*DISCALIMER*
I don't own any of The Shadowhunter Chronicles nor any of the characters within the series, all rights go to Cassandra Clare.
Chapter 8.
Jordan Kyle is at my front door, my abusive ex who tried to kill Sophie while I was carrying her, is right in front of me, inches away from my daughter. How did he know where to find me? I severed all ties with him and even started going by Eric's last name after Maddey was born, even though we aren't yet married. I need to get in touch with someone, somehow, hopefully Eric will be home any minute but Jordan is a lot stronger than him and could easily hurt him. Maybe there's a way I could get Maddey to phone Magnus and Alec, she know how to use my phone, would I be able to quietly tell her to use mama's phone to call her Uncle Magnus and ask him to come over straight away?
"Jordan... what are you doing here?" I quietly ask, still astonished that he's appeared. I haven't heard from him in almost 4 years, why has he turned up now, all of a sudden?
"So is this the child you had for Lightwood?" he asks in a sour tone,his gaze moving to Maddey, he's still clearly extremely bitter over my decision to be a surrogate for Magnus and Alec. If he thinks Maddey is Sophie he might try to hurt her, thank God Sophie is safe in her own home with Magnus and Alec.
"N-no, this is my daughter, my fiance and I's child." I say in a weak voice
"Fiance? Second engagement, third baby daddy hm? I shouldn't be surprised, you always were a slut, renting your body out to Lightwood like that," Jordan says in a venomous ago that would've really hurt me, but I know what he's saying is a load of crap, yes I'm engaged for the second time and yes Eric is the third man I've had a child with, but with Will I was a stupid teenager who thought myself in love with his father, until he dumped me, and I've never had a relationship like that with Alec, Sophie was conceived using mundane fertility treatment, which had recently been passed into law for Shadowhunters to use too, it was still fairly new to Shadowhunters when Sophie was conceived, she was one of the first Shadowhunters to be conceived using fertility treatment.
"What do you want Jordan?" I ask in a firm tone, refusing to show my fear anymore
"Well I had got to thinking recently, how do I know that child you gave to Lightwood wasn't mine?" He calmly asks. What?! He thinks Sophie is his? There's no way, not only does she look just like Alec, a few days before I went for the IUI to try and get pregnant, I had to take a pregnancy test to be sure I wasn't already pregnant, and obviously I wasn't. I can't help but laugh at Jordan's remark and sa
"Jordan there is no way that child is yours, she looks just like Alec and a few days before I got pregnant with her I had to take a test to make sure I wasn't pregnant already and I wasn't."
"I don't believe you for one second, It's exactly the kind of thing you would do, know how much I want a child, become pregnant and then make up a lie about surrogacy and give our child away, like you did your first one, in fact I'm surprised you kept this one." He harshly says, indicating Maddey, who is extremely confused about all this. The accusations he is coming up with are bizarre, I don't know where he's getting it from.
"That's fine, you can not believe me all you want but it won't change facts, the baby I had four years ago was Alec's, not yours." I say in a sharp tone.
"Again, I don't believe a word out of your mouth, I want a paternity test, no not want, I demand one, tell Lightwood this and be here with him and the child this time next week." Jordan says in a severe tone, before turning on his heel and stalking off into the night. What the hell just happened
"Mama?" Maddey quietly asks, looking up at me with brown eyes full of confusion. My poor baby must have been terrified during that encounter, god I wish I had put her to bed earlier, now. I go down to her level and embrace her, holding her tightly.
"Oh baby I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry you had to see that." I say in a tight voice.
"Mama who that man?" She curiously asks.
"Just someone I use to be friends with, he's not very nice so I stopped being his friend a few years before I had you, but he still wants to be my friend, even though he's a very mean person." I calmly explain to her.
"He stupid!" Maddey exclaims, pulling back from our hug and looking at me with a very serious face
"I know baby girl, I know, come on, let's go call Uncle Magnus and see if he can stay with us until daddy gets home." I softly say, brushing her hair back.
While I explain everything to Magnus over the phone, Maddey runs around me in circles, laughing herself silly at her antics, she's easily amused, and full of energy, she won't be going to sleep anytime soon. Magnus is more than happy to come over and stay with us until Eric gets home and will put up wards around the house to keep Jordan out.
Ten minutes later I almost have a heart attack when I hear a knock on the door, thinking it's Jordan again, but instantly relax when the door opens and Magnus walks in. The minute Maddey spots him, her face lights up with joy and she leaps from the couch, rushing toward him.
"Uncle Magnus!" Maddey shrieks, running to him with arms out stretched. Magnus smiles broadly at her and swings her up into his arms and kisses her cheek.
