“You have three. They have none. You should let them raise one.”
Rachel felt sick.
“My children are not something you divide up.”
Megan stepped toward one of the bassinets.
“Just think about it. You won’t even be able to give all three enough attention.”
Rachel forced herself upright despite the pain from the surgery.
“Step away from my baby.”
Megan did.
Richard didn’t.
Her father slowly walked toward the same bassinet.
Rachel still couldn’t believe what was happening.
“Dad, don’t touch my son.”
Richard stopped beside the bassinet, but he didn’t move away.
Rachel knew that look.
It was the expression her father wore whenever someone challenged his authority.
“You’re being dramatic,” he said. “We’re your family.”
“That’s exactly why you should understand what no means.”
Jason lost his patience.
“Do you know how much we’ve spent on fertility treatments? Do you know how many nights Megan has cried because she can’t be a mother?”
Rachel looked at him.
“I’m sorry. I really am. But my children are not the answer to your pain.”
Megan started crying.
Susan immediately went to comfort her.
No one comforted Rachel.
That was when everything became clear.
The previous night, Rachel had been alone, heavily pregnant with triplets, and in labor.
None of them had been willing to get out of bed.
Now all four of them had arrived together because they wanted something from her.
“How long have you been talking about this?” Rachel asked.
Silence.
“How long?”
Susan lowered her eyes.
Megan answered.
“Since we found out there were three.”
A chill moved through Rachel.
Suddenly, everything made sense.
Jason’s questions about whether she and David could afford three children.
Megan’s strange comments.
Susan asking who would be godparent to each baby.
They weren’t making this up today.
For months, they had been imagining one of Rachel’s babies ending up with them.
“Get out,” Rachel said.
Richard laughed under his breath.
“You can’t make an emotional decision right after surgery.”
“I already made the decision.”
“You’ll thank us someday.”
“Get out of my room.”
Susan tried to intervene.
“Rachel, listen to your brother. They just want a family.”
“I just had mine.”
Then Richard did something that permanently changed all of them.
He reached into the bassinet and lifted one of the newborns.
Rachel stopped breathing.
“Put him back!”
Richard held the baby against his chest.
Megan stepped forward with her arms out.
“Let me hold him.”
“No!”
Rachel tried to get out of bed.
Pain ripped across her incision, but she ignored it.
Jason stepped in front of her.
“Calm down. Megan just wants to hold her nephew.”
“Then she should have asked.”
Richard began moving toward Rachel with the baby.
For a second, she thought he was going to give him back.
Instead, he turned toward Megan.
“Dad.”
Rachel’s voice changed.
