Cora I don’t really notice when Ella leaves. I’m too busy crying. I think I scare Roger again when I start, because it’s just a few tears at first, but then suddenly I’m blubbering against his shoulder because it feels like every single emotion I’ve ever had – every single one – is racing throug
“Yes, that’s right,” Roger replies, moving his hand down his face and looking at me, a little smile on his mouth. “So…do we even need to…think about it?” “Do you want to?” I ask, curious. “Not…a lot…” he confesses, grimacing. “I mean,” I say, cocking my head to the side. “Do you forgive me? Fo
Cora “It’s all right,” Roger says, his eyes going wide as he takes in my pale face, my scared expression and realizes that he’s freaked me out for the third or fourth time today. “It’s not – it’s not bad, I was just kind of a dick – it was a misunderstanding –“ “What?” I ask, more confused now t
I nod, understanding, concentrating on nothing else but his words. “But then she said,” he twists his mouth a little, concentrating. “It’s hard to know how to phrase it – because it wasn’t precisely words – but that for the future of the world, I had to focus on family. And not just like…my brothe
Ella “I can’t wait any longer” I say, two hours, one shower, and three sandwiches later. I stand up in the tiny steel kitchen, accidentally scattering the bag of chips I was picking at all over the counter. Honestly, I wasn’t even eating because I was hungry. I was just trying to distract myself.
“How do you know?” she asks, laughing and casually brushing his hair away from his face. “Because,” he says, smug, “the child has incredible genes – the paternal line is especially fierce, not to mention good looking –“ Cora and I both laugh and she swats his head a little, making him sit up and
Ella We all go a little pale, I think, as we consider the possibility that Cora, too, is an accidental – or not so accidental - surrogate. “I’m sure that’s not true,” I say suddenly, shaking my head but a little shaken – I admit – by the idea that the baby was conceived during a storm that basic
Ella We had dinner a little later, and Henry got to give Cora his shocked congratulations on her pregnancy. His eyes were wet, a little, at the thought of his second grandchild, but it was all for joy. It was a wonderful evening that we all spent together – surprising after such a horrible mornin