What would happen if Stephanie had gotten pregnant during her first marriage?
I looked at the two sleeping girls behind me, strapped in their car seats, as we headed to Grandma and Papa's house. They were beautiful, with their curly dark hair, fair skin, and blue eyes. They looked exactly like me and I was glad. They didn't need to look like their dad. He wasn't worth shit anyway.
Sofia and Graciella, to me Sofi and Gracie, two of the most precious gifts I have ever received. And they were given to me by the one man that I truly hated.
Dickie Orr and I got married about a year and a half ago, but we were divorced a year into our marriage. Two weeks after I found him that fateful night I found out I was a couple months pregnant. I told him about it of course, but he said he didn't want anything to do with them. Big shocker. So I just let it be. He doesn't pay child support or anything like that. I like to keep any contact that I have to have with him to a minimum.
When I found out I was having twins I was scared. All I remember was looking at the test one second and being put on the couch the next. My father had went with me to my first appointment and there they were. Two babies in the same sac, my doctor said. Identical Twins.
Identical Twins!! Well this should be fun. My first pregnancy and I have to have identical twins.
The support I got was overwhelming though. We didn't know what they were yet it was to soon to tell, but everybody was excited. Things like this didn't happen in the burg. People had kids the old fashioned way, one at a time. And now here I was Stephanie Plum, having twins. Yea you could say people were enamored with the idea.
One person in particular was very helpful. Angie Morelli. She called me everyday to see how I was doing. She brought food to my apartment and helped clean it. She had become like a second mom to me which shocked me because she never really liked me when I was young, but hey more power to her right? If she wanted to help me then I wasn't going to complain.
My pregnancy with the twins wasn't that complicated. A little scary but never complicated. I walked everyday, ate all the right foods plus more, took my vitamins, and everything else.
When I found out they were girls are started getting slap happy, I started buying them everything I could to make them the most adorable girls the Burg would ever see. Little dresses and headbands. Shoes, tights, bows. Everything that I thought they would need. My best friend Mary Lou through me the first baby shower of many, where she of course decided to buy more dresses and frills. And of course the baby shower that my mom's friends threw me was totally elaborate. All the gifts were given in two's. Two matching car seats, two matching high chairs, and two baby stroller, courtesy of Papa Plum. Like I said things like this didn't happen in the Burg.
There was one thing that got me really upset during the time and that was that Dickie never called to ask about how they were doing. He never contacted anyone. He just didn't. I don't know why, and that made me sad. But I snapped out of it real fast when I heard that he was having a baby with Joyce. He could have that baby for all I care but he would never come around these two.
The twins were taken via a c- section, two weeks early, and they were doing great. No breathing problems, healthy as can be. Graciella Raileigh came first weighing 5lbs and 6 oz, and 5 minutes later Sofia Reilyn came out screaming at a wopping 6lbs. My dad and Mary Lou were with me in the delivery room the entire time.
I learned something about my dad those nine months that I was pregnant. Growing up he was the quiet one of my parents, the one that my sister and I would run to if something went wrong but also the one that spoke to us when things we did were wrong. When I got married to Dickie, he didn't like it, and he made sure to let us know that when he stood up at our wedding. And throughout the eight months after that, he still made his strong opinions known about Dickie and Me. But when the marriage failed, he said nothing, he held me every time I cried, he stood by me when I stared at that positive pregnancy test in my hand, and he was there with me when I confronted Dickie about it, even throwing in a few helpful blows of his own. He had become my best friend. Something he never had with Valerie, and I was so grateful for him.
I had reached my parents house, and with the supreme skill that I had mastered the last two months of being a new mom, I managed to get the diaper bag and both car seats out of my car. It was chilly outside so I made sure their seat covers were on and I folded down each of the flaps to ward off the cold. I managed to get up the steps and to the door when and are through it open and took one of the car seats. I mumbled a thanks, to the person before I got a good luck at person. I knew it wasn't going to be my dad, the arm was too big.
I gasped when I looked up because I was staring into the eyes of Joseph Morelli.
