7

After Kathleen had woken up from the general anesthetic they had to give her because of the emergency situation the three of them spent the first moments together as a family. Tony was relieved Kathleen coped with the operation so well and watched his wife and daughter with pride and joy. The pieces of the puzzle had all finally fallen into the right places for him - his life would be one as Kathleen's husband and Lynnie's father. Maybe they could even have some more children building a 'real' Italian family which always meant a bunch of kids. He was looking forward to this simple and modest life and had almost forgotten about all the high hopes of graduating, becoming a teacher and leading a life so totally different from his upbringing.

As a C-section was a serious operation Kathleen and Lynnie had to stay in the hospital for an entire week. Before and after work Tony visited them every day watching Kathleen nursing the baby and teaching her how to take care of a newborn - changing diapers, bathing her, making her burp and rocking her into sleep. He hadn't forgotten anything from the time Sam had been a baby. He was a natural and intuitive father. When Kathleen saw him with his daughter she knew making him the father of this child had been the best decision of her life. She was happy and felt very secure about him - until one day. Lynnie had taken an afternoon nap at the hospital's nursery because Kathleen herself had needed some rest. When she had woken up and realized the bassinet was missing she got up and made her way to the nursery to get her baby back. Approaching the aisle where it was located she suddenly spotted Tony and Angela sitting side by side on the bench in front of it. Tony had Gwendolyn in his arms and Angela was admiring her. "Oh Tony, she's beautiful. I'm very happy for you and Kathleen. I'm glad everything went well after all. I can picture you spoiling this kid like hell!" She grinned at him. It was an absolutely innocent situation, Angela and Tony were both behaving appropriately: they were smiling at each other and talking, the weren't kissing or anything, they didn't even touch each other. Angela handed Tony a gift for Lynnie, a wonderful set of engraved silver cutlery and he thanked her. Nonetheless Kathleen felt a tremendous amount of jealousy rising within her.

She disliked herself for that. She was having problems with ungrounded jealousy for ever and it had ruined more than one of her relationships, but she just couldn't help it. 'I have to put a halt to this, I can't allow her to meddle in my family. How can he do this to me? He does have me, right, what does he need her for?' were the thoughts which came to Kathleen's mind. She had been seeing a therapist years ago to get rid of her underlying jealousy and he had told her she had a problem with trusting other people and a minority complex. But it was one thing to be rational and another one to be driven by the hormones the pregnancy and lately the nursing was constantly releasing into her body. So Kathleen found herself in an overly emotional state and couldn't think straight anymore. She was overwhelmed with a feeling of jealousy and pictured the two of them having an affair behind her back. She would have to do something. 'No more of this!' she swore to herself. But she was clever enough not to make a scene right now. She had learned that from similar situations in her past. She would wait for a better moment, when she had her emotions back under control and when she was alone with her husband.

That moment was about to come two days later.


Tony had picked up his wife and daughter from the hospital and had taken them home. He had decorated their apartment nicely, he had put a vase with fresh flowers on the dinner table and had put a sign saying 'Welcome Home' above the door. He started to unpack Kathleen's bag and put all the baby's onesies into the nursery. When he came back into the living room where Kathleen was lying on the sofa, being a bit worn-out from the car ride, he showed her Angela's gift. He didn't feel he had anything to hide.

"Look what Angela gave Lynnie for her birth, a silver children's cutlery set with 'GM' engraved in it. Isn't that a thoughtful gift?" He proudly presented the box to her as most of the other gifts were either pink stuffed animals or baby's clothes with the Cardinal's logo on them.

"At least she knows our daughter's name is Gwendolyn and not Lynnie." She didn't wanted to sound so rude but couldn't help it.

"Kathleen, I can understand you wanted to name your daughter after your mother but she just doesn't look like a Gwendolyn to me. Please, don't be mad at me calling her Lynnie."

Well, he had just given her the perfect moment to address the 'A'-matter. Granting him his wish would put Kathleen into a position of asking him one in return. "Ooookay, Honey, if you're having problems with the name I picked ...", she said with a noble gesture, "but you could also do me a favour", she went on.

"What is it?", he asked openly, being totally unprepared for what was going to come.