Page 61 of Twin Surprise for the Italian Doc
The question seemed to surprise Matteo. He paused but didn’t turn around as he reached the door.
‘I don’t know.’
The room had felt empty before, because her babies weren’t with her.
It felt infinitely more empty after their father had left.
Another tear rolled down Georgia’s face. And then another.
Maybe he would never come back...
She sank back onto her pillows, wrappingher arms around one of them because she really, really needed something to hold.
Exhaustion was bleeding into the darkness of this empty room and softening the edges of the awful aching in her heart.
She could escape all of it, couldn’t she? At least for a little while. She just needed to give in to this crippling tiredness. And maybe...when she woke up...she might even find it had all justbeen a nightmare.
* * *
They knew who Matteo was as soon as he arrived at the neonatal intensive care unit and introduced himself.
Somehow, that astonished him.
Georgia had been lying to him for so long and yet she’d announced the truth to the world by officially naming him as the father of these children? That she had was confirmed by the labels on the incubators he was led towards.
Bennett/Martini:Twin One and Twin Two.
Not that this public confession made any difference.
Not when she’d had a million opportunities to tellhimand she had chosen not to. Matteo was still reeling. Trapped in the darkness of what felt like an ultimate betrayal.
‘You can hold them,’ the nurse told him. ‘They’re only in the incubators to make use of the apnoea alarms. Sit here and I’ll take them out for you.’
Matteo sat in the comfortable armchair and the nurse lifted one tiny bundle and then the other, to place the twins in his arms.
‘I’ll leave you alone to get to know each other for a bit.’ She smiled. ‘But do you want me to take a photo first?’
‘Not yet...’
He knew he wouldn’t be able to smile. He might even have tears rolling down his face if the wash of emotion he was feeling right now wasanything to go by.
This was...
Like nothing he could identify.
He could relate to it, of course. Like when he’d held Arlo shortly after his birth and had experienced that wave of love and pride for the new member of the Martini clan.
But this was so different.
These werehisvery own children.
He had just stepped into his long-held dream of being a father.
No. He hadn’t stepped. He’d beenpushed in such a dramatic fashion it felt like he’d been hit by a truck he hadn’t seen coming.
But that didn’t seem to be making any difference right now. He was here and...and it was...amazing...
He could feel the weight of each baby nestled in the crook of each arm. He could see their little button noses and wisps of dark hair from beneath the blue and pink hats. He could hear the adorablesnuffling sounds and soft squeaks of tiny humans who were getting used to their new existence of living and breathing on their own.