"Hello biscuit." He softly says, as Maddey tightly wraps her arms around him.
"Uncle Magnus miss you!" Maddey exclaims, clinging to him tightly.
"I missed you too sweetheart, why don't you up to your room for a bit so your mama and I can talk, then I'll come up and play with you, alright?" He softly asks. Maddey nods enthusiastically and bolts upstairs the minute Magnus sets her down
"Are you alright darling? Is the baby alright?" Magnus asks, taking a seat beside me on the sofa and hugging me tightly. I feel much better now that he's here, I wouldn't have been so afraid if I hadn't been pregnant and therefore able to defend Maddey, but I don't carry weapons when I'm pregnant and Eric doesn't own any, he just uses the ones at The Institute when he trains.
"Yes, we're both fine, I'm just a bit shook up." I weakly say, placing a hand on my chest where my heart is still racing.
"Well of course you are, your abusive ex just turned up out of nowhere. Does he really think Sophie is his?" Magnus asks in a disbelieving tone. I nod solemnly and say
"He really does, he wants a paternity test, not that he'd need one if he ever saw Sophie, she's Alec twin."
"That she is, how does he plan on getting the paternity test?" Magnus asks. I shrug my shoulders and sa
"He probably has his ways, he might be going through The Shadow Market." Magnus nods thoughtfully and says
"Yes he very well good be, I'll go there tomorrow night and ask around for any information about it, in the meantime maybe you should think of staying somewhere else for a while, so Jordan can't find you again." I thought about that myself, we could go to Idris, Jace would happily let us stay in Herondale Manor, but I would miss my family so much and so would Maddey and Eric too. We could perhaps stay with my parents, they'll always welcome me with open arms, and Maddey simply adores her nana and grandpa, especially dad, since Eric's dad left before he was born, so she only has one grandfather.
"I've thought about that too, but I need to talk to Eric about it." I say, wishing this were all just a bad dream.
"I understand Ali, if you do decide to stay somewhere else for a while, please know you're always welcome to stay with us." Magnus says in an affectionate tone. That's so kind of him to offer, I can't imagine how chaotic it would be with four adults-one of them being 5 months pregnant- and 4 kids, though Maddey would be delighted to spend time with Sophie, Will and Addie.
"Thank you Magnus, you're so good to me, you always have been, I don't know what I would do without you." I quietly say.
"You don't have to thank me, I care about you, and Maddey and Eric and your baby, I'll do anything to keep you safe, all of you." He firmly says, clasping my hand and gently squeezing it.
"Thank you Magus, I love you." I tell him. He hugs me tightly and says
"I love you too Ali and I will always protect you.
*MAIA'S P.O.V.*
It's only a few weeks till Christmas, and though Shadowhunters don't really celebrate Christmas, I convinced John that we should decorate the house, the twins would love it and it would be our first Christmas as a family, and the twins' first ever Christmas. They just turned 16 months old and now they're walking, they're getting into everything and anything, we've had to move all John's weapons to the spare room and keep it permanently locked, and whenever Magnus, Alec and Lily (and sometimes Cristina Rosales and Mark Blackthorn) come over for a Downworlder-Shadowhunter Alliance meeting, John has to either take the twins out of the house altogether or stay upstairs in our room with them. He doesn't mind though, he's such a wonderful father and so supportive of me, and he loves our babies more than anything in the world, they both have him wrapped around their little fingers, often times I'll wake up in the morning to find one or both twins asleep on top of John or curled in beside him, they don't cry anymore when we don't let them into our bed, but John just can't resist their cuteness and they know it and use it to their advantage, they're clever little things.
A few minutes ago I had left them in the living room on their own for two minutes, while John was right next door in the kitchen with the door open, and I darted upstairs to grab my phone, I was tempted to hide upstairs for a while and have some time to myself, but it's a good thing I decided not to, as Christopher is now pulling ornaments from The Christmas Tree in the corner of the living room. To be honest, I'm surprised it's not Piper, but she's probably up to more mischief elsewhere.
"Christopher." I say in a warning tone, almost cracking when my beautiful baby boy turns around and smiles broadly at me. It is so hard to stay mad at him, or Piper, they're just too cute. "Come here Christopher, you know you're not suppose to touch the tree." I firmly say, holding my arms out to him. He happily drops the bauble he's holding and runs to me. Well that was easy, almost too easy. "John." I call through to the kitchen "Is Piper with you
"No, why?" John asks, walking to doorway and leaning against the door frame
"I think she's up to some serious mischief, this little one was playing with the tree, but he stopped when I told him to, it was too easy." I explain, furrowing my brow in confusion as to where Piper could be. Without a word John stride over to the corner where the tree is and steps behind it, stepping out again a few seconds later, this time with a sleeping Piper in his arms. /
"Seems she wore herself out." John lightly says, as Piper begins to waken. I shake my head in disbelief, Piper is such a little trouble maker, God knows what she'll be like when she's older.
