Chapter 94
-Dorothy-
Spring had come sooner than expected. It crept up on us slowly in first. The green leaves that poked from the forest trees were the first hint at its sly approach. Then all of a sudden, without warning or invitation, it burst forth along with the brightest of days in a flurry of newly blooming flowers and the loudest twittering, chirping, and chattering of nature that we had ever heard.
It was that same day, that we were to be wed. I gladded over the fresh green grass towards where my mate was reclined on a large picnic blanket. The orange of the fabric was a stark contrast to the green of the land and the brilliant blue sky above us completed the picturesque scene,
Flower buds nodded at us in the slight breeze and the large drooping tree on the edge of the forest cast a pleasant patch of dappled shade over where Ignatius sat with our children.
His white tousled hair matched the clouds that floated around lakily above our heads. The twins, however, had hair the same fierce shade of red as my own. Amelie was a quiet force of nature, her hair was straight and wispy like her mother’s and tumbled over her shoulders in shining waves,
She donned her father’s piercing blue eyes and his cold aloof at ude. However, under the surface, she was just as loving and gentle as Ignathus himself.
Ellias on the other hand was a firecracker. If there was a new insect to be found in the garden, he would barrel back to the house as fast as his short stubby legs would carry him and place it before me with a grandiose air about him as if he had just discovered gold.
A sturdy tire swing hung from the nearby branches, swinging and twisting slowly in the breeze. Ignatius had insisted on building and installing it himself.
He had almost fallen out of the tree in doing so and we had all watched from the ground, collapsing into peals of laughter when a particularly strong breeze wafted through the branches and threatened to throw him down like an overly ripe fruit.
He would spend hours out there by the swing, letting our children take turns as he propelled them high into the air and back down again, always there to catch them when they spun back down to earth again.
Their enthralled squeals and bouts of laughter filled every corner of our house on the cliffhops. Their stamping feet echo across the floorboards as their father chased them through the house to deliver a flurry of tickles and k*sses on their fiery red heads
Looking down over my family. I had never known peace like that. My heart had never before felt lighter, while at the same time being so full.
1 could remember the day they had finally emerged into the world. A whole week early like the impatient little runts that they were. That was one thing they seemed to have in common. It had been a sunny day just like this one.
Ignatius had shooed me out of the house for two days straight, sending me on luxurious shopping sprees with Rita and Twisting Angie’s arm to force her into taking me out for the day to keep me entertained
At night when I got home, exhausted and decked out with more baby clothes than I could carry in both hands, Ignatius forbade me from exploring the back of the house. He said he had a surprise for me. Two days later, after another daytime excursion. I got home to lind my mate brimming with excitement and doing a smile wider than his face could beat
He had dragged me through the front doors, overcome with gleeful joy as I waited in suspicious anticipation to see what exactly he had been up to for the past few days. Before leading me to the back of the house, he first handed me a large box wrapped in green crepe paper that matched the color of my eyes.
Iraned my eyebrows at him as he nudged the large box across the floor towards me. Ignatius snickered at my suspicion and motioned for me to open the box. Behind me, Rita and Angie were unable to contain their excitement.
Clearly, they had been in on the surprise to although they had refused to answer any of my questions on the subject.
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Chapter 94
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I knelt down in front of the large present. Getting up and down had become increasingly harder as the babies grew in my belly and they were now perpetually pressing on my bladder in the most uncomfortable of ways.
1 carefully unwrapped the delicate packaging and opened the lid of the box. My eyes widened in surprise as I removed the contents. Inside were three large sketchbooks, bound in leather and boasting the most pristine white paper I had ever run between my fingers.
On top of that were tubes and boxes and jars of hand-made pain, coupled with delicately carved paintbrushes and pencils. Oil pastels and charcoal stickers were bound in more delicate paper and string and there was even a silver calligraphy pen with my initials engraved on the side DSA- Dorothy Scilvanne Armoundt.
Ignatius and I were yet to marry but he insisted it was in preparation for that day.
It was an artist’s dream come true. A box of treasures more valuable than gold. I threw my arms around Ignatius and pecked k*sses all over his face as he laughed. “What’s all this for?” I asked. “I love it. I love it so much.”
“There’s more Ignatius detangled himself from my arms and took my hand. He led me through the house to the very end of the comidor and stood before the door to Claire’s old study.
