Chapter 43. Triplets.
The story was over. Two teenagers had just heard the tale of their conception. Liz who told the story was smirking as she took in their reactions. In the middle of the sofa, Silas felt the rapidly beating heartbeat of his girls.
Kathy’s face was completely red and her head was buried in his shoulder. Victoria on the other hand was in a daze, her eyes not moving, not blinking as she processed the story.
He let out a laugh and ruffled Kathy’s hair.
“What’s the matter Kathy?” He asked his tomato of a daughter.
Letting out a strangled noise, she lifted her head and glanced at her mother.
“WHY?!” Katherine said, “Why did you have to describe dad’s junk and your—ughhh. I did not need to visualize that in my head.” Her face somehow managed to become redder.
Liz and Silas shared a look. His body temperature went up and he had a bemused smile. His wife giggled. She wagged a finger at Kathy.
“Details are what makes a good story. You should be happy to know your parents have a healthy sex life,” she teased.
Katherine burrowed her face in his armpit and whined. Her muffled protests were funny. Inhaling her strawberry scent, he gave her a kiss on top of her head.
Victoria finally snapped back to reality and started to mumble unfinished sentences. She seemed deep in thought.
He smiled at her and put his hand on her head too, rubbing her hair gently.
“What about you, princess?” he asked.
But she ignored him, instead she put a hand under her shirt and started to rub her belly, where her womb was, in a circular motion, muttering something about triplets.
Elizabeth started laughing, grabbing her stomach from the pain of laughing.
Furrowing his eyebrows, Silas stared at Victoria’s behavior, trying to understand why his daughter was doing that.
She continued to mutter the word triplets, and the dots started to connect. She wants triplets. That was when he burst out laughing, the sound coming from his gut.
Victoria snapped her head to him. Her cheeks were dusted pink as her eyes narrowed.
“So you named Kathy after Katherine, what about my name?” she asked, ignoring what happened a second ago.
“Hmm that’s right. Even I don’t know where yours came from,” Liz said and put a hand to her chin, tapping it in thought and staring at him.
He had a small sad smile. A warmth was in his chest as he recalled the last dungeon raid he participated in, Mount Olympus.
“You are named Victoria for Victory, my victory,” he said softly.
His wife nodded. That was what she guessed but didn’t know for sure.
Smiling widely, Victoria beamed. She hugged him and he held her tight, his arms wrapped around his little princess.
“Alright time for bed now. We’ve all had a long day and you two have classes tomorrow,” Elizabeth announced, putting an end to the night.
A small sigh left Victoria and she let go of her papa, kissing his cheek before standing up. Kathy also got up. No kisses for him, instead she hugged her mom.
He just sat there, watching his girls go upstairs to their rooms. Liz went after them. She turned around at the bottom step and blew him a kiss. He caught it with his hand and placed it on his heart.
The silence of the living room felt heavy but not suffocating, the light buzz from the TV was quiet, just enough background noise as his thoughts wandered to the memories he had.
Mount Olympus was a tough dungeon. There were different kinds of tough. Some dungeons were just huge and had corruption that affected the mind, others were just packed with S-ranked beasts that were tough to take down. Mount Olympus had one of the few monsters he was actually afraid of.
Medusa. The S-ranked monster was a snake-like hydra with faces that petrified the viewer, turning them to stone. In myth she was killed by Perseus with his shield and sword. He killed Medusa but not fast enough. The damage had been done.
The stone statue of Kat was on his mind as he sighed. Her face was frozen not even in pain, just frozen in a way that would make any normal person sick. He wanted to try and reverse the petrification but there were still other monsters and he couldn’t protect her body while fighting. So he left her there, promised to get her after he finishes the dungeon. A mistake on his part.
The statue was broken when he returned. Shattered like glass. A piece of her hand was on the ground.
A pang of regret hit his heart and he rubbed his chest to ease the pain.
“Sneak attacks are the deadliest.”
Kat said that to him on their first hunt together yet she let her guard down in the end. Her body broken into pieces.
He got up from the sofa, the floor creaking under him as he went upstairs to the bathroom. Washing his face, the cold water brought him back to the present moment. His reflection stared back at him as he wiped the water off.
There was no point in thinking about the past when the future was ahead. The Vane Estate had expanded to five houses around Liz’s garden, which the rest of the Vane family would move into next week. His family, all together in one continent.
He walked to his bedroom and changed into his sleepwear. The fabric soft on his skin.
It was late and his wife would join him soon. Crawling into bed, he pulled the comforter over himself and waited for her.
The moon was bright tonight and shined into the dark room, a silver glow illuminating the space.
Elizabeth entered in her nightgown. Her hair was loose and her steps were light. With a smile she closed the bathroom door behind her and crawled in next to him. His arms pulled her closer and she buried her head in his chest.
His heart fluttered. The smell of her vanilla hair was comforting to him as she hummed a lullaby he used to sing to his daughters. Slowly her humming slowed down and her breathing evened out.
“Heaven or Hell?” Liz whispered sleepily.
“Together,” he answered and kissed the top of her head.
His eyes closed and he joined her in her slumber.