Another sweet chapter involving the family. Also, in case you needed another reason to not like Javi...


As soon as Bruno and Camilo left Mirabel's room, the exhaustion hit her. The hard labor, delivery, and being up all night finally caught up to her. She was about to lay Rosa in her bassinet when she started to fuss. Mirabel figured it was probably time to feed her again, so she got herself situated and started to feed her. Feeding her still felt weird, but she was happy that Rosa was doing so well with it.

When she finished the feeding, Mirabel changed her diaper and tried to lay her down in the bassinet to go to sleep. Except she didn't want to sleep. She fussed when she was put down. Mirabel picked Rosa back up and she was perfectly content. She had been sleeping almost nonstop since she was born, so she was ready to spend some time awake now.

The thought of leaving the comfort of her room and going downstairs gave her so much anxiety. She had only left a couple of times to go to the bathroom, but she wasn't ready to go and converse with her family. She loved her family dearly, but there was a lot of them and that was why she only wanted a few at a time to come in and meet Rosa.

Mirabel yawned and said, "Dolores, can you come up here please?" She loved being able to get her cousin's attention without yelling.

Less than a minute later, Dolores walked in. "Hey. Do you need something?"

"Yes." She yawned again. "If I don't sleep soon, I will literally collapse. Can you please take Rosa? I tried laying her down, but she wasn't happy with that. I just fed her, so I know she's not hungry. I think she would enjoy everyone's company."

"Of course." Dolores walked up to them and gently took Rosa from Mirabel. "Hello, sweet baby girl. Let's let your mommy get some sleep."

"Thank you so much." Mirabel laid back on her pillow. "If I'm still sleeping when it's time for her to eat again, just come get me." She was blinking heavily and yawned again. She closed her eyes and was asleep within seconds, glasses still on her face.

Dolores smirked, took Mirabel's glasses off, and placed them on the table next to her. She glanced down at Rosa, who was just staring up at her. She gave her a little kiss on the forehead before walking out and closing the door behind her.

Dolores went downstairs and the whole family got so excited to see that she had Rosa. All of the kids started jumping up and down. The adults around them told them to sit and calm down. Usually, the family spent lots of time in town during the day, but when a baby was born, the family stayed at Casita for a couple of days just to help out. The only one who wasn't there was Julieta. She had gone to get Ana.

Dolores sat on the couch. She put Rosa on her legs and had one hand behind her head. Rosa was looking around. Maria and Gabi got on either side of their mom. They started trying to rub Rosa's head and grab her hands. Dolores said, "Be gentle, sweet girls. She is very delicate." She held her for a few more minutes before Rosa started to fuss. "Oh, it's okay, baby girl." She pulled her up against her chest and started to pat her back.

"Can I hold her?" asked Antonio.

"Let me try to calm her down and then you can have her." Dolores was now bouncing her, but it didn't seem to be helping.

"Can I try to calm her down? Please?"

Dolores knew Antonio wasn't going to give this up, so she had Antonio sit down. She handed Rosa to him and to everyone's surprise, she immediately calmed down. Rosa was staring into Antonio's eyes and was so calm. "Wow, look at that." whispered Dolores. "I bet she recognizes your voice. You talked to her the most out of anyone when Mirabel was pregnant."

Antonio was absolutely beaming, smiling from ear to ear. "I'm so happy to finally meet you, Rosa." He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

Soon after, Julieta showed up with Ana as well as the town doctor. He didn't get a lot of business, due to Julieta, but he did examine all the babies in town when they were first born. "Oh, look at that beautiful baby girl." said Ana as she walked over to Rosa. On the walk over, Julieta had told Ana that Mirabel had done amazing and that she had a baby girl. Antonio did not want to give Rosa up, but he did, so that Ana and the doctor could examine her.

"I guess Mirabel is sleeping?" asked Julieta as she looked around.

"Yes." answered Dolores. "She was exhausted."

"I can only imagine."

