Preg-Not part 51

“I don’t… I don’t…”

I don’t understand. 

None of this made sense. How was this happening? He got on a plane and flew for a couple of hours, and now his dead sons are back?

Raelynn looked overwhelmed by the babies. She was having a hard time balancing them both now that they were crying.

Viktor stepped forward to help her carry one. Seeing his intentions to touch them, Maksim jumped up and hovered over Raelynn. He looked at her chest and raised his hands.

All ten fingers trembled.

The hands that were steady when they fired a gun were shaking now that they were aimed at two little persons.

“It’s okay,” Raelynn encouraged.

Maksim touched the cheek of one twin with a finger. He was real. His young, tight skin was soft and cool. He was very real, just like his brother, and Maksim didn’t know what the hell to do with him.

He had never carried a baby before. Weren’t their necks flimsy or something? They can’t support the weight of their own heads. Was he supposed to hold it for them?

Handling them was so much simpler when they were protected in their mother’s womb. All he had to do then was kiss and gently caress the bump.

Maybe it felt more difficult because he had declared them dead and uprooted the chance of fatherhood from his life.

The babies began to settle since the loud noises stopped.

“Are you okay?” Raelynn asked him. “You’re pale.”

Maksim shook his head. “How are they alive? How are they here?”

“Mother,” Viktor spoke from behind him. “She set this up. She stole them.”

Maksim spun his heel, not believing the words. He cut off many people in his search of who was behind this. Every family that attended that meet-up with Raelynn received a bloody warning, but he never figured out who was the mastermind.

Maksim never considered that it could be his mother. How could it be that his own flesh and blood cut him open?

“Where is she?”

“Dead,” Raelynn spoke.

She was dead. Raelynn put a bullet in her and made warm, fresh blood splatter out of her forehead. That horrible color came for her again, but this time, Raelynn wasn’t afraid.

She was over her fear of red. It would no longer control her life. She would spill it until the oceans tasted like copper, if that’s what it took to protect her sons.

Maksim turned to face Raelynn. Her lips were pursed and her eyes were narrowed. She was holding back a secret, but it burst through the seams.

“You killed her,” he accused. “You killed my mother.” He shook his head. “No. Damn it. No.”

Raelynn raised her head. “I did, and I would do it again.”

“You weren’t supposed to!” Maksim burst, startling the twins and making them fuss again.

“Maksim…” Viktor touched his arm, but he shouldered him off.

Pain crackled on Raelynn’s face. She knew that Maksim was shocked to hear that he lost his mother, but she didn’t think she deserved the anger he was throwing at her. She saved their sons to make sure that they would never be taken again. They wouldn’t have been safe in the hands of that unstable woman.

Was she a monster for wanting to be an angel?

She hated that although they had their sons back, she and Maksim only drifted further apart.

Exhausted by the situation, she took a defensive step back. “I’m going to put the twins to sleep.”

She turned and left as Viktor and Maksim began to rapidly bicker in Russian. She figured it was for the best that she didn’t understand their words. Hearing Maksim’s disdain would only hurt her more.

She went into their bedroom and paced the room while humming to the twins. Her injured arm was screaming in pain. Her stitches were fresh, and the bandage was rough on her skin. She didn’t want to put the twins down, though. Not when she just got them back.

They settled down easily enough, and watched her with tiny, sleepy eyes. The day had been very eventful for them.

“My good boys.”

She kissed their forehead. She lost four months with them. Four precious months of bonding that she would never have again.

She would never lose more time with them. Over her dead body.

– • –

MAKSIM

“Why would you say something like that to her? Do you think she wanted to put a bullet in mother’s head? It’s not like we lost much, anyway. Mother was beyond sick. She was evil.”

Viktor was infuriated. He didn’t like the way Maksim treated Raelynn, and he had no reservations about letting him know.

“Raelynn had no business–”

“Do you have any idea how much effort it took her to go through with his? She knows jack-shit about this life, but the damn girl still jumped in with teeth and nails for her children. You’re an idiot for not understanding the dangers of leaving mother alive. She had to go if you ever wanted peace.”

“Be quiet!” Maksim interjected. “Fuck mother. I don’t care that animal was put down, but Raelynn shouldn’t have done it. I didn’t want her hands tainted with blood.” He pulled at his hair with pure frustration. “I didn’t want this life to take her down with it.”

“Then you’re a dumbass, because that’s not what she thinks. She thinks you’re pissed that you killed mother dearest.” Viktor took out a cigarette. “This is why I don’t fucking deal with women. This relationship shit is too complicated.”

“Put out that cigarette, you son of a bitch. The twins are next door.”

Viktor tossed the cigarette down and stomped on it, ruining the carpet without a care.

“I'm the son of a dead bitch, now. So are you. Congratulations, Mak.” He walked out of the door and stopped. “You might want to take a shower. You look deader than mom does. Wouldn’t want to scare the kiddies, now, would you?”

He left, and Maksim opened a window to air the room out to stop the smell from reaching the babies.

He looked for Raelynn and found her leaning over a crib that had been set up in the bedroom. She was staring at the sleeping babies.

“I’m sorry,” he said as he walked to her side and touched her back.

How many times did he dream of her returning? Hundreds. How many times did he dream of her returning and bringing presents along? None.

“I was upset because I didn’t want you to be officially branded a criminal. It’s not about my mother’s death. She stopped mattering to me a long time ago.”

Raelynn looked at him, and blinked back tears. “Are you sure?”

He pulled her to his arms and hugged her tight. He had been sitting on a leather, cushy seat in the jet and flew on it for hours, but that luxury didn’t compare to the feeling of having Raelynn in his arms. This was his one and only home.

She was soft, just like the babies. Having her against him made the weight on his shoulders disappear.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “Sorry that I can’t seem to stop repeating that damn word… fuck, Raelynn. Tell me you’ll stay this time. Please. I can’t let you walk away with them. It would send me to a tomb right next to my mother.”

Her hands reached up to hug him back.

“We will figure this out. Together.”

“Sweetness?” Knives called from outside the door. “Where did I leave my shirt?”