Chapter 165 The Second Child

Chapter 165 The Second Child
Lena called on a Sunday morning.

Not her usual Sunday call, the regular one that happened at irregular times and covered whatever had accumulated during the week. This was earlier. Eight forty-seven AM. Earlier than Lena called on Sundays unless something had shifted.

“Are you awake?” she asked when I picked.

“Yes,” I replied. “Lisa woke us at six-thirty.”

“Is Zael there?”

“He’s with her in the other room,” I said. “Why?”

A pause.

Not long… two seconds. But Lena’s pauses were specific. She didn’t pause unless she was deciding how to say something she had already decided to say.

“Can you talk?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said. “Hold on.”

I went to the bedroom. Closed the door. Sat on the edge of the bed with the Sunday morning sounds of Zael and Lisa in the next room… his voice, her responses, the rhythm of a father and a fourteen-month-old navigating breakfast.

“Alright… tell me what’s it.” 

Another pause.

Shorter.

“I’m pregnant,” she said.

The bedroom held that.

“Lena…”

“Yes,” she said. “I know.” She exhaled once… like someone who had been holding something for a while and had finally put it down. “I found out Thursday. I’ve been sitting with it since Thursday.” A pause. “I needed to understand what I felt before I told anyone.” Another pause. “You’re the first person I’ve told.”

“Not Damien?” I asked.

“Not yet,” she replied. “I’m telling him this morning. But I needed to say it to you first.” A pause. “I don’t know why exactly. It felt important to tell you first.”

Silence on the phone.

Lena.

Who had told me things she couldn’t tell anyone else. 
Who had sat across from me in her kitchen and said: I keep thinking about what Vivienne threatened me with, and had told me about her brother’s results with the voice of someone who had been carrying something for years and had finally found it resolved.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Terrified,” she said immediately. “And certain at once." She paused. “Is that normal?”

“Yes,” I said. “That’s exactly what it is.”

“You felt that?” she said.

“Terrified and certain,” I said. “At the same time. For weeks.”

“Okay,” she replied. “Good.” A breath. “Good.” She was quiet for a moment. “We’ve been married almost a year now,” she said.

“Yes,”

“That’s very fast.”

“It is,” I said.

“Damien is going to…” She stopped. “I don’t know what Damien is going to do. I know what his face is going to look like.” She paused. “He’s going to sit down.”

“Exactly,” I said. “He’s going to sit down.”

“And then he’s going to ask me a very specific question about the timeline,” she said.

“Yes.”

“And then he’s going to prepare something,” she said. “I don’t know what. But he’ll prepare something.”

“He will prepare something,” I said. “Extensively.”

She laughed.

The real kind. Wet and immediate.

“Seraphine,” she said when the laugh settled.

“Hum.”

“Are you happy for me?” she asked. “Properly. Not politely.”

I was quiet for a few seconds.

“Properly,” I said. “Completely.” I held the phone. “Lena… you and Damien are going to be extraordinary at this. Both of you.” I paused. “He’s going to sit down and ask a question and then prepare something and then be the most present father you’ve ever seen because that’s who he is.” I paused. “And you’re going to be the person this child tells things to first. The same way you’re always the person who gets told things first by people who need to be honest before they’re ready to be public.” I held the phone. “That’s an extraordinary quality to grow up beside.”

She was quiet for a moment.

“Thank you.”

“Now go break the news to Damien.”

“I’m going,” she said. “Right now.” A pause. “Call you after?”

“Alright, keep me updated.”

She ended the call.

I sat on the edge of the bed for a moment.

Then I went to the door and opened it.

Zael was at the kitchen table with Lisa on his lap… she was eating something she had been given and was also investigating the table surface with her free hand in the systematic way she investigated most surfaces.

He looked up when I came in.

Read my face.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Lena,” I smiled. “She’s pregnant.”

He held Lisa.

Looked at me.

Then he did the thing he did when something significant arrived… he was still for a moment, absorbing it properly before responding, and then he said: “Damien doesn’t know yet.”

“She’s telling him now.”

“He’s going to sit down,” Zael said.

“I told her that.”

“He’ll prepare something.”

“I told her that too.”

Zael looked at Lisa.

She had stopped investigating the table and was looking at him with the concentrated assessment she brought to faces when she was deciding something.

“Lisa,” he said to her. “You’re going to have a cousin.”

She looked at him.

Blinked.

Returned to the table surface.

“She’s processing.”

“She processes everything at her own pace,” he smiles.

I sat across from them.

“I should call Odette,” I said.

“Yes, please do.”

I picked up my phone.

Dialed.

It rang once.

Half of the time.

“I know,” Odette said.

I stared at the phone.

“Lena called you?” I asked.

“Lena has not called me,” she said. “I simply know.” A pause. “When is she telling Damien?”

“Now,” I replied. “This morning.”

“Good,” she said. “He’ll need the morning to process before the week starts.” She paused. “He’s going to prepare something.”

“We’ve established that.”

“A spreadsheet probably,” she said.

“Odette.”

“Yes.”

“How do you always already know?” I asked.

A pause.

The exact pause of a woman who had been knowing things before other people for ninety-one years and had developed a relationship with that quality that was somewhere between amusement and acceptance.

“I’ve been paying attention for a very long time,” she said. “Eventually you start to see things arriving before they arrive.” Another pause. “Also Lena texted me Thursday.” A beat. “She needed to tell someone before she was ready to say it out loud.”

A silence.

Then I laughed.

“She told you Thursday.”

“She needed someone to hold it with her,” Odette replied simply. “I held it.” A pause. “Now she’s told you. Now she’s telling Damien.” A beat. “It’s moving in the right direction.”

“It is,” I nod.

Zael was looking at me across the table.

I held the phone.

“Odette,” I called again.

“Yes.”

“A spreadsheet,” I said. “Really?”

“Budget projections,” she replied. “First year expenses. Possibly a risk assessment.” She paused. “He’s a thorough man.” She held the line. “It’s a quality.”