Warning: Infidelity and slight alcohol abuse.
"Oh, this looks so cute!" Greer cries out, lifting a pair of baby booties.
Kenna scoffs lightly, taking one bootie in her hand as she rubs her bump. "I'll have to buy three pairs of this. And this pair alone costs..." She checks the price tag. "Something Bash will murder me for."
The women laugh and Greer returns the booties as they continue to peruse the baby section of the store. It's early March and Mary has a rare day off from work, being a Sunday. They all do and she's glad for the girls' trip with the kids at home with their dads.
"How prepared are you guys?" Lola asks Kenna, Mary turning in curiosity herself.
Kenna shrugs a little, pulling a face. "We've decided to stay put at the condo for now. It's going to be a squeeze, but we'll have two of the babies with us and the third one with the au pair in her bedroom. Until we can close on a house, we're stuck in the condo with four kids, four pets and an au pair. At least we've got nappies, wipes, cribs and buggies. We gave up when it came to clothes because the sonographer can't tell what they are because they move a lot and can't be too sure which is which."
"So everything is neutral?" Greer says knowingly.
"Yep."
Mary chuckles. "Don't worry. Catherine's bringing down a bunch of baby neutral clothes and you've got the stuff we gave you."
"Yeah, but aren't you trying as well?" Kenna asks her.
"We can always buy more clothes. And I'm sure Leeza's got some things," Mary replies, taking a Winnie the Pooh outfit. "This is just adorable! I remember being obsessed with Winnie the Pooh as a little girl." She bites her bottom lip thoughtfully. "I'll get it for the babies." She grabs two more outfits.
"Mary...!"
"I'm their aunt, I've got to start working for the 'Favourite Aunt' title," Mary replies, grabbing three pairs of matching pale brown booties. "Aren't these the cutest?"
Lola giggles. "Okay, let's grab anything we can and meet here in about ten minutes?"
"Ladies!" Kenna cries out but they're already dashing around the baby section, yanking and pulling baby clothes into their overfilling baskets. Sighing, Kenna takes a seat at the chair section of the shoe section, timing them with her phone.
When they're done, they tiredly place the baskets onto the chairs and show Kenna their yields. They get some repeats but decide to keep them since they expect there to be many clothes changes during a day and along the way, Mary manages to grab two baby bottle sterilisers.
"I'll pay for these," Kenna says, putting the sterilisers aside along with the baby bottles. "I think we're done."
"Oh! I also got baby soap, powder and shampoo," Greer informs her.
"You are all amazing friends," Kenna tells them, rubbing her bump. "Let's go pay and get out of here, I'm hungry."
Mary helps her up. "You're definitely having a girl and two boys..." Mary muses. "You are eating for four."
"I don't know whether to be insulted or indifferent," Kenna replies lightly as they retrieve everything and head to the cashier point to pay for everything.
Finishing up, they head to the exit but Mary stops and checks out something they missed.
"Oh, come on, Mary. Hungry, pregnant woman over here," Kenna chides her but comes up to see what she's looking at anyway with Lola and Greer. "Oh."
"They're personalised," Mary mumbles, eyeing the baby grow that says 'Marie' on it in cursive.
Kenna smiles. "We don't even know what we're naming them. But we do know their middle names will start with 'A', 'B' or 'C' because well, that's what the doctor named them so we could identify them."
Mary nods, letting go of the baby grow. "Yeah. Let's go-"
"Kenna?"
They turn and spot a dark blonde woman studying Kenna in particular, her eyes landing on Kenna's bump.
"You're pregnant?"
Kenna's brows furrow. "Yeah. I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Delphine," the woman says. "I work with your husband."
"Oh, hi."
Mary frowns a little and she feels something uncomfortable settling in the pit of her tummy so she gently nudges Kenna's shoulder. "Let's go. We'll be late for our lunch reservation."
"Yeah, we'll be late," Greer adds, catching on.
Kenna nods in confusion but gives the woman a smile. "It's nice to meet you. I'll tell Bash I bumped into you," she says, Mary turning her away.
Just before they step towards the exit, Delphine says, "He's cheating on you. With me."
They all turn back to Delphine. Mary glares hard at the woman, scoffing as she clocks on. "So you saw she was pregnant and now you want to ruin a marriage?" She asks.
"What are you? Jealous?" Lola adds. "Because that is pathetic." She turns to a shaking Kenna. "Let's go, honey."
