Bella and Sam sat in uncomfortable silence on the ride back to his house, both throwing concerned glances at the excited bundle in the back seat. Annabelle had been humming and bouncing in her seat since leaving the hospital and neither knew how they were going to explain this to her.
Bella was quite surprised when they pulled into the drive of the the house. It was well kept, but there was something missing, something off about the home. It wasn't until Sam gently guided her inside, Annabelle on his hip that she realized what. Looking around Bella tried not to gasp at the cold design of the home. The furniture inside was functional, but she saw no signs of a family living there. There were no toys scattered around, no photos on the walls, not even a single poorly-drawn piece of art hung on the refrigerator. Every wall was white, and Bella could imagine her mother having a heart attack if she saw it.
Sam had placed the wriggling toddler on her feet and she watched as the little girl ran quickly down a hallway. Bella took a moment to take in Sam's appearance, and he looked a bit nervous.
"So..this is my house" he said, gesturing around. "I'm sorry that she's so excited about the whole big sister thing" he said, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck.
Bella chuckled uncomfortably. "Yeah, I'm not sure what to say to her" she flicked her eyes towards the hallway "I don't want to break her heart."
Sam cringled. "We'll just have to do our best to…" before he could say more a tiny blur appeared before her and began pulling Bella by the hand in the direction she had come from. Bella smiled shyly at Sam before following. Bella gasped as Annabelle pulled her into what could only be her bedroom. It looked like a Barbie dreamhouse had exploded. There was pink coating every surface, and toys covered nearly every inch of the room. She turned to look at Sam, now leaning against the doorframe, with a wide expression. He sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face.
"Bells, I thought I asked you to take care of your toys before we went to the store this morning?" he asked, his dad-voice doing things to Bella that it should definitely not be doing.
"I DID Daddy" the girl whined and pointed to an overflowing toybox in the corner.
"Good lord" Bella thought, "how many toys does one little girl need?"
"Annabelle" Sam huffed, "you know that's not what I meant." He put his hands on his hips and Bella had to stifle a laugh. If he was trying to look intimidating, he was failing, miserably.
Annabelle sighed and nodded. She slowly walked up to Bella and tugged on her hand. Bella leaned closer, knowing what the girl wanted. Annabelle leaned up and whispered softly in her ear. "Baby can sleep in her wif me, kay?" Behind her Bella heard Sam choke.
Bella looked over her shoulder at Sam who looked lost and concerned. Bella looked back at Annabelle's hopeful expression. She lightly took Annabelle's hand before guiding her to her bed. Bella scooped her up, and sat the little girl in her lap, sitting on the edge of the twin mattress.
"Annabelle, we should talk to you about what you heard at the hospital." Bella said, and the little girl nodded slowly.
"You see, the nice lady, she was a little bit confused when she said you'd be a big sister" Bella started. She watched as the girl's smile started to fall and her head tilted in confusion.
Sam walked closer, taking a knee in front of the two. "Belly, you know how we told you that Daddy and..Mommy loved each other so much that we made you in her tummy?" Annabelle nodded slowly. "Well, this baby was made by a different Daddy who loved Bella so much that they made a baby." He watched Bella cringe out of the corner of his eye. "Normally, brothers and sisters have the same Mommy and Daddy. Do you understand?" Bella watched as the little girl tried to understand and she held her breath. Finally the little girl sucked in a deep breath and Bella's heart broke as wide tear-filled eyes turned in her direction. Before Bella could react she had arms full of a sobbing toddler. Her wide eyes flew to Sam's and he looked pained. Bella rubbed Annabelle's back softly in circles. Finally the little girl's cries subsided and she pulled back. Both Sam and Bella were shocked to see a wide smile on her face.
After wiping a running nose on her own sleeve the little girl looked back and forth between the two before squealing. "I'm so happy you're gonna be my new mommy!" she yelled before darting into the living room, leaving both Sam and Bella shocked with mouths hanging open.