"I assume you knew." Peter said, that evening when he came in the back door from seeing Ella and Mum at the hospital. I nodded.
"I'm sorry. I was there, at the hospital this morning when the doctor told Mum. She was just as shocked as you're probably feeling now." I said from the stool at counter as he sat on the counter on the other side of the kitchen. The kids were all in bed and Michelle was at the bistro. "How was Ella?" Peter looked at me, with a look as if to say, do you really need to ask?
"She was fine when I got there. She's had some crackers and cheese and we played a game for a little while before she went to sleep. She was sick though, about half an hour after she went to sleep. It's horrendous, seeing her like that." He said.
"I know. Mum said she was sick all night last night and she slept the entire time I was there this morning. I was so sad not to see her properly, but I had a meeting this afternoon about the bakery." I told him.
"Sorry, I haven't even asked how the opening for the third one is going? Or how the kids are?" he said.
"Don't worry. Bakery number three is going well, we should be set for three weeks' time, all being well. And the kids, they're alright. Isla is quiet, but she has been for days now, and Tally just misses Ella and Mum, she understands she's ill, but I don't think she can see past the fact that she misses her sister and her Mum." I told him.
"And how's your Amie bug?" he said smiling.
"She's good. She spent the afternoon with Josh. He took her swimming so she's exhausted." I told him. He smiled again.
"He must be a keeper, there's no way I'm going near that pool at the leisure centre." He said as we both laughed.
"What's Mum gonna do now?" I asked.
"Well, hopefully Ella will be out of hospital by the weekend and then she's gonna talk to Nick and the three of us are gonna do a DNA test, properly this time." He told me.
"And are you ok with that?" I asked him.
"She will always be mine, in a weird funny little way, just a little part of you will always be mine and a little part of Si will always be your Mum's. But if this helps her get better, then this is what we have to do." He said.
"I'm glad you can see that. Peter a few years ago would have freaked out, shouted and gone on a massive bender so I'm glad you are understanding about it." He smiled and scoffed a laugh.
"Well, this Peter is all about doing what's best for his kids, which is why, he's telling his oldest stepdaughter to go to bed." He got off the counter and walked towards me as he spoke. "Go on, go to bed, you need to sleep." He said. I smiled, shutting my laptop and then going upstairs.
That Friday, Ella came home from hospital. She was weak and tired but excited to be back at home and we were so glad for her to be there. Rosie and Raffy were spending the weekend with Steve and Tracy as Michelle was working all weekend, so the house although still loud, was quieter than usual.
Peter, Mum and I got all of the girls into bed that evening after having fish and chips for tea. Ella managed some chips but nothing else and I think she was just glad to home too. We watched a film on the sofa after Amelie went to bed and Ella and Tally both ended up falling asleep too. Mum and I lifted them upstairs to bed while Peter convinced Isla to go to bed too as it was late.
"She alright?" Mum asked Peter as he sat back down on the sofa after getting Isla into bed. We were both sat on the sofa watching some trashy TV.
"Yeah, you know what she's like. Quiet as a mouse until bedtime and then all of the questions come out." He said, pulling Mum into him.
"Don't, I'll fall asleep, and Nick is coming round in half an hour." Mum said to him.
"Come here love, I'll wake you up when he gets here." He said. Mum let her head fall onto Peter and closed her eyes. Not only was Ella exhausted but Mum was as well. She had spent most of the last ten nights asleep in the same hospital bed with Ella in between her tossing and turning from pain and sickness. Peter and I had both offered to swap with her and spend a night or two with Ella, but Ella was a Mummy's girl, always had been and she wanted Mum with her and neither of us could change that.
When Nick arrived half an hour later, Mum was asleep and while I answered the door, Peter woke Mum up so when I came back into the living room with Nick following behind, she was stood beside the sofa with Peter just behind her.
"Would you two mind giving us some time?" she asked Peter and I. We nodded and before grabbing my laptop from the table, I followed Peter upstairs. I went up and checked on the girls who were all fast asleep before going into my room and switching my laptop on to read some emails.
"I'm gonna go through to the underlay if I pace like this anymore." Peter said as he stood in the doorway of my room fifteen minutes later. "Fancy some company?" he asked. I nodded, shutting my laptop as I did.
"Of course, come have a seat, Pedro." I said, tapping the bed beside me.
"I wish I'd been there, you know? For all three of them when they were little." He said.
"I know you do. But we can't change that now." I told him.
"Tell me about them? What were they like as babies?" He asked.
"Isla was smiley, hence the nickname. And she was happy, until she wasn't and then she really wasn't, and you knew about it. She was a dreamy sleeper until she was one and then something changed, and we had to creep around the flat like mice. She loved vegetables and I don't remember when things changed because she definitely doesn't now. I remember her learning to walk. It was my October Half Term and I helped Mum out cos she was busy in the factory, nothing changes there. And she learnt to walk, and I had never felt pride like I did that day." Peter smiled.
"And Ella?" he asked.
"Ella was a joy, a breath of fresh air compared to Isla, who by the time Ella was born was nearly two and a little bit of a nightmare. She was born while Mum was in Devon, and they lived there until just after she turned one. I remember going down in the holidays and Ella just loved being at the beach, loved the fresh air and the freedom. She learnt to walk in the summer, a few weeks before her first birthday and we spent hours running in and out of the sea on the beach. She still loves being outside, never says no to a trip around the Red Rec or out on her bike. She loved cheese, still does. She even went through a phase of having to have it with every meal, even breakfast. Mum said it was anything for an easy life and that at least it was cheese and not sweets." I told him as he smiled, tears forming in his eyes. "And then there was Tally Valentine, the saving grace as I always think of her. I know you were there for some of her but there were parts that you missed. Parts that you and Mum both missed. I remember even thinking then that I should have written things down every day, what they did, what they said, new things they'd learnt but there wasn't time, not when I was juggling all three of them and the factory. But Tally Belle was the little piece of the puzzle, the part of my day that I really loved. She didn't cry about missing Mum or ask me questions about when you were coming home. She was funny and happy until she was hungry and then it was World War Three. She's still not happy now if she's hungry. But I loved her and for a little while she felt like mine, my little person to shape and mould."
"Even now that bond that you had then shines through. She still adores you and your Mum, and I can't hold a candle to you in Tala's eyes." Peter said as Mum appeared in the doorway of my bedroom with tears in her eyes and her face red. "How did it go?" Peter asked as she walked towards my bed and sat down at the end, still wiping the tears from her face.
"Better than I thought but Nick being Nick, he's angry, not with anyone but the company who did the paternity test the first time. And he wants to know, as soon as possible. He wants to do the DNA test first thing Monday." She told us. Peter reached out and held onto her hand.
"This is not gonna change anything love. She will still always be your little girl." Peter said to her.
"But she won't be yours." Mum sobbed.
"Hey love, come here." Peter said as he pulled Mum towards her and they sat beside each other, Peter with his arm around Mum as she sobbed into his shoulder. "The girl, or should I say woman sat beside me isn't my daughter, but that doesn't mean that we don't have a good relationship, does it? That doesn't mean that I don't love and adore her. I see her as a part of my family, and I hope that she feels the same." He said nudging me. I smiled at him and then to Mum.
"He's right Mum. It hasn't always been easy, has it? But luckily, Ella will never be the guard dog between his parents unlike I was." I joked as the two of them laughed.
"Sorry about that one by the way." Peter said. "Love, it was the same with you and Si, wasn't it? Except now, with Ella, she already knows me as her Dad and so we won't have the rocky beginning." He said to her.
"And Nick, he can't break what you two have, and when she's older she'll know you were there." Mum told him.