Shit, it still felt surreal every time I thought about the triplets. Julianna struggled with her infertility and I knew how badly it affected her that we couldn’t have another child. That despondent look on her face. The dejected slump of her shoulders. The sobs she tried to hide from me while she was in the bathroom.
My wife felt like she was robbing me of the big family I had wanted. That something was wrong with her.
Julianna told me so, one night – when she thought I was sleeping.
That was when I decided that we’d stop trying; to end the IVF treatments. Because I didn’t care that we couldn’t have any more kids. Sure, I wanted a big family but not at the cost of my wife’s mental health. Julianna and our son were enough for me. We were happy and that was all that mattered.
But then it happened.
One dream turned into three little miracles.
It was absolutely batshit crazy and I was here for all of it.
Eventually, I left Cameron to sleep and went back to my own bedroom. Where my wife was peacefully sleeping. Naked under the bedsheets. She didn’t even twitch when I got in bed.
Julianna was on her side, facing me, with her blonde hair on her face. I tucked the stubborn strands behind her ear and her nose twitched with a breathy snore.
I settled back into my pillows, not at all sleepy. So, I did something else, like stalk my wife online. I grabbed my phone and searched up Julianna Spencer on google. There were multiples new articles that had gone up in the last two days. My chest tightened because I knew what to expect when if I opened any of those articles but I had to know. I had to see what they were saying about her.
I scrolled through my phone, reading the comments on a newest article I found about Julianna.
My blood boiled as my stomach churned. The comments had only gotten uglier and more hateful since the last time Julianna and I were photographed together. That was two days ago.
The media had been vile to Julianna for years now, since Bishop’s truth came out to the world. She was the daughter of a criminal and when I announced that I was running for President, the personal attacks began.
They tried to degrade her as a woman.
They vilified her, and painted her as the daughter of the country’s enemy and not as Julianna Spencer, my wife. Though she had tons of support online, the public’s hate for her was unrestrained and exceeded the support that she got.
Her innocence had been proven many times, but they didn’t care. We thought we’d be able to clean her image and goddamn it, we fucking tried – but nothing worked. The people had made up their minds about my Julianna and it killed me.
The hate surrounding Julianna had somewhat affected my presidential run but my opponent was a piece of shit and I was the next best candidate for the country and our citizens knew that. So, I still had a chance at winning – especially after back-to-back successful campaigns.
My gaze flickered to a sleeping Julianna for a moment and then I went back to the comments.
Actually, I always thought Gracelynn was a better match for Killian Spencer.
My fists clenched as I read the next comment. I’m not falling for her innocent act and sob story. There’s just something about her that doesn’t sit right with me. Like, it’s just a feeling and my feelings are never wrong.
Fuck this.
I always found it weird that she survived the accident. Do you think she planned it, so she could get with her sister’s fiancé?
There was a reply to that comment. OMG, I thought the same too! I always wondered if she liked Killian while he was engaged to Gracelynn. We all saw photos of the crash. It should have been impossible for her to survive that accident, yet she did and now poor Gracelynn is dead. What if? She’s hella shady so I won’t be surprised. Time for conspiracy theories. Who wants to join me?
With a curse, I turned my phone off and dropped it on the nightstand. Beside me, Julianna rolled over and pressed closer into my body, as if seeking for my warmth. I wrapped my arms around her, my throat swelling with emotions.
She buried her face into my neck and a pained groan spilled from her throat. My body tensed and I thought she was in physical pain, but then I heard it. The unmistakable sound of Gracelynn’s name on her lips.
“Grace,” she whimpered again. “No, please. No.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Just when Julianna was finally letting go of Gracelynn’s ghost, finally moving on without any remaining guilt at the fact that she survived the accident when her sister didn’t – the media had to ruin it all.
I wasn’t stupid; I knew she read those articles and comments online even when she’d lie and say she didn’t. I knew because her nightmares were back again, after years of them being silent.
My wife whimpered in her sleep and my heart broke at the pained sound. A lonely tear slid down her cheek as I brushed my fingers over her forehead, trying to smooth out the tension lines.
“It’s okay,” I whispered as her body did a full twitch. She cried out softly. “I got you, Princess.”
She eventually settled back to sleep and I kept her body anchored against mine. Cupping her pregnant belly, I smoothed a hand over the heavy mound, tracing the uneven streaks and lines over the stretched skin. I expected one of the babies to kick in response, but it appeared they were all napping. Good, Julianna needed some sleep.
“Daddy?” A little voice called out from outside the door. Cameron must have woken up from his sleep. “Mommy?”
“Yeah, Buddy. I’ll be there in a second.” I untangled myself from Julianna’s side and got off the bed. When I opened the door, Cameron was there with his little giraffe plushie under his arm and his thumb in his mouth.
I instantly knew something was wrong. He only put his thumb in his mouth when he was scared or worried. “What’s wrong, Cameron?”
“I had a bad dream and then woke up.” He sniffled, his little face scrunching up as if he was about to cry. “I can’t s-sleep.”
I hoisted my shaking son up in my arms and he pushed his head into the crook of my neck, sniffling some more. “It’s okay, daddy got you. Everything is alright,” I crooned in his ears.
I walked back and forth in the hallway, still holding him in my arms while he calmed down. When he was half-asleep, we went back to his room only to find that he had wet the bed. Well, shit. There was no option, other than putting him in my bed, next to his mother. I watched at he cuddled up next to Julianna and my heart swelled.
My wife and babies were here and all together, safe and comfortable in my bed.
I might have done a lot of things in my life that I was proud of, but this right here – this perfect scene was my real pride. My family.
I did forgo sleep for cleaning up Cameron’s bed so Julianna didn’t have to do it in the morning. It was when I took out the clean bedsheets from his drawers that something else caught my eye.
A wrinkled paper under all that stuff.
Why was Julianna’s medical document in Cameron’s drawers?
I scanned the paper, feeling my heart drop in the pit of my stomach as I read along the words that didn’t really make sense to me, but I somehow knew what they meant. What the risks were.