Fulfillment by Golland, M. (best large ebook reader .txt) 📕

overwhelm themany further for the time being, due to both of them having alreadyhad to dissect and cope with more than enough change in such ashort space of time. My baby-bump was not yet visible, and thevomit-express only visited me once a day. So there were no obvioussigns that I was harbouring a teeny-tiny human inside of me,therefore spilling the beans that I was expecting was not yet anecessity.

Keeping ourpregnancy quiet was terribly difficult though, because Bryce hadobviously wanted the whole world to know our exciting news. Heliterally wanted to shout it from the roof top, and in fact, haddone just that the night after he found out I was pregnant. Brycehad stood out on the balcony and shouted to the city skyline ‘I’mgoing to be a fucking dad’. He was over-the-moon happy, making melaugh as he repeated it over and over. But as excited as he was, healso knew that keeping it a secret for the time being was the rightthing to do, which initially, had not been an easy task toaccomplish. We would get comfortable mentioning it to each otherwhen the kids were not around and then when they were in ourcompany, minor slips of the tongue were irrepressibly spoken.

Nate andCharli had been spending Saturday afternoon till Tuesday morningwith Rick, their father, and Tuesday after school till Saturdayafternoon with me and Bryce. I had found this arrangement terriblydifficult at first, because I was not used to being away from mychildren for such a considerable amount of time. But thisparticular agreement wasn’t a strict schedule, and we could changeit up whenever we wanted. This suited me just fine, as the nights Icouldn’t tuck them into bed were absolutely dreadful, and I hatedit.

Being awayfrom my children for consecutive days on a regular basis had beenchallenging, possibly even the most challenging thing I have everhad to endure. But I continued to face life’s challenges, jumpingover the hurdles that were put in place before me and, because ofthat, my hurdling skills were becoming world-class ranked. I alsohad to allow Rick to have his quality time with the kids. As hardas it had been for me—after finding out his sordid secret past—Ihad made the executive decision to bury my feelings of anger towardhim for the sake of our children. The kids were innocent in thisentire life changing situation, and keeping the peace so that theycould adapt a little more easily was what I as their mother had todo—whether I wanted to or not. At the end of the day, Rick adoredhis children and they adored him back.

Nate, however,still refused to meet his half-brother, RJ—Rick’s five-year-oldlove-child. He had been so hurt and upset after finding out hisfather had another son that he chose not to speak to Rick for days,having refused outright to have anything to do with either of them.During the past week though, Nate had relented just a little of hisanger toward his dad, but was still adamant he wanted nothing to dowith RJ. Charli, on the other hand, had met her half-brother verybriefly during a trip to a cafe for a milkshake. She had mentionedto me afterwards that ‘he sort of looks like Daddy’, except RJ wasnot as tall, and ‘he doesn’t have little bits of hair on his facelike Daddy does’. She had also said ‘he’s quiet’ and ‘he likescaramel’. I stopped asking questions after that.

***

The kids nolonger had to go to before and after school care when they werestaying with us. Bryce had arranged for Danny to drive them toschool and pick them up whenever I couldn’t. At first this botheredme a little, because Danny never signed up to chauffer my childrento and from school. But he never complained, and both he and thekids seemed to get along really well, high fives being a regularthing between them all now.

Nate, thetypical nine-year-old boy that he was, had requested they be drivento school in the limousine—my response having been, ‘in yourdreams, bucko’. Yes, having a limousine at our disposal wasconvenient and...well...let’s be honest, really cool. However, Ididn’t want that particular privilege adding any more unwantedattention to my children’s lives. Rumours of my relationship withthe illustrious Mr. Bryce Clark were circulating our smallcommunity thanks to the bitchiness that were the ‘Mummy Mafia’ atschool. And because of this, Nate and Charli had been the target ofsome negative and truly horrid taunting from kids in theplayground. I hated to admit it, but apparently the troll-gene—thatsome parents seem to possess—was passed down a generation to theirchildren.

When Nate hadrequested being chauffer driven, I’d noticed Bryce give him a winkshortly after I had said ‘no’, which made me think that he and myson were in cahoots about the whole thing behind my back. Beingundermined where my children were concerned was definitely a bigno-no in my books. But, as Nate and Bryce had been getting alongreally well, I was willing to let some things slide. It was justsuch a relief seeing my son interact in a positive way with Bryce,as I could have sworn Nate would have hated the idea of another manbeing in my life—being a massive Mummy’s boy and all. Surprisingly,Nate had acted quite the opposite and had really taken a liking tohim. Maybe it was because he could see just how much Bryce lovedme, but at the same time, I was not forgetting about that thingBryce had plenty of—money. I’d really like to think it had nothingto do with the money, but in saying that, kids would be kids and Ihonestly couldn’t rule it out.

Charli-Bear,had adapted to our entire situation a lot slower than Nate. Butagain, she was accepting it really well and had even asked me ifone day she would refer to Bryce as her second Dad. My answer tothat was, ‘one day, if you would like to, but for now just call himBryce.’ Second dads, step children, new babies, long losthalf-brothers—it was all just happening a bit too fast.

***

I had woken upearly this particular morning and had made my way out of bed beforeBryce—which never happened. It must’ve had something to do