Chain Reaction 2.94: Letting It Happen

Alex

      It was a hard fight, but I won. Selena needs my money; I need time with my daughter. The judge looked at Selena like she was nuts for saying I had to pay that enormous child support payment yet not have any parental rights. This is my daughter. I have a right to spend time with her.

     I think it was Euripides who said, 'To a father, nothing is dearer than a daughter.' I love little Diamond. Too many kids today don't have father figures. Why would Selena wish to deny Diamond the chance?

      The judge also thought that Selena's reasoning stating the way Drake is as proof that I'm a bad father was ridiculous. After all, Drake is a CEO now. At least on the outside, he's doing great. My lawyer shut her down easily.

     I bob and rock as I hum while Diamond drinks her bottle. Until further notice, Selena and I have Diamond on alternating weeks. I don't know what that's going to do to the baby emotionally as she gets older, but it's the best compromise I can find. Like I'd said, I don't want to take the baby from Selena. I just want equal rights to her.

     I love watching Emily with her, even though sometimes I catch a half-second look of pain. We've been trying to get Emily pregnant, but it's not working. Diamond is a reminder that the 'fault' probably lies with Emily. I don't like thinking of it that way. It's not like we've been trying for years, but after that first month with no pregnancy, Emily started dipping into a mild depression. Then, Claire was murdered, and Ethan needed our help. My wife got to mother her nieces and nephew for a while, so that helped some. Now that the twins are aged to kids, Ethan doesn't need us so much anymore. Then, I finally won partial custody of Diamond. But still, Emily wants a child of her own.

     I come downstairs from working out to find Emily Goth standing in our kitchen. I still marvel at the fact that she's my wife.

     "Hello, beautiful," I say happily. I get even happier when she giggles.

     "Hi, yourself." Then, she looks thoughtful as she walks around me.

     "Do you need anything?" Please talk to me about how you're feeling. It kills me to see you so down and trying your best to hide it.

     "I really like this penthouse," she says.

     "It's nice." But 'nice' isn't what my mind recalls. I remember how depressed I was when I moved here. Laura had recently divorced me, and I'd grown to hate Brielle. Drake was doing everything he could to make it worse. The only bright spot was when Emily would come over.

     "But it's not exactly kid-friendly, is it?"

     "I suppose not. I wasn't thinking along those lines when I bought it." I guess it's only natural that I would fall in love with Emily. She was the bright spot in my personal darkness. Then, one morning after she aged to adult, we stood in this very kitchen when I realized my son was dating a knockout. It started to irk me that he didn't appreciate that fact.

      Not kid-friendly...

      "You're right, though," I tell her. "It's not very kid-friendly, is it?" And there's just one extra bedroom, not counting Masami's little one. I guess: "Would you like to move?"

      She relaxes and smiles. I'd not realized she was that tense about this conversation. "I was... I was just thinking that, um, Diamond isn't going to be in her bassinet forever, and she'll want her own room, but I don't like the idea of her being on another floor than us, and...um... Well, if we ever have a child, I don't know what the rooming situation would be. I suppose we could build upward on the penthouse, but then again we'd be on different floors than the kids." Again, she tries to hide a look of pain, but I still catch it.

     Of course, I'd do anything for Emily. After looking at many different houses, we finally decide on one. There are still aspects of this house we don't like, but they can be changed over time. The house, currently, has seven bedrooms: two on the first floor, four on the second, and one on the third. Emily and I picked one on the second floor that faces the back. We plan on tearing down a wall between it and the one that faces the front to make a bigger master suite along with attaching and expanding the nearby bathroom. The other side of the floor features a kind of Jack and Jill setup with a girl's room and a boy's room with a bathroom and playroom in between. That's what sold Emily on the house. 

     We have all those bedrooms, but we quickly discover that it's easiest to keep Diamond in the greatroom. 

     We plan on putting up a kind of clear half-wall around the sunken living room and kitchen so that Diamond doesn't fall into them when she starts toddling around. But that won't be for a while.

     Ethan lost his job. After sitting and talking with Emily and me, he decides to open his own private detective firm. I fully support him on this decision. I think it'll be great for him to be able to 'go rogue' all he wants. I fund his startup costs and teach him some of the basics of hacking.

     Months later, and Emily still isn't pregnant. She's taken to disappearing to different parts of the house at random times. While I'm at work, the care for Diamond goes to Masami a lot more of the time.

     When I come home today, I can't find her in her usual places.

     For once, I'm thankful that this house's doors have windows in them. We plan on fixing that eventually, but it helps me today to find my wife.

     I'm actually surprised to find her in this room. It's the room decorated for a boy with the shared bathroom and playroom with the girl's room. She doesn't typically go into these rooms lately.

     "Emily?" She didn't get dressed after taking a shower. I notice her hair is still a little wet, and I can smell her shampoo. She doesn't move, asleep.

     I see streaks on her cheeks from recent tears, and it breaks my heart. Emily, my love, you WILL get pregnant. It doesn't happen immediately for everyone. Just relax and let it happen. Looking at her, my heart swells. Oh, my body responds in other ways, but my heart cries out for her pain. Taking off my shirt, I walk over to the bed to work on this 'letting it happen.'

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Their new house is Basegame 7 Modern by leahlaz. Typical me to pick something and then find it everywhere. But, like Alex told us, I plan on making some changes. I'm just not big on going into build/buy and doing stuff, so the changes happen slowly over time.