Greer leads them out but Delphine cries out that she's telling the truth, causing the blonde to turn around and stand inches away from Delphine. "If you say one more word, I will not hesitate to slap your jealous arse out of here," she hisses. "Now get out of our sight, and take your toxic energy out of here."
"She knows I'm telling the truth," Delphine says before leaving.
"Don't believe her, Kenna. She's preying on the fact that you're hormonal from your pregnancy," Lola says.
Mary nods, rubbing a hand up and down Kenna's arm. "Forget about it. Let's go grab some lunch-"
"She isn't lying," Kenna whispers, bowing her head and swallowing hard. "I suspected it, saw some evidence but I didn't say anything. Because of Ana and then we were good again until last week when we argued..." She gives them a watery smile as she checks out a cute outfit from the rack. "I'm good. Now, I know we've checked out but this looks..." But the dam breaks and she's sobbing, the women quickly leading her to the chairs to sit down before comforting her.
Mary looks away, watching as Delphine backs away and sighs before leaving completely. Tears spring to her eyes and she closes them.
...
Six Years Ago
"He's cheating on me, isn't he?" Mary asks Catherine, the older woman preparing dinner. "Every single day, that bitch is there. I didn't even know they kept in contact!"
She's a mess, tears and snot running down her face as she paces the kitchen, rubbing her seven-month-old bump. She gets agitated when Catherine ignores her ranting, continuing to cook their dinner in indifference.
"Are you not listening to me right now?" She cries out, knowing she's probably scarred Charlie and Hercule who hurry back upstairs. "Your son is cheating-"
"Mary, Francis loves you. He worships the ground you walk on," Catherine cuts in calmly, looking at the pots. "He's not cheating on you."
Mary scoffs. "Yeah, right," she says, heading into the living room to check if he's home yet.
She pales when she sees an unfamiliar expensive car pull up and her husband of all people steps out and sticks his head into the car before backing out. He laughs and waves the person 'goodbye', Mary getting a good look at Amelie smiling widely in the driver's seat as she drives away, waving at Francis as she speeds off.
Enraged, Mary heads to the guesthouse and upstairs to their bedroom, yanking a suitcase out of the wardrobe and stuffing Francis's clothes in it. She doesn't care what it is, she just puts them in.
Her husband with that blonde whore, after all that they've been through?
He'll just happily ruin his family, destroy his son's life and unborn child's life just for a couple of nights of infidelity?
The door swings open and Francis is laughing before he stops, his eyes widening as he watches his wife yank his things and stuff them into the crammed suitcase on the bed.
"Mary, what are you-"
"You fucking cheater," she snaps, his eyes widening even more as he hurries to stop her.
"You'll hurt yourself-"
"Don't touch me!" She screeches, pulling herself out of his grip. "I don't want a cheater touching me."
"A what?" Francis asks, genuinely baffled. "Baby, stop. Mary!"
Mary stops and glares at him hard, folding her arms. "What?"
Francis starts laughing nervously. "Mary, I'm not cheating on you."
"Yes, you are!"
"And what evidence do you have?" He asks, amused.
Mary glares at him, hitting his chest. "How dare you make fun of this situation. You're a fucking cheater."
"Mary..." Francis sighs, running a hand down his face. "Stop, think and talk."
Mary sniffles, taking a seat on the bed. "You're with her every day. Amelie. Every time I go to visit you, she's there at the damn restaurant. She even touched James the other day! Natasha told me."
Francis sighs heavily before kneeling before her and taking her hands. "Listen to me first, okay? Don't say anything as I speak."
"Fine. We're done either way-"
"Amelie is an interior designer," Francis says. "Bash, Maman and I decided that it was time to refresh the restaurants and upgrade their looks. The stuff we had have run their courses, probably why we weren't pulling in as many customers as we're used to."
Mary frowns. "What?"
"Shh," he warns her lightly. "Amelie is also married. Happily so to a lovely woman who is an architect and they work on projects together. I even managed to swing her details in case we think about opening up another restaurant. Perhaps in Italy or Spain since she works there occasionally."
"Sh-She's married?" Mary asks, surprised. "To a woman?"
"Yep, came out the year after we fake dated," Francis says. "Oh, that actually hurts my ego considering I was the last one she fake dated."
Mary starts laughing now, wiping her face. "Shit. I'm so sorry..."
"It's your hormones, babe," Francis says, hugging her tightly. "Mary, you're the only one for me. I don't see anyone but you." He then stands. "In fact, I've got a surprise for you."
