She had only been awake for an hour when a very familiar sound could be heard coming down the hall. A sound that she and Colin had grown accustomed to hearing daily. This sound was the pitter patter of little feet making their way from the nursery to the master bedroom.
As her door slowly opened, Valentina, quickly shut her eyes pretending that she was still asleep. One of their boy’s favorite morning rituals was to attempt to wake her or Colin up in the morning.
“Hi baby,” she heard her oldest son whisper.
When nothing else was said she was tempted to open her eyes and check that he hadn’t tried to reach in and hold the baby. But no sooner had she had that thought did she feel a tugging on the comforter. A tugging that was then quickly followed by two little bodies crawling up to sit alongside of her.
“No, my turn.” she heard her youngest son whisper. And despite not having her eyes opened she knew he was sitting there glaring at his brother with his arms crossed.
“No, mine.”
“Nuh uh, it’s mine.” and it went on and on until Valentina had decided that she’d had enough and rolled over saying, “you’re both wrong, it’s my turn,” and then began tickling them both.
After a few minutes of vigorous tickling and excited laughter she let them go. But not before she placed a kiss on each of their foreheads.
“Now, who wants to help mama build the best pillow fort this town has ever seen?” Valentina asked once they’d settled down. Which immediately got them excited once again. Her not so much. But she could deal with the anxiety much later. All that mattered was that her boys had a fun filled day.
*Sometime later*
Valentina, feeling quite proud of the masterpiece that they’d managed to construct quickly uploaded a photo to her instagram account. It was also at this time that she left a message for her girls, Meimei and Abe to see. They all deserved to know - most especially her girls - what she had learned since her meeting with Steven. And just as she expected it hadn’t taken one of her girl’s long to message her back and even less time to say that she was coming over. Though she was certain the visit was more about spending time in one spectacular pillow fort then talking about why her father was absent for all her life.
Hearing a knock on the door, Valentina, turned to her boys and said, “I’m trusting you both to stay here while I go let your sister and Ivan inside. If I see either of your little heads we’re breaking down the pillow fort and you both will go to your room. Okay?”
The idea of having to destroy their precious pillow fort made both little boys nod their heads and put their hands in their laps. And boy did it take all of her willpower not to laugh at how adorable they looked. When a second knock came she quickly crawled out of the fort and ran to the door.
“Hi, sweetheart,” she said as she opened the door. “And hello to you too peanut”
Grinning, Dellie gave her mom gave her mom a quick hug as Ivan made a beeline for the living room and his uncles. It was hilarious to think he had uncles so close to his own age, but Dellie reasoned that not a lot about their family was exactly normal.
Like that fact that her husband had come back from the dead just a few months ago. If Dellie was honest with herself, she’d admit that mess was a big part of why spending the day in a pillow fort with her mom and their kids and a bunch of junk food appealed to her so much. She might not like to talk about her feelings much, but that didn’t mean she didn’t just need her mom sometimes, whether she was willing to admit it or not.
“I suppose not even a hug from Nana can outdo joining your fellow musketeers in a pillow fort,” Valentina said with a laugh as she realized that her grandson had left them immediately upon entering the house. “The boys have promised to behave until I rejoin them but we should probably grab the first round of munchies and join them.”
“Nope, guess not!” Dellie couldn’t help laughing, too, as she nodded. It was hard telling what kind of trouble those three would get into together if left alone for too long. “Good idea,” she agreed as they started toward the kitchen. “What are we starting with?”
“I thought we might begin with a bowl of animal crackers and teddy grahams,” she replied as they made their way into the kitchen where bowls filled with snacks covered every surface. “Once we’ve made our way through that you and I will move on to the turnovers and snickerdoodles I baked a few days ago. And the boys can snack on the assorted mix of goldfish that I put together for them.”
“But before we get to any of that I need to talk to you about your father.”
The face Dellie made was accompanied by a loud groan. “Seriously, do we have to?” she grumbled. “I came for junk food and Mom time. I didn’t know a chat about the sperm donor was a part of the package.” She didn’t know what there was to talk about anyway. The guy obviously didn’t want anything to do with her or Cosima and that was fine. They’d been just fine without him.
Valentina sighed. She should have known that it wasn’t going to be easy getting her daughter’s to agree to talking about their father. And it was her own fault really. She had never once not encouraged them to think terribly about him. “I know this isn’t what you came over for, sweetheart, but I promise this’ll only take a minute.”
“Fine,” Dellie agreed reluctantly, but it was probably really clear that she wasn’t happy about it. This definitely wasn’t what she was here for. Her life was complicated enough right now without having to deal with her jerk of a “father.”
“Thank you,” Valentina said. And then because she did promise that this would be quick she began the cliff notes version of what she’d learned.
“Your father never received the letter I wrote him nor the ultrasound photo that accompanied it. By the time I sent it he had already been convinced by his family to leave and join the military. To give us a chance at the life we deserved. Something I was never told. Instead his family paid my mother to feed me the lie that I believed. Steven believed that I was waiting for him to return and for awhile he wrote me letters. Letters that I never received. And then he stopped because your grandmother sent him a letter saying that I’d moved on. It’s become clear to me now that your father has no idea that he is a father. And it’s my guess that he believes that someone else has that honor.”
“Maybe if he hadn’t just totally ditched you, you could have told him,” Dellie argued. Sure, maybe she couldn’t hate him quite as much for being a shitty father if he hadn’t known, but he’d let himself be convinced to just leave. Maybe if he’d actually stopped to talk things through with her mom, things would have been different. Or maybe she wanted to still be annoyed with him, because it was easier than admitting that there was a part of her who had really wanted to know her father growing up. Maybe Dellie also just didn’t let go of grudges or anger easily.
“Dellie, sweetheart, even if I had been able to tell him in person it wouldn’t have changed anything. The Novak family considered me to be beneath them and your grandmother always hated them. They would have found a way to keep us apart,” Valentina said in response. “I’m not asking you to forgive him or become his best friend. He - like I - know that we both could have fought harder. All I ask is that you try your best to be a little bit nicer to him. Can you do that for me?”
“Maybe,” was all the concession Dellie would make and that was actually pretty decent for her, considering forgiving was definitely not in her catalog of character traits. “I mean I suppose I can promise not to punch him when I see him.” If he ever bothers, she thought silently. She wasn’t getting her hopes up that he’d even want to be a dad to her or Cosima. Just because he hadn’t known shit then didn’t mean he was going to suddenly be a great dad now or even want to be.
While she would have preferred a different response Valentina knew that with Dellie she wasn’t going to get anything better so she nodded and then smiled. “I think we’ve discussed this enough for now. Why don’t we grab these snacks and go see what mischief the musketeers have gotten up to in our absence”