Chapter 45

The next several weeks, Roger made a point to have him and Sarah visit Rossalyn and Josiah regularly. The updates to Jake happened more and more frequently as Rossalyn let her guard down slowly and allowed deeper looks into their private life that would only be possible for a sibling. The money got better with the better information that he was able to pass on. He'd figured out that they were actively trying to avoid going through with the arranged marriage. On a level, he could understand Ross not wanting to give her child away to a complete stranger or take their choice of spouse away, as hers had been. But on another level, Josiah made a deal with someone and he could understand that the investment needed to be protected.

Roger found himself at the gender reveal party that Rossalyn had planned for their close knit friends and family group. Considering the fact that it was supposed to be the intimate affair Roger was surprised to find such a large crowd. He drove their SUV in the drive and seen that there were what looked like fifty vehicles already parked on the property and they were still a half hour ahead of schedule. He followed the vehicle in front of him to the steps of the house and seen that there were men there parking the vehicles for the owners.

"Valet service. Fancy." He commented in a dry tone with a glance over to his wife.

"Man this isn't anything. You should have seen it when they got married. It was bedlam here. It was just as bad when they had their home coming party too. This is definitely a small affair in comparison." Sarah said noting the number of vehicles, and the actual meaning behind his comment.

"Yeah, I'd have liked to be there for those." Roger said, his tone darkening but sighed when he seen Sarah's cringe. "I'm sorry. I'm not still angry about it. But it isn't like I have another sister and I'd wanted to walk her down the aisle. It has just been us for a long time."

"I know. But you have to understand why that happened." Sarah said warily.

"Yes, I know." Roger said and cut off the sentence there. Normally he'd have folowed through with the rest of the sentence 'I'm the monster as always.' but he didn't want to start a fight right before they were to go in.

Sarah let it drop and a moment later there were two men opening their doors for them. They got out and opened the back doors to get the twins out. Roger paused on the steps to see the SUV drive off toward the area where the vehicles were being parked while the party goers were inside. After a moment of wrestling a wriggling toddler, he put his son down and allowed him to walk, though held tightly to his little hand. Sarah had obviously had the same issue and he looked to see his daughter holding Sarah's hand and her brother's.

"You ever think about having another one?" Roger asked curiously.

"What and risk having another set of twins? Heck no. We have all we need with these two. I love them dearly, but if we have another child, or Lord forbid twins we'd be out numbered and risk anarchy." Sarah said and laughed.

Roger laughed and agreed, though privately felt a pang at the thought of these being his only children. He loved them dearly, but he wouldn't be upset about another baby or two. He'd give her some time and ask again. Thoughts of additions to their family went away when they made it through the house and into the garden where the crowd was gathered around Rossalyn and Josiah. She was adorable with her belly finally rounded out from the baby and glowing. He seen Abigail firmly by her side, ready to get her anything she could need at a moment's notice. Josiah, on the other hand had been pulled off to stand a few paces away in conversation with an older man and woman. He watched him as they approached and noticed every few seconds he'd glance over at Rossalyn, as if gaging her comfort level. He knew that look well, considering he was like that with Sarah while she was pregnant. He was somewhat shocked to see that beyond the arrangement they'd made, Josiah seemed to actually deeply care for his sister. It wasn't an unpleasant realization.

The twins broke free from their hold and ran to their aunt squealing with excitement, interrupting Rossalyn's conversation. Rossalyn bent down to hug them both and looked around in search for her brother and sister in law. She smiled brightly as she found them coming through a part in the crowd and once the twins had relinquished hold of her, she stood up and hugged them both.

"Looks like a great turn out." Sarah commented grinning innocently at her sister in law, who Sarah had known didn't want a huge party for the gender reveal they'd planned but had been mostly locked out of all the arrangements.

"Yeah, wonderful turn out." Rossalyn said, though her tone was just a little too tight as she gave a quick nod to where Josiah was talking with the older couple. "They planned it. Most of the people here don't even know me from Eve."

"Well, when they say it takes a village, I don't think they meant a literal one." Roger said and put a consoling arm around her shoulders.

"Like it or not we have one." Rossalyn said then lowered her voice so only they'd here, "Not is the side I take. I hate such a big fuss." She sighed then led Sarah and Roger over to introduce them to George and Cylvia.

"I see the kids have already found their way over to the toys." Roger commented, looking over his shoulder in search of his offspring.

"Oh yes, it never takes long. They love coming over to Aunt Ross's house. She has the bestest toys." Sarah said raising her voice an octive to mock her children in playful sarcasm.

"Just wait until the baby comes. They'll never want to leave." Rossalyn said laughing then touched Josiah's arm as she approached. "I want to introduce my brother and sister in law. George, Cylvia this is Roger and Sarah."

Roger was especially interested in George, since he had to be the man behind all the money that he'd been receiving. But for the moment, George acted as if he'd never heard of Roger so he went with it and shook hands and made polite small talk. Who else would have the money and the vested interest to know what Josiah and Rossalyn were thinking and doing about their baby after all?

The party went on as planned and Sarah kept pestering Rossalyn about the gender of the baby she carried. She knew that Rossalyn knew what the baby was, since she and Josiah had insisted on not being kept in the dark as normally happens when a gender reveal party was going to happen. They'd wanted the nursery decorated in preparation for their baby well before time for it to arrive. But since the nursery wasn't gender neutral, they'd banned anyone other than the contractors and designers from entering the room before the gender reveal was to happen. Rossalyn had told them the cleaning staff wasn't even allowed in just in case they accidently leaked the information out.

After a couple hours, they were pulled away to a platform that had been built for them to do their gender reveal on. There was a wall behind the platform that had a dozen balloons filled and a bucket of darts on a table that stood between where they positioned themselves. Though they knew the gender and the position of the balloon that held the color of the paint representing boy or girl, no one else did. They'd prepared the board themselves before having it installed for the party. They'd considered having people take turns throwing the darts, but they wanted the important balloon hit last, so to avoid it being revealed too early they decided they'd take turns then throw a dart for the last balloon together.

They made quite a show of throwing the darts. Each balloon that was popped spilled black or white paint, wanting to avoid any other gender specific colors. The crowd gathered around them jeered when they missed a balloon or groaned when the balloon didn't provide the answer to the big question. Once all the balloons were popped except the last one holding the answer the crowd wanted, they both grabbed a dart, laughing by that point at the crowd who had started chanting as they made them wait for them to reveal the paint in the balloon.

They each took aim to the thunderous chants of 'pop it! pop it!' from the crowd and took three teasing test aims before throwing their darts at the balloon at the same time. For a moment the crowd was quiet as they watched bright pink paint spray the board in contrast to the black paint that was all around it. Then the crowd clapped and cheered for the baby girl that Rossalyn was carrying. Josiah helped Rossalyn down from the platform only for them to immediately be swallowed by the crowd.