He takes her to La Rose of Italia and unlocks it before ushering her inside. He makes sure the blinds are down before leading her into the centre of the room and hurrying to switch the lights on since it's past six.
Mary gasps when she looks around. To be fair, she wasn't paying attention to the surroundings, only the fact that Amelie and her husband were in the same space. Now, she can see that the walls are no longer deep red but are baby blue with the borders now being white instead of a rich deep brown.
The floors are brand new laminated floors, made to look like wood and the furniture are white and polished wired and cushioned. It looks so bright and airy and modern and even the bar has had a refresher with white marble tabletops and white wood.
"Oh, Francis..."
She looks up and sees all the updated light fixtures, seeing spotlights and changing lights and crystal chandeliers over six or more seated tables. Everything screams 'updated' and 'modern' and 'luxury' and well, 'more money'.
"We couldn't afford a lot so she helped me take on most of the work as well as sourced reliable, affordable materials and paints," Francis explains. "All the woods were repainted to white and the furniture we got on special deals and offers from her contacts. That's why we've been working so much together because I did most of this with the staff."
Mary laughs in disbelief. "Baby, I'm so sorry.."
"No, don't be-"
"I'm a bitch," she says, hugging him tightly. "Of course, you'd think about the restaurants. I'm so, so sorry."
Francis smiles before turning around and pointing at the wall. "Look."
Mary gasps, seeing photos of their family. The family photo of Francis, his parents and siblings no longer dominates the wall as a medium-sized black and white photo of Henry Valois, the founder of La Rose of Italia is in the middle. To the right, is a photo of Catherine and her children. To the left is a photo of Francis, Mary and James as a family. And beside that is a photo of Kenna and Bash. On the other side of the photo of Catherine and her children is a photo of Leeza and her boyfriend and written in silver cursive underneath all of the photos is 'Family is not only the people you're born to but the people you choose'.
Mary's eyes water and she covers her mouth. "Oh my God..." She says muffled before removing her hand. "It's beautiful. Everything is beautiful. Henry would be so proud."
Wrapping his arms around her waist, Francis smiles. "I hope so..."
...
Present Day
"Mary..."
Mary turns to her husband knowingly. "How long?"
"Until Kenna changes her-"
"No." Mary turns back to their laundry and she hears Francis sigh heavily. "Kenna is my best friend."
Francis tuts. "And Bash is my brother."
"He shouldn't have fucked another woman then."
"You don't know the full story-"
"Their marriage wasn't doing so well? He was sick of the arguments? She just happened to be there to comfort him? He was drunk, one thing led to another? Then he's sticking his joystick in her cockpit every other day!" Mary snaps angrily before turning to face him. "Do that to me and I won't kick you out, I'll bury your arse."
Francis shivers and watches as she turns back to the clothes. "I won't ever hurt you, Mary," he says first of all before swallowing hard. "It won't be for long, I swear."
Mary sighs heavily, dumping Rose's clean clothes back into the basket. "You know he messed up, don't you?"
"I do and I can see both sides to the story, I'm not picking anyone's side but Mum's mad at him too," Francis says softly. "Our dad told us something when we were kids and she's mad he forgot about it. I don't think he meant to have an affair... He's never ever done that to the women that came before Kenna so something must have been broken between them."
"You're no therapist," Mary starts. "But you seem to know an awful lot."
Francis leans against the wall, watching as she attempts to start folding the clothes again as she dumps dirty ones into the washing machine. "The person you love the most is the person you can hurt the worst," he says.
"Do I need to be worried?" Mary asks, neatly placing piles of folded clothes into the other empty basket.
"No," Francis tells her. "Look, it won't be long, alright? Kenna will change her mind, she's nearing her due date-"
"A week," Mary says firmly, knowing full well Kenna won't let him come back. So she adds, "Then he'll have to book a room at the hotel."
She lifts the basket of clean clothes and rounds him to leave the laundry room, heading upstairs. She finds Rose quietly watching her iPad on her beanbag and she chuckles softly, placing the basket on the floor and opening up drawers.
"Is Mummy's Angel doing okay?"
Rose makes a noise and Mary turns to see her eyes fixated on the iPad. She ought to wean her off, she's becoming too attached to devices and the weather is getting warmer so they can enjoy some good fresh air in the garden. Tutting, she heads down to her daughter and pries the device from the girl's tight grip.
"No, baby girl. That's enough," Mary says with Rose starting to put up a fuss. "Let's go play in the treehouse!"
Rose stops wailing. "Wouse?"
