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“Babies? As in more than one?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m actually having quadruplets.”
Silence, at first. Then a laugh. “You’re fucking with me, right, Isabella?”
“No, I’m not fucking with you, Mom. I mean it. I’m about twelve weeks along, and I’m getting huge already.”
“How much is he paying you to do this?”
“He’s paying me well, don’t you worry about that. Enough so that I can go to grad school and not take on any debt. Considering the journalism field isn’t known for paying a ton, I thought it would be a smart—”
“How much?” she interrupted.
“Mom, that’s personal.”
“I’m your mother,” she said. “I just want to be sure you’re not being stiffed. I never did care for the De Lucas…. Their father was into some shady shit.”
My jaw tightened as I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. “So was Dad, and you, for that matter, and I still turned out okay, didn’t I?”
Mom didn’t answer. “So you’re not going to tell me how much he’s paying to carry his kids?”
“No! I can take care of myself, Mom, and Gabe is paying me very generously. We’ve had lawyers look everything over and never mind, this isn’t why I called.”
As per usual when it came to my mom, my nerves were already shot. Why did I even bother?
My mom was muttering something I couldn’t make out, likely cursing my very existence under her breath. After calming myself down, I decided to try again.
“Mom, I was hoping you might give me some advice or something. Talk me through your pregnancy with me, let me know what to expect, that sort of thing.”
She let out a groan. “I told you before, I don’t remember anything about my pregnancy with you.”
“Nothing? You remember nothing?”
“No,” she said. “I imagine that means it was pretty boring and uneventful.”
Well, that was good, I guess.
“How about childbirth? You’ve never talked to me about that, did you have a c-section?”
“No.”
“So vaginal birth?”
“I didn’t give birth to you out of my ass, now did I, Bella?”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered to myself. My head was aching, and I knew it was from the stress of dealing with my mother. After a momentary pause, I decided it wasn’t worth it to continue. I was supposed to be avoiding stress, after all. “Sorry for bothering you, Mom. I have to go.”
She didn’t even try to stop me from hanging up. No apology, nothing. Not that I should have been surprised. I thought my mom would at least be concerned, not about the money but my well-being.
I fell backward on the bed with a loud groan of disgust. I’m not sure how long I stayed like that, staring at the ceiling and cursing the fact that I didn’t have a normal, loving family like most of the people I knew.
A knock on the door pulled me back to reality.
“Yes?” I called out.
“It’s me,” Ava’s voice responded.
“Come in,” I said.