"How did you know she'd be there?" I ask, as John returns to my side and takes Christopher into his arms too. I just love seeing him hold both our babies, hes's a natural with them.
"Father's instinct, plus I saw her foot poking out." He says in an amused tone, kissing Piper's cheek as she cuddles further into him. "Can you take Chris for a minute, I can't keep my grip on them both!" John exclaims, as Chris squirms and wriggles in his arms trying to get down. As John passes him to me, Christopher decides it would be a great idea to grab a fistful of my hair and refuse to let go.
"Ah ow ow ow! Christopher Jonathon Graymark, you little rascal." I say in a playful tone, desperately trying to untangle my son's hand from my hair. Christopher giggles and snuggles into me, softly saying
"Mama."
Instantly my heart melts, I would let him pull my hair all day everyday if it made him happy. He and Piper are everything to me, I didn't think I'd ever say this but being a mother is the best thing I've ever done.
*TESSA'S P.O.V.*/
It's now the middle of February, and since I'm into the second trimester of my pregnancy I've been feeling lots of movement from the baby, no kicks yet but he's been turning and flipping and rolling and god knows what else, Esther wasn't this active, neither were Jamie and Lucie, so it's hard to get use to. I can't wait until the baby starts to kick and Esther and Jem can feel him kicking. Jem is a lot more layed back this time around about becoming a father, he's not as anxious as he was when we were expecting Esther, even though we weren't exactly expecting to have a such a small age gap between Esther and her brother, we thought it would take a long time to conceive again, we thought we'd even possibly have to undergo IVF, but little Henry is our miracle and we conceived very soon after we began try.
Jem and I decided to ask Alec to be Henry's Godfather and Emma to be his Godmother. Magnus is Esther's Godfather and Catarina is her Godmother, we asked Catarina a few months after Esther was born and she was delighted to be asked and instantly agreed./
"Mama! Mama look what I made for my brover!" Esther exclaims, running to me the moment she steps in the front door. Emma had taken her to LA to visit everyone for a few hours, and I missed my baby so much, even though she was only gone a few hours and I was hardly alone, I won't be anytime soon over the next 5 months, not that I mind of course.
When Esther runs up to me I see she has a tiny blue hand-knitted cardigan, which I know for a fact she did not make.
"Esther I know you didn't make this by yourself, who made it?" I gently ask, not wanting to upset her, she clearly was hoping I'd believe she had the skill to make this cardigan, and I don't doubt she will one day, but not even a half-shadowhunter, half-warlock child like Esther could do it at 2 years old.
Esther flushes and quietly says
"Diana, but but I helped her finish it mama!" Oh that is so sweet of Diana, to make this lovely little cardigan for Henry. She's been so good to Esther ever since she was born, she's agreed to train her when she's a bit older, which Jem and I really appreciate, and she's also happily come here to babysit Esther for us at times when we couldn't find someone to look after her. Jem and I will have to go to LA to personally thank her for this lovely gift. I'll call her this evening to thank her and let her know how grateful I am for this lovely gift, too.
"You did a great job baby girl, did you have fun in LA today?" I softly ask, pulling her onto my lap and taking her coat off her.
"Uh hu! Me and Ty-Ty go exploring on the beach, he really good at finding things, like starfish! And then Dru watched movies with me and Jules drawed with me and, and, and, Emma teach me all about her sword! Will I get to have it some day mama? I Carstairs too!" She hurriedly tells me. Well after such a busy day hopefully she'll sleep tonight.
"Well you certainly had a busy day, and yes I'm sure you will inherit Cortana one day, are you tired?" I ask, pulling her close to me and kissing her cheek, relishing in her being so small and cuddly, before I know it she'll be a teenager and never want to cuddle with me. Esther yawns and nods, burying her face in the crook of my neck.
"Love mama." Esther says in a breathy, sleepy tone.
"I love you too my sweet girl." I quietly say, kissing the top of her head and holding her close to me. This is something I will always relish, snuggling with my beautiful baby girl with Jem just next door and our son growing inside me, I dreamed of this moment for so long, but never thought it would come true, I couldn't be more grateful for my family.
Later that day, about an hour after Jem put Esther down for a nap, I hear a knock on the door and am surprised to see Magnus when I open the door. He didn't mention visiting anytime soon, not that I'm not happy to see him, of course.
"Magnus, what are you doing here?" I ask in a tone of confusion. Magnus grins broadly and says
"Why to take you to your baby shower my dear!"