Once Ana and the doctor left a little while later, Isabela took a deep breath and stood up. "I need to run an errand. I'll be back soon." She figured since Mirabel was asleep and Rosa was content being held by Antonio again, it was as good a time as any for the thing she needed to do. She left Casita and walked across town. She arrived at her destination. She hoped this went well, but she wasn't counting on it.

She knocked on Javi's door and stood back. She had gone back and forth on if she should come here, but decided to go ahead and do it. Javi opened the door a moment later. "Isabela? What are you doing here?"

"I just thought you should know that Mirabel had the baby today."

"Oh," He rubbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat. "Um…did she ask you to come and tell me?"

"No. She doesn't even know I'm here."

"Then why are you here?"

Isabela eyed him. "Because your baby was born today and I thought you might like to know. I know Mirabel told you that you had until the baby was born to make up your mind. Well, the baby is here now and you're a dad to a beautiful little girl. I know Mirabel would love for her to have a dad in her life."

"I did tell Mirabel that, but I've already made my decision. I can't be a dad. You wasted your time coming over here."

He started to close the door, but Isabela put her hand up and stopped the door from closing. "You understand the consequences of this decision, right? You won't get any kind of relationship with your child."

"I don't want a relationship with my child. Now, get out of my way."

Isabela stared at him in shock and moved back. He immediately closed the door. Isabela sighed shakily and turned to walk away. "Oh, she's going to kill me." she whispered.

About 2 hours after Mirabel had fallen asleep, Rosa started to get really fussy, no matter who was holding her, so she was obviously hungry. Isabela took her upstairs and into Mirabel's room. Mirabel was sleeping so peacefully and she hated to wake her up, but obviously, she was the only one who could feed the baby. Rosa was starting to cry, which caused Mirabel to start moving around a bit. Isabela still had to wake her up.

It took a minute for Mirabel to take in her surroundings. She looked around a bit, rubbing her eyes, and yawning. She put her glasses back on and looked up at Isabela. "Let me guess. She's hungry?"

Isabela nodded and handed her off. "Do you mind if I stay? If you're not comfortable with it, I can leave. I just wanted to talk to you about something."

"I don't mind." Mirabel got herself situated and started to feed Rosa. Isabela sat on the edge of the bed. Mirabel looked down at her now content baby and looked back up at Isabela. "What's going on?"

"Okay, so…please don't hate me."

"Why would I hate you?"

"Because…while you were sleeping and while Rosa was with the rest of the family, I went to Javi's house and told him about her."

Mirabel's eyes widened. "You did what? Isa, how could you do that without telling me first?"

"I'm sorry, Mira." she said softly. "I just hoped that if he knew that his baby was born, he'd decide he wanted to be involved. I hope I didn't overstep. If I did, I truly am sorry. I only did it because I care about you and Rosa so much. I know you wanted him to be involved."

"So…what did he say?" Mirabel was hopeful, but prepared to be disappointed.

"And…he still wants nothing to do with the baby. I'm so sorry."

Mirabel took a deep breath as her eyes filled with tears. She wasn't surprised, but it still hurt. "It's funny that you went over there, because I had been thinking about going over myself sometime soon. I would give anything for her father to want to be in her life, but I can't force him. He made his choice and I made mine." She looked back down at her daughter, who was looking up at her. Mirabel grabbed her tiny little hand. "I'm going to raise her to be a wonderful human being, despite her dad being a deadbeat." She looked up at her sister and smiled. "With my amazing family by my side through it all."

Rosa finished a little while later and Isabela offered to take her downstairs again, so that Mirabel could nap some more. It took Mirabel over 20 minutes to fall asleep and she only slept for about 30 minutes. She tried to go back to sleep because she was exhausted, but her body wouldn't let her relax anymore.

She wasn't quite ready to go face her family, but she did decide it was probably a good time to take a shower. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She walked out of her room and peered downstairs. Her family was all sitting around chatting while the kids played. She found Rosa being held by Bruno. She smiled at the sight and headed to the bathroom to take her shower.

When she was done, she headed down the stairs to finally join her family. They were so happy to see her and she was happy to see them. Rosa was sleeping on Felix's chest. Mirabel smiled and thought to herself, "We're going to be okay."