I
Neither of us had touched in in all the time I had been there and I was confused as to why he had me standing in front of
that door no
Before 1 could ask, however, Ignatius lifted a finger to shush me and beckoned for me to open the door. I looked at him quizzically and then turned the handle, peeking into the room at first and then throwing the door open in wonder.
The tiny study had been transformed. Not only was the furniture and decor different, but the entire back wall had been knocked down and replaced with glass sliding doors and a breathtaking view of the cliffs beyond the house.
I could see a glimmer of the sea on the h orizon and the setting sun shone through the open doors and lit up the room in a brilliant yellow glow. The room itself had been converted into a studio. There were easels and canvases stacked along one wall and a large desk waited to be of use
The shelves were lined with books and the many shells and rocks and other trinkets that I had never been able to find a place for in the rest of the house
I was speechless. gawking at the gorgeous studio that had been two days in the making. So that was what all of the art supplies were for. At a loss for words, I threw my arms around my mate and held on tightly, fighting tears of joy that were suddenly welling up in my eyes.
“Do you like “Ignatius murmured into my ears and I nodded, planting a k*ss on his soft lips and looking around again at my new art studio.
I love it I really do.”
Rita and Angle entered the room and Angie took a look around with her hands on her hips. “Not bad. Ignatius. I never took you for the handyman type of guy”
“I’m not, Ignatius muttered, wrapping his arms around my waist and littering my neck with k*sses as I examined my new studio. “I hammered my own finger more times than I can count and at one point that wall almost landed directly on top of
Plato
I laughed at the image that played through my head at his words Plato had decided to stay with the Bielke Pack
After getting Ignatius consent, he had settled down in Bielke territory fairly quickly and it wasn’t long before almost every young, single suber in the pack, both man and wonsan, were pining after him and his chiseled good looks
Eventually, his brother and mate joined us too. At first, Ignatius was skeptical about having an ex-Tally living on our turf, but we were over the park discrimination and she was warmly welcomed to the family,
Plato and Ignatius had also become fast friends in the time since that battle. When he wasn’t fawning over me in my grumpy pergnant state. Ignatius was out running the Bicike Pack and ending allyships that had fallen by the wayside since the Tally trouble began
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Chapter 94
Plato was useless at polities-hut he hung around regardless as Ignatius’ assistant and flirted with the dazzling local secretary every chance he got.
She ignored him for the most part but Ignatius told me that he had seen her scribble her number on a piece of paper and slip it to Plato one day when he walked past. The two of us found endless entertainment in the affairs of our peers.
Angie and Fae had also become an official couple at that time and they were baffled to find that absolutely no one was surprised at that pairing.
“But how could all of you have known before we did!” Angie had yelled when the news of her and Fae getting together was met with comments like “finally” and “It’s about go ddam n time?
I was happy for both of them. Angie was a reckless adrenaline j unkie with a sensitive side and Fae was a quippy, sarcastic girl with a heart of gold, I had never seen two people more perfect for each other.
I leaned into Ignatius’ embrace and grinned at Angie as she walked around testing the sturdiness of the shelves and commenting on Plato’s terrible paint job.
“Don’t listen to her.” I giggled. “It’s perfect.”
Ignatius pulled away from me for a moment and looked at me sideways, suddenly unable to maintain eye contact. I noticed the slightest tremor in his hands when he said, “There’s one more surprise. Well more of a question I guess.”
My eyes widened and Ignatius scratched at the back of his head, Before he could say another word, however, saddenly my loose-fitting jeans feh wet around my legs and I looked down in confusion.
A moment later, the first contraction rocked through my b*dy and my face twisted in pain, “Um, not to alarm anyb*dy. But the babies are coming.”
Ignatius froze on the spot and stared at me with a dopey serene expression on his face as if he hadn’t heard what I said. Then the weight of my words came crashing down on his beautiful empty head and his eyes widened as he glanced at my sopping jeans and my pained expression. “Oh. Oh my go d. Now
“Yes now!” I yelled back and suddenly everyone sprang into action at once.
Rita hurried forwards and began guiding me towards the front of the house. Angie ran up the stairs to grab my hospital bag that had already been packed weeks in advance. I had packed it in a hurry as if the babies would pop put at any moment.