"Yeah, treehouse," Mary says with a cheeky grin before lifting Rose onto her hip. "Let's go grab Jamie and Annie and we'll play in the treehouse!"
...
"Mary, it's almost Dad's birthday. He would have been sixty," Francis says the week before the 31st of March. "Let him stay and he'll leave early April, I promise."
Mary sighs heavily and nods. "You're both pushing your luck," she tells him. "Kenna didn't answer my calls or texts and Lola says she's mad at me for letting him stay when it's you."
"I know and I'm sorry," Francis apologises, bringing her to his chest. "I don't think he should be alone, not when..." He sighs. "I'll talk to Kenna and try to-"
"No," Mary says, rolling onto her side. "You will not pressure a pregnant woman into taking her cheating husband back."
"He's not cheating now-"
"He cheated and that is it," Mary snaps. "It doesn't matter when it happened, it matters that he betrayed her trust. After all that she's been through! To go from being raped, distrustful of men, to falling in love and eloping... Then her husband, the one man she let in after being devalued and suicidal..." Mary can almost cry at the thought of how much pain Kenna is in right now. "After your dad's birthday, I want him out."
Francis sighs, pulling one of the spare pillows to his chest. "I'll tell him in the morning so he can find somewhere else."
Covering her eyes, Mary says, "Have you ever considered cheating on me? Be honest, Francis, that's how this marriage works."
Francis rests a hand on her tummy, where her shirt has exposed her bellybutton. "I've never considered cheating on you. And I know you'll never cheat on me too, especially after the whole Louis thing. We're going to grow old together, remember? I won't let anything jeopardise that."
Mary sniffles, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. "Okay."
"Can I cuddle you now?"
"Yeah," she whispers, pulling the pillow from his chest and chucking it over his frame onto the floor.
He pulls her to his chest and presses a long, loving kiss on the top of her head. "I love you," he says into her ear.
"I love you too."
...
On the 31st, Mary feels the aura in her home switch. Despite letting the grief over his father go, Mary knows Francis can't get over the fact that if Henry was still alive, he would have been sixty years of age. She too spends days thinking about how old her parents would have been if they were still alive, but it's got to the point that she's stopped counting and quite can't recall how old they would be now.
Would they have grey hairs? More wrinkles? Aching joints and backs?
Mary sighs and continues to fix up lunch. It's a Saturday, the weather is nice and warm outside as Spring makes itself known for good. She has Rose walking about, showing her mother stuff every now and then. Anne is snuggled up with her teddy bear in front of the TV and James is outside with his football.
"Okay, Rosie, go and call James inside for lunch," Mary tells her youngest before watching the girl toddle off. "Annie-Bun! Lunchtime!"
Anne hurries inside the kitchen and heads to the breakfast table as James comes in with his football.
"Help your sister clear the table, James," Mary says, bending down to lift Rose onto her hip as she starts plating up dishes with one hand.
James kicks the ball back outside and goes to the table to start shifting things off it. Lifting up his mother's work files, he slides a watch off without knowing and makes a move to stick the files back into Mary's bag before stepping on the watch and gasping when he hears a break.
Even Mary pauses and turns to see what's happened and Anne gasps and covers her mouth when James removes his foot from the watch.
"That's Daddy's watch!"
Mary quickly puts Rose down, shuts off the stove and hurries to lift the watch into her hands. It's not one that he wears, it used to be Henry's and Francis found it in his father's box of things in the attic a couple of years ago. Lately, he's been wondering when to get it fixed and now...
"Okay, uh..." Mary trails off, running her fingers through her hair. She freezes when the door to the garage opens and her husband steps through, sighing in relief.
"Made it time for lunch," he says, slightly cheerful. "Bash took up a shift at work today. He'll leave this night because he found a hotel to stay at. We were looking at bigger places for him, Kenna and the kids..."
Mary listens to her husband continue to talk as he washes his hands and removes his coat, the children still unsure and terrified about his reaction when he finds out that his father's watch is broken even more.
"Why's everyone so quiet?" Francis asks tiredly, lifting Rose into his arms and kissing her cheek as she hands him her toy. "Thank you, Rosie." He looks at Mary and his brows furrow at the item in her hand. "Is that..."
"I didn't mean to!" James cries out tearfully. "I broke it."
Francis lets out a soft exhale of breath. "You broke it?"
"I told him and Anne to clear the table and, it must have slipped down and..." Mary swallows hard. "I'll get it fi-"
"Do you have any idea...?!" Francis snaps, glaring at his son before putting Rose down and snatching the watch from Mary's hand. He checks it over and sighs heavily. "Go to your room."
