Page 72 of Forbidden Surrogate
The doctor continues with all the details of the procedure and what happened to Delphine as well as what she'll need when she comes home. If I thought this woman was vulnerable before, she certainly is now.
"I want to see them."
I finally manage the words after two minutes of listening to this doctor explain medical terms that I hope Angela is paying close attention to.
"Of course," the doctor says. "You can even hold them. Come around here..."
She walks me around to the other side of Delphine's bed where two tiny, sleeping and swaddled bundles lie together beneath a bright light. Their pale hands are intertwined with each other.
"They don't want to let go," the doctor says. "They were so close in the womb and they start crying whenever we separate them."
They're perfect. I never understood why parents were so obsessed with their children until the miracle presented itself before me in such a visceral way. I'm scared to touch them. I feel too rough. Too cruel. How did my father handle this situation? I can't imagine Don Taviani in my position, holding a vulnerable creature in his grasp and feeling the weight of their existence.
Maybe this will change him the way it's changing me.
The doctor hands me my first son.
"This was the first one," she says. I wish I had been in the room when they came out, but the second I hold him, he makes a soft gurgling sound and I hold his warm body against my chest.
My little one. My son. The tears almost come, but the doctor hands me my second son and quieting the overwhelming emotions in my chest so I don't make a scene becomes my top priority.
The two boys still reach for each other and their gurgling doesn't stop until I hold them close together. Angela whips her phone out and takes a picture.
"We didn't have two names picked out," I whisper.
"I have an idea." Dad's voice emerges from the doorway and I nearly jump out of my skin. My fatherly instincts suppress that initial urge and instead, I hold the babies closer to my chest. I will never let anyone hurt them. Ever.
Lewis moves closer to Angela and the hospital staff freeze in place as if painfully aware of the tension erupting amongst all the members of my family.
"Peter, Mikey and Nicki are outside," dad says to me as he ignores Angela and approaches me with his hands outstretched, gesturing for the babies. The hospital staff don't ask who he is or protest. It's obvious that dad and I are related. We've always had a strong and noticeable resemblance to each other.
Reluctantly, I allow him to take my second-born twin son.
"This one will be Leandro," he says. "Little Leo."
"I'm sure Delphine will love that..." I mutter, kissing the first-born twin on the top of his head.
"She will love it," he says. "Because she's a part of this family, so I'm sure that comes with an appreciation for Italian names and culture."
He makes pointed eye contact with me. It's a tricky expression to interpret. He'll accept Delphine, but in return he expects... what, exactly?
"Delphine is a good woman."
"I'm sure," my father says, stroking my son's back. "She'll be faithful to you every day you're in Pittsburgh."
Ah, there it is. Pittsburgh. Again.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Michael
CC moved in last week and apparently, we’re not doing Cosima anymore, we’re doing “CC”. I set up her bedroom upstairs and quickly realized that I still see her as a dorky middle schooler, and not the grown up twenty-three year old she’s become. It feels good to return to Buffalo after such a long absence. I went out to Pittsburgh to help my cousin Vito with the crazy shit going on out there and now, I can finally have some peace.
My sister and I have always gotten along, although dad wasn’t wrong about the recent shift in her attitude.
I arrive at the brick house in Orchard Park after a grueling session at the gym with Luigi. The shocking series of events with Delphine has changed my cousin in the most profound ways. He’s about to become a father after years of living alone as a grouchy, dangerously single bachelor. It’s much too late for me.
When I walk through the front door, I smell CC’s favorite meal baking in the oven. She hasn’t been up for much cooking since she moved in, so this change of pace surprises me.
