Chapter 3.

HAZEL.

"Is it Elijah's baby?" There wasn't a single thought or question that didn't pass through that hadn't passed through my mind. I was just twenty-two, already with a failed marriage and now a fatherless child.

"Are you certain the doctor tested well?" Evelyn asked. I held the phone against my ears. I had just had another panic attack.

"Twice!" I nodded. "I don't think it's Elijah's, Evelyn. It's been three weeks and he has always been infertile. There was this one time his mother carried out some tests just before our engagement and it revealed he can't have kids," I paused.

"And besides that, we haven't even had sex for months now."

"Oh my God!" Evelyn exclaimed. "You know what this means, right?" I squeezed my eyes shut and my stomach tightened.

"I'm three weeks pregnant for a fucking stranger. A man I met in a strip club" I screamed, running my fingers through my hair. I heard Evelyn's sigh through the phone.

"What are you going to do?" She asked.

"I don't know" I cupped my chin, a million emotions coursing through my veins. My head was heavy and my palms were cold and drained of color. "I'm scared, Eve" I whispered.

There was a crack in my voice and tears welled in my eyes.

"I'm really scared," It was then that I heard footsteps behind me. "Hazel," My aunt called, walking up to the counter. I placed the phone down and turned to her.

Aunt Agnes was the only relative of my mother's that I knew. That I had. My mother had died a few days after she gave birth to me in a car accident. So regrettably, I never got to know her. Except through her sister, Agnes.

All she did was talk about how much I looked like her. All the similarities we shared down to the tiny mole on my left cheek. For the first week I got here, all she did was show me photos of her too. I had never felt closer to my mother in my whole life.

I sat on the bed and Agnes sat right next to me. She reached for my hands and squeezed them tightly.

"I'm sorry," I said, looking over my shoulder at her. "What?" She shook her head. "You have nothing to apologize for, Hazel. We all make mistakes although I'm not even showing this is a mistake" She added.

"But sometimes things do happen that we don't plan for. It doesn't mean it's a mistake" I rested on her shoulders. "I'm pretty sure this one is," I whispered.

"What do you mean?" Agnes asked.

"It isn't Elijah's baby" I reluctantly broke the news. Agnes already knew everything that had happened at the wedding but she didn't know about the night that followed.

"Well whoever it might be, I'm sure there is a destiny for this child. A very special one. You know your mother was in a situation like this, one of the many reasons I tell you you're just like her"

Agnes continued. I looked up at her.

"But she had dad?" There was a crack in my voice. Agnes held up my chin and for a moment, her eyes watered. "There are many things that happened back then that you don't know Hazel. Many controversial things like your mother giving birth to you out of wedlock. We were very traditional growing up so abortion was never an option" Agnes reached again for my hands.

"And I'm very glad that it wasn't" She looked into my eyes. "You're that baby, Hazel. Your mother made it known just how much she loved you before she did. Even if it was for just a few days, she told me that you changed her life. That she felt fulfilled with you."

"Until her dying breath, I need you to know that your mother loved you and she would've never forgiven herself if she had let you go. Her last wish to me was to take care of you in a way that she would" Agnes pressed her lips together. She combed through my hair very softly and I rested on her shoulders again.

"Whatever decision you make, I want you to know that I love you and I would support you." She whispered. It felt in that moment like I was talking to my mother.

"What would she tell me to do right now?" I asked and Agnes heaved a deep breath. "Keep it," She replied. "You have no idea how much joy that child could bring into your life. I would be another you and I would want another you. A thousand times even" We both chucked for a minute.

"I wish Mum were here." I muttered. Agnes embraced me and that night, I fell asleep in her arms.

I took her advice and after thirty-nine weeks, I was back in the hospital dripping profusely in sweat and Agnes was on my left, holding my hands firmly.

"You can do this!" She yelled as I wheeled into the emergency room. I clenched her hands and screamed out of my lips.

"Push" The doctor urged. "I can't!" There was a crack in my voice. I could feel a vein pop in my forehead. "You can Hazel," My aunt whispered. She pressed her head against mine.

"One more minute of pain, for a lifetime of happiness" She added and I nodded, holding a deep breath before letting out an ear-splitting scream. I blacked out for a minute, my head falling back lightly. I heard the shrill cries of a baby. And then another.

Two babies.

"There's another one, Hazel" I could hear the excitement in Agnes' voice as I leaned into me. I sat up, my vision clearing up. I heard a snap and before I knew it, the doctor was right next to me with the baby wrapped in a blanket in his hands.

Agnes held the other.

"Here," They handed it to me, one in each arm. Tears flooded down my face as all the emotions went through my entire body. "They're beautiful," I whispered the minute I laid eyes on them. Agnes held up the phone from where Evelyn watched.

"They are," She sobbed. I looked at Agnes while the doctor excused us for that moment. I realized that she was right. My Aunt Agnes. Because the moment I saw them I knew I was going to love these little things with all my heart.

I was going to protect them and give them the whole world if I could.

"It's okay," I whispered, rocking them softly from side to side. Their crying stilled. "Shuu it's okay. You're okay. You're with me." I said.

"You're with Mummy."

"And right now, Mummy might be weak and clueless but you will be strength and my heart and my reason to fight. You will be my reason to live. I will never lack as long as I have you. I have enough" I said, feeling Agnes' arms embrace us.

"What will you call them?" She asked. Although I hadn't given it much thought until that moment, I looked at them and immediately I knew.

And although Isa hadn't given it much thought until that very moment, I let my eyes fall to my little ones and I just knew.

"David—and Elizabeth." I smiled, glancing back at her aunt.

"Elizabeth?" Agnes echoed and I nodded. "Like my mother, I will love her," I replied, resting on her shoulder. In that moment, the future might've been the bleakest but I wasn't worried for sure. I had my twins and I was going to be okay.