"Francis!" Mary cries out.
"James Pierre, room, now."
James hurries upstairs and Anne hurries after him, Rose confused at what's going on but feeling the tension, starts crying. Mary glares at her husband as he attempts to place the broken glass back together and she shakes her head, picking Rose up.
"I know you're upset, but never shout at our son again," she tells him before heading up the stairs and towards James's room.
Anne is outside, begging her brother to open the door and Mary sighs when she realises that he's done the locks. She has been telling Francis to remove them but they've been there for years and they'll only put them back on when he's a teenager.
"Jamie?" Mary tries, sitting down on the ground and leaning her back against the wall by his door. "Baby, open the door for me, please?"
Her heart breaks when she hears James sobbing from the other side and she blinks back tears, bringing Anne into her other side. She rubs Anne's back as the girl buries her head into her mother's side.
"Jamie, Daddy's not angry with you... He loves you so much, he's just... He's upset at the moment because today would have been Pepe's sixtieth birthday. So he's taking it hard. Especially since that watch is probably the last ever thing he has from him," Mary explains. "He's upset that it's broken, not that you broke it because it was already broken before you stepped on it. But why don't we cheer him up and get him a present?"
"No..." James mumbles.
Mary sighs. "Daddy is just sad but he'll be better soon," she assures him. "He loves you all very much, never doubt that. Come out when you're ready, baby."
Anne takes Rose to Rose's bedroom and Mary heads downstairs to see Francis at the table, his head in his hands as he stares at the watch with tears dropping down on it. She takes a seat beside him and listens to his stilted breathing.
"I'm sorry. Is he upset?"
Mary nods. "Rightfully so. Doubt anyone's hungry now," she mumbles.
Francis turns his head to look at her. "I'll make it up to him," he says, getting up from his seat and going to the wine cupboard. "Today feels like it's just dragging on, you know?"
Mary nods a little, leaning back in her seat. "I'll fix the watch."
"Forget about it," Francis mumbles, pouring himself a glass of wine.
"Day-drinking?"
"Mary, not now."
"It's happening a lot more," Mary muses, brow raised. "You don't want to be like Claude."
Francis gives her a bitter chuckle. "I'm not dependent on alcohol. I just need a bit to calm my nerves."
"I remember my mother saying that when she was first diagnosed," Mary replies, crossing her arms. "Wasn't a nice moment. She hurt Jim a lot then too."
Francis's eyes widen. "No... I'm so sorry." He puts the glass down. "I didn't know..."
"Sometimes I feel that being too honest just changes what we think about each other," Mary tells him. "We loved my mother but she was too... Don't drink, Francis. I don't want you to become someone I'd hate."
What if she doesn't know? It's horrible to think about that but it relaxes him. And he gets what Claude was going through. Unable to speak out, unsure of what to do, what path to take. She's always been a wildcard and with not living with family for a good while, it was easy for her to go downhill.
"I'll apologise to Jamie," he finally says. "Bring the kids down for lunch and we'll sit down and eat it."
"Okay," Mary whispers, getting up to make sure the food's still okay for consumption. "Nothing a little reheating can't fix."
Francis smiles wryly. "I'll be right back." He heads upstairs and down to James's bedroom, finding the door locked. He knocks softly and sighs. "Hey, buddy."
He's met with silence.
"I'm so, so sorry for what happened downstairs. I'm just feeling so confused and hurt and sad..." He pauses with a soft sigh. "Remember when Mr Turtle died and you were upset because Anne broke his favourite toy? That's how I felt when you accidentally broke the watch even more. But you know what? It's not even about the watch, it's been broken for years. It's just... my dad, your pepe... He wore that watch every day, even though it was broken because he said something along the lines of it being correct twice a day anyway. It just made me feel closer to him. And I miss him, a lot. I wish I had him around like you and your sisters have me. Because he went to Heaven too soon and it was a shock. But it's been over ten years and things do get easier and sometimes, I might lose my temper because I'd think about all the times he was there for me, even with a broken watch."
He waits for something, anything and eventually, the door clicks open and he pushes himself off it in time for Jamie to open the door.
"I love you so much, Jamie and I'm so sorry. Daddy's been really silly, okay?"
Jamie hugs him and Francis lifts him into his arms, kissing the side of his head. "I forgive you."
"Good because Maman made lunch and she's upset that no one is eating it," Francis says lightly. "Let's get Rosie and Annie, hmm?"
"Yeah."