Marissa stepped out of her room at the sound of giggles. Her kids were busy arguing about something, huddling around the coffee table, too busy playing Scrabble.
"Why are you three still up?" she fixed the lapels of her gown over her chest before lifting her chin to watch the kids.
The board had turned into a mess, letters were scattered, and they were leaning over Alex’s tab that had the dictionary open.
"See! See! I told you!" Alex told Ariel, who had started shaking her head.
"There is something wrong with this dictionary," Ariel started swiping the screen, "This dictionary is wrong."
For a moment, Marissa felt like the old times had returned. Her kids were still sitting in Aunt Sophia’s cramped apartment, arguing about something.
Nothing had changed. Everything felt normal again—Just like it was when they lost Abigail.
Abigail started giggling when she saw Ariel’s face, which had turned red due to the brewing argument.
"Wow. A dictionary is wrong. And you are right?" Taking his tab, Alex tried getting on his feet when he was dragged down by his sisters.
"First you need to declare that I’m the winner!" Ariel shook him, holding his t-shirt. Abigail doubled over when she saw how serious Arial had gotten.
"Never!" Alex said with the same intensity, but only Marissa knew how he was good at teasing Ariel, "Hey, Abi. Stop laughing and give me a hand. You don’t know Ariel."
"Abi! Don’t listen to him. He is taking advantage of George’s absence. If he was here, Alex would never win this argument."
The mention of George faltered the smile on Abigail’s lips, but then she tried to shake the name off her mind.
"Guys. I know you’re adults, but please, Abi needs her sleep," Marissa tried to make them understand.
Abigail looked up, tilting her head, "Just one more round, Mommy. Please? See. Ariel is about to win, and Alex is losing against her."
"Excuse me!" Alex scoffed, "What did you say? Who’s losing?"
Marissa blinked back the sudden tears welling in her eyes. Never in her wildest imagination had she assumed that she would be seeing these three playing and arguing together.
With a smile, she was about to walk away when two arms wrapped around her waist from behind, "What’re you doing here, strawberry?" her husband murmured, pressing a kiss to her temple.
She tried to suppress her smile as Rafael steered her back to their bedroom, "Let them have fun," he told her, and she nodded, resting her head on his chest while walking.
"Our lives are no less than a whirlwind. First, you were lost and then came back into our lives with a bang; then it was your daughter who surprised us with her return."
Rafael chuckled and kissed her head, "Don’t worry. No one else is leaving us."
Marissa made a small prayer in her heart for her family. She couldn’t afford to lose anyone else.
***
George leaned back in his seat, rubbing his temples as he listened to the voice on the other end of the call.
"I understand," he snapped at the caller, "I do understand the urgency but pushing the deadline won’t fix the problem you fool," his voice raised at the end, "Go and renegotiate the terms first..." his fingers drummed against the desk but instead he wanted to lift the paperweight and throw it at someone.
"Then what are you waiting for? Set a meeting on Friday. We’ll discuss it then."
"As a family friend, shouldn’t you be there for us?" She placed her palms on the desk and shook her head, "As MY friend, I was expecting better from you, Georgie."
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Mr. President You Are The Daddy Of My Triplets
I was into the story but then the translator who was translating it for whatever language to English stopped translating half the words are half English and another language it's very hard to follow a book when you can't understand what the written word is translators need to do better...
Great story when I we expect an update...
When can we expect an update?...
Loving this story so far...
I like the story but there is allot of parts that i can't read due to spelling....
I would like to read part 2 of this book I enjoyed reading part 1...