Free Sins of the Father by LS Sygnet Page A

two tiny blobs on the
photograph while he enthused about his belief that one of them
looked slightly larger than the other. Pondered if that meant one
was a boy and the other a girl.
    “It’s not unusual for one twin to be bigger
than the other, Johnny, regardless of gender.” Crevan and I were
about the same size, at least in height, as adults.
    “Neither one of us is exactly petite,” he
said. “Do you think they’ll be tall like you, even if they’re
girls?”
    “It would seem to be in the cards, or at
least the gene pool.”
    “We want to know in advance what we’re
having, don’t we? I mean, it’ll make decorating the nursery
easier.”
    “Or we could go with neutral colors,” I
said. “Even if they’re boys, there will be no NASCAR theme in my
house.”
    He laughed again. “I can see you going for a
basketball theme. A Boston Celtics nursery.”
    “It sure as hell wouldn’t be the
Lakers.”
    “Spoken like a true east coast girl.”
    “You can get dressed now, Mrs. Orion. Dr.
Harvey will be in to talk to you in a few minutes, just as soon as
I show her the ultrasound results.”
    “Thanks, Joan.”
    “Don’t forget to stop at the desk and make
your next appointment before you leave.”
    I saluted and smiled. My mind continued to
race. How much more circumstantial evidence would I need to
convince me that Gillette told the truth? Hopefully none would come
crashing down on my head between now and the time Maya had the
mitochondrial DNA results. Given my labile emotional state, I
wasn’t sure how many more surprises I could endure.
    “Helen?”
    I looked up at Johnny.
    “Are you going to get dressed?”
    “Oh. Yeah. Sorry.”
    “Are you upset about this?” He waved the
photograph in front of me.
    Good question. The actual news might’ve been
as exciting to me as it was Johnny if not for the growing suspicion
I carried about Gillette’s vague taunt.
    “I wasn’t expecting this. Am I upset about
it? No. A little blindsided perhaps, but not upset.”
    He offered his hand and pulled me upright on
the exam table.
    “I’m probably excited enough for both of us.
I just feel so…” he thumped one fist over his heart. “This is the
most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. Look at them, sweetheart. Our
love made these little babies.”
    “Your impatience and refusal to pause long
enough to get a condom made them.”
    “I needed you. Not in two minutes. Right
that second.”
    “I remember. I was there too, you know.”
    “You weren’t complaining then, Helen.”
    “And I’m not complaining now. Let’s just not
romanticize this to make it feel like it was planned.”
    His wounded expression stabbed at my heart.
I hardened it. My reminder was the absolute truth. If planning had
entered into this equation, I would’ve never become pregnant. Now I
had as many as thirty weeks of double the agony ahead of me.
    “Is that how you really feel?”
    I rolled my eyes – at least internally. “Of
course not. I’m… hormonal. Doubly hormonal truth be told. There’s
no crime in the fact that this pregnancy was an absolute, unplanned
accident, Johnny. It happens to very careful people. It might’ve
happened even if we had been more careful. There’s no way to
know.” I paused and reached for his hand, gave it a little squeeze.
“Could be that the whole thing is your fault, being such a virile
bastard.”
    He grinned. “I am, aren’t I? Two babies. God
bless us.”
    I didn’t burst his bubble. This had nothing
to do with his virility and everything to do with the fact that my
ovaries dropped two eggs instead of one, a condition that probably
pointed to a genetic trait of my mother and had nothing to do with
Johnny at all. Curiosity about Kathleen Conall clawed at my belly
like the proverbial alien trying to burst out into the real world.
I had to meet her.
    As for Aidan Conall, if I never saw him
again it would be too soon.
    “Please tell me that I don’t have to keep
this news secret,”