Sherman asked Arvin, "Dad, Am I and Sherwood your real sons?"
Sherwood added, "Dad, Are you and Mom going to make us a sister?"
Arvin looked at his twin boys and said, "Sherman, you have the same character as your Mom, but you look like me. So yes, you're my real son. Sherwood, you're very clever. Your Mom and I will bring a sister for you if you promise to look after her."
The boys cheered up. They clapped and shouted, "Hooray! Dad, can you bring us a sister tomorrow?"
Everybody was amused by the boys except Angela.
Martha held Wanda up and said to Aron, "Go ahead if you have some work to finish. Wanda is okay here with me." She didn't want to disturb him with their kid at the end of the year. She presumed he was busy.
But Aron thought differently.
He seemed to be very angry, and said coldly, "I don't have any work right now. My assistant can handle them without me." He couldn't help thinking how reluctant she was to take a walk with him.
Martha paused and said, "That's all right. They all went out, let's go, too."
It was nearing the lunar new year, Martha felt a bit cold, so she tightened Wanda's scarf. Wanda walked by the side of the road, with one hand held her mother
And the other by Aron, she asked her Dad, "Daddy, Sherman and Sherwood want to have a sister, but I want to have a brother, can you and Mommy get me a brother?" Wanda looked up at her parents expectantly.
Wanda's naive questions made Martha blush, she said to her daughter, "Wanda, Are Sherman and Sherwood not your brothers? Why do you want to have another brother?"
"Okay, Daddy will get you a little brother." Aron interrupted Martha before she could finish.
Wanda was so happy that she jumped and said, "Daddy, you're the best, I love you."
Martha glanced at him and thought, 'Is he serious?
Did he mean to have a child with me or someone else? It's possible, is it?
Maybe he did want to have a child with another woman.'
She was upset when she thought about that.
Aron suddenly blocked her way. He lifted up her delicate jaw with his long fingers while looking into her eyes. After a while, he broke silence with a cold voice, "You look so unpleasant; are you so reluctant to have a child with me?"
Aron gritted his teeth as he spoke each word.
Martha took a deep breath and lightly said, "I didn't mean that."
"Well, what did you mean?" Aron pushed.
Martha paused again and said, "I would be okay if you want to have a child with......" She couldn't say "other women" out loud.
Aron was almost furious; he figured out what she had wanted to say just from her facial expression. How could she allow him to have a child with other women? He really felt unloved by her.
Aron held Wanda up, strode ahead, and left Martha behind.
She watched the back of her daughter and husband as they walked further away from her. She crouched down, buried her face in between her legs, embraced herself and wept.
After a while when Angela and Arvin were passing by hand in hand, Angela vaguely recognized Martha from far away, she asked Arvin if that was her, as she couldn't tell for sure.
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