Rita had sp ooked me with her tales of my mother being stranded at the hospital during my birth with no underwear for days thanks to complications with my arrival into the world and because my father had forgotten to bring her a change of
clothes
Apparently, every time they sent him home after visiting hours he would come back again without any bag in sight. completely forgotten in his excitement to see his wife and child again.
Ignatius ran ahead of us and got the car started and then hurried back to scoop me up into his amus and rush to plonk met down in the passenger seat
I groaned as another wave of pain rolled through my b*dy and whined for the others to hurry the f uck up. Angie and Rita clambered into the back and Ignatius sped off before Angie had even managed to properly close the door.
I had insisted on having the birth at home but to my dismay, that idea had been shot down almost immediately by everyone in the vicinity.
Every argument 1 made in favor of my decision was met with “Dorothy, you’re tiny. And there are two of them in there” to which I couldn’t really argue against.
And so, I had to suck it up and accept that I would be having my children at the local Bielke clinic where there would be healers on hand in case anything went wrong.
As the pain made me groan and wince, I was suddenly grateful for that decision. Pregnancy had been harder than I had. anticipated. I could only imagine how hellish the actual birthing process would be.
Chapter H
In the end, though, it was me comforting Ignatius who had turned white as a sheet and drove with trembling hands the whole way there
It would have been endearing if I wasn’t in so much pain myself Every cry from me looked like it would bring him to tears 100 and it only served to further solidify the love that I had for the secretive sensitive man that I called my mate.
We made it to the clinic in record time and then it was the long haul of breathing and waiting and contractions and pushing and whining. At some point, Ignatius got woozy and I thought he would fall flat on his face beside my bed as he watched me strain and groan
1 clutched his hand so tightly that I heard his knuckles crunch and all my poor mate could do was stand there and stroke my hair and try his best not to pass out himself.
But finally, it was over and I lay with my two beautiful twins cradled in my arms, sweating and breathing heavily. Ignatius crooned over his children and he looked up at me with a wildly joyful expression when Amelie curled her fat little fingers around his pinkie.
It was then, in those quiet moments in the clinic after the bustle of friends and family came and went and it was just the two of us gazing lovingly down at the two little humans we had created, that Ignatius finally decided to reveal the final part of the surprise
1 was looking down at the twins with heavy lids as I felt myself slipping into a much-needed doze. Amelie was curled up Fightly in a swaddle of blankets and her brother lay beside her, wrapped so tightly that his chunky little cheeks were
ckered and puffed up around his tiny face and scrunched beady eyes.
“You know” I said lazily to Ignatius who was leaning on the edge of my bed and touching his finger to the nose of one quiet children. “Newborn babies are kinda ugly. Like I love them so so much. But they look like little n*ked mole rats.
of the
Ignatius had laughed at that and Ellias opened his eyes at the sound to gaze up at his father. It wasn’t hard to see who the little kicker in my stomach had been every time Ignatius got to talking to my belly. Ellias clearly knew his father’s voice and that made Ignatius beam with pride.
I pressed a tired, gende k*ss to each of their tiny soft heads. When I looked up. Ignatius was holding a small golden pinched between his thumb and forefinger.
Embedded in the center of the delicate gold band was a twi nkling green Peridot, the color of my eyes. I snapped my up to look into the eyes of my mate who was smiling sheepishly. “I know it’s not the best timing. But the little terrors there threw a wrench in my plans, and I’m impatient.”
I could only stare at him with my mouth slightly open, tears welling in the corner of my eyes as Ignatius continued in an awkward, bashful tone that I didn’t hear from him very often.
“I know it’s not the fanciest of rings. But you always said this stone was your favorite and it even matches your eyes! I don’t know, Rita said it was perfect, but I wasn’t sure if you’d like it or
I didn’t give him time to finish. I pressed my lips to his in a deep k*ss. My sudden movement awoke both the sleeping babies and they blinked up at us as I pressed my forehead to his
“Just get on with it, you scaredy-cat
“Hey, I’ve been through a lot today. Give me a break, I’m getting there Ignatius matched my mocking tone, and his smile was infectious.
“Excuse me, you’ve been through a lot? I have just punted two babies out of my vagina and you’re telling me you’ve been through a lot today? All you did was stand there and try not to hurl.”
We got to the proposal eventually, but there was no need to ask even if we hadn’t. The answer was always going to be yes. I was ready to spend the rest of my life with Ignatius from the first night we spent together dancing in the snowy woods
And that day had finally come
Fri Jan 26
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