Page 11 of Old Secrets

It took him a minute, but comprehension struck him, and he stared at me with wide eyes.

“That sounds like it would be good for you both. How are you doing? Jake hasn’t told us much.”

“Yeah, he’s wrapping his head around the fact that should we ever have children, I’ll be prone to having three or so at a time, which is not helping our current situation. We’re going to have to appropriately plan for an entire litter. I’m predisposed. This makes him both very happy but also very sad, as he wanted to start with two. He didn’t want both to happen at one time. As such, we’re going through a bunch of medical evaluations, so if you could please not bother him much about it, that’d be excellent. He thinks I’m fragile. Really, he’s just terrified of the thought of dealing with four of me at one time.”

“I’m genuinely terrified of the thought of dealing with four of you at one time,” she replied.

I’d feel that one for a while, especially as we were actually agreeing on something. “No couches would survive for longer than a few minutes, and I’m not sure there are sufficient rabies shots in production to handle four of me going down fox holes. Anyway, if you don’t hear from us for a while, we are busy enjoying ourselves on vacation. Text Jake if you want any souvenirs while we’re abroad. I am not to be trusted with knick-knack shopping. We’re about to leave, so I need to get off the phone. Good night, sleep well!”

To prevent her from arguing with me, I hung up. I turned my best grin on my husband. “And if there is a mole somewhere around your mother, we will find out in Japan, where we will get to counter ambush any ambushers. This is the closest we’ve gotten to actually doing something about our situation.”

“If you had a tail right now, you would be whipping it about in your general excitement.”

I nodded. “I want to bring these bastards down, and some nice people in China and Japan want to help me do it. Since we can’t seem to make progress at home, then we’ll take the fight elsewhere.”

“And there’s the Karma I know and love. Anything else you want to tell me before you start taking names?”

I considered him with interest. “I want breakfast and cuddles, but not necessarily in that order.”

“Conveniently for you, both of those things have been penned into our schedule. But I think we’re actually being fed a very late dinner rather than an early breakfast.”

“That’s probably true.” I shrugged. “Plane time is not real time, and it does not obey any natural laws.”

“Isn’t that airport time?”

“They share a handbook.”

“May I ask a question?”

“Sure.”

“Did you really have to tell my mother you suspect we’ll have triplets?”

I giggled at his dismayed tone. “Yes. I have spent the past few months thinking you and your parents have been divided through irreparable conflicts to find out you all are just bickering over the complications of reproduction. You will tell me every time she asks about children moving forward. I will donate to one of those adopt a child charities on her behalf and send her a kit.”

Jake’s eyes widened, he retrieved his phone, unlocked it, and handed it over. Puzzled, I took it, and realized he’d given me access to his texts with his mother.

Apparently, she asked him once or twice a day if my reproductive health was okay, if we needed anything, if she could at all help, and otherwise driving my husband to the end of his rope. “Jake, you need to learn how to use more of your words to tell her she needs to calm down for a while.”

“She’s trying so hard, so I couldn’t just tell her she’s being the equivalent of Satan on steroids.”

“Just being Satan isn’t bad enough? She’s Satan on steroids?”

“She was Satan back when she was asking every other day. I love my mother, but every time she texts me, I want to scream. And she’s trying to do better and change her worst habits and improve on the racial discrimination front. She’s genuinely trying.”

I could respect that. Unlike my ma, Pauline tried to come back from what had done such a good job of tearing us apart. Her efforts wouldn’t undo the damage she’d caused, but I could understand the reasons why everything had happened. In the aftermath, Jake had thrown himself into being the perfect husband with alarming enthusiasm, but with some help from Mellisa, I’d found a way to coax out the man I’d fallen in love with in the first place. I worried the woman he’d fallen in love with in the first place had a long way to go, but he seemed content with the time required to find me again.

Or finding us. No, in many ways, we’d become stronger because of the damage, the separation, and the heartache.

We both wanted to be where we were, together.

I reviewed the texts, counting how many child aid kits I would be putting together in her name. “I’m getting her the ones where they want you to send letters to the kids you’re sponsoring.” After two weeks of correspondence, I quit counting at thirty-six counts. “We’ll start with the past two weeks. That is thirty-six sponsorships. I will pick the children being sponsored with glee—and then I will demand she go visit them all personally. And none of them will be in the same country.”

“Wow, Karma.”

“What?”

“That was beyond ruthless. In different countries? What if you find a set of siblings?”