Despite the divorce not being finalized and the pending federal investigation into Ben’s crimes, the judge allowed us to sell the house as soon as the prosecution cleared it from the investigation. The money from the sale was split evenly between us, although Ben tried to refuse his share, only relenting after I reminded him that he would need it to pay for his defense team.
About a week after the settlement conference, Kyle surprised our parents by purchasing a cliffside beach house in Palos Verdes Estates. The realtor told him it was known as Villa Sul Mare, “Villa by the Sea”, and was practically a mansion, largeenough for the entire family, and overlooked a rocky shoreline. The appeal being that it didn’t attract the same tourism as the nearby sandy beaches, but was only thirty minutes outside of Los Angeles. My parents were thrilled at the idea of the whole family sharing the property since they planned to travel back and forth from North Dakota.
When I asked Griffin how to go about offering to help Kyle pay for the house, Griffin had quietly assured me that their company was thriving and that buying a house for our parents was something that Kyle had always wanted to do for them. Apparently, he had just been waiting for Mom to finally cave on leaving North Dakota.
The months that followed were filled with big moves, long talks, and growth as we learned how to heal from all that we had lost. We navigated grief, forgave betrayals, and let ourselves be hopeful for the future that was coming.
It was by some twist of luck that we all happened to be staying at the Villa when my daughter decided it was time to enter the world. I had just sat down to have my one cup of coffee after a sleepless night of back pain and reflux when I heard Griffin spill water on the floor.
“Do you need help?” I looked over at the coffee machine where Griffin was busy filling his own mug. He was staring at me, his handsome face was abnormally pale, and he looked like he wasgoing to pass out. “Griffin?” I slid off my seat to hurry towards him, only to step in a puddle. It was then that I realized my shorts were also soaked.
Apparently, my brain required coffee to recognize even the most obvious things in the morning.
Thankfully, my mother took charge because, for the first time, my levelheaded boyfriend was succumbing to panic, and I was too busy laughing at him as he ran around the house trying to dress himself and gather my hospital bag to be of any use. We had chosen to stay at the Villa for the final two weeks of my pregnancy because it was closer to the birthing center than my condo was and would allow us to skip all of the Los Angeles traffic.
“I’m going to call Lily, one of you needs to call Ben’s lawyer.” I instructed and waddled to my room to get myself cleaned up. There was no way in hell I was getting in the car covered in whatever substance had just let us know my daughter was on her way.
I heard a phone ringing down the hall from my brother’s room as I dialed Lily’s number and waddled faster.
Is that…
The ringing stopped just as I heard Lily’s hushed voice on the line. I felt my lips pull into a delighted grin.
“I KNEW IT!” I shrieked and pounded on Kyle’s door.
“Fuckkkk,” I heard him groan through the phone and his door.
“The baby is coming. Get your asses ready and don’t for a second think we won’t be talking about this!” I giggled and waddled back to my room, where Griffin was peering out with a raised eyebrow.
“Do you really think now is the time to be torturing your brother?” he teased. He looked more relaxed than he had a few minutes before when he was sliding through the kitchen with a towel, a sock on one foot, and his shoes in hand.
“Yup.” I started to shrug, but was interrupted by a sharp cramp in my stomach that caused me to grab the doorway for support. “Ow,” I grumbled.
“Contraction?” Griffin asked, his relaxed posture went rigid again.
“I’m fine but I do need to get cleaned up before we go.” I brushed past him and hurried into the ensuite bathroom.
Lily burst in a few seconds later, “What are you doing in the shower?” she shrieked.
“Getting clean?” I stuck my head past the curtain and then groaned as another contraction hit.
“Get out!” she waved her hands frantically. “My niece is not going to be born in a shower!”
I rolled my eyes and straightened out again as the pain subsided.
A minute later, her angry little hand flew past the curtain and twisted the water to cold before shutting it off.
“LILY!” I shrieked.
She ignored me and shoved a towel in.
“Griffin has the bag in the car, Kyle and your mom already headed to the hospital, your dad called Ben’s lawyer and is going to drive us there. They said Ben will be allowed to go to the hospital once she’s born.”
I wrapped the towel around myself and nodded. I had been relieved when they said he wouldn’t be permitted to be in the room during the birth or even allowed to wait at the hospital for the duration of labor. I knew that even if the judge had granted Ben that much time, I could’ve refused, but I was glad that it wasn’t even something that had to be discussed. My mother and Griffin were going to be in the room with me.
I felt my face light up as I remembered how sweetly Griffin had asked me if he could be in the room with me.
“I want to be there for you, and I don’t want to miss the moment the second most important girl in my world arrives.” He said and kissed my forehead in the loving way he always did.
