some contact abroad, but it wasn’t frequent. It became frequent after she got back to Greenwich.”

“Especially after you broke up with him.”

“Who told you?”

“I have my sources. Don’t ask.”

After a moment of silence, I said:

“Thank you, Maeve.”

“For what? Just keep yourself and those two little ones healthy. That’s what matters.”

After I hung up, I sat by the window.

The sky outside was just getting light.

Vancouver mornings were quiet.

The woman on the neighboring balcony was watering her flowers.

She saw me at the window and smiled.

I smiled back.

My phone lit up.

Nate had sent an email.

He had somehow gotten my email address.

The subject line read:

“Sloane, we need to talk.”

I didn’t open it.

I turned off my phone and went to the kitchen to make myself some pasta.