Pregnant With Alpha’s Genius Twins

#Chapter 40 – Therapy call

That night, I’m not surprised to hear the phone ring in my closet. It’s another unscheduled call – Victor is used to getting what he wants, when he wants it – but he’s starting to develop a pattern with when he needs his therapist.

Checking to ensure that the boys are asleep, I tuck Archie into my lap on the closet floor and pick up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hello,” Victor’s voice is brusk, unsettled, and – as usual – robotic. “Is this a bad time?”

“No, I can talk. The…usual overages, will apply, of course.”

“Yes.” Victor hurries on, dismissing this. “I’m having trouble,” he says, “balancing…well, balancing my life. My responsibilities to the people who I love, who love me.”

“I see,” I say gently. “Did something…happen? To bring about your unsettled state?”

He pauses. “Yes, it did. It’s amazing that you can intuit that.”

I press my hand to my forehead, warning myself to be careful. “Comes with experience,” I say, pushing forward. “Please continue.”

“We had…an incident tonight, I guess that’s the right word for it. My son tripped my fiancé – I don’t think he meant to hurt her, but she was hurt. Everyone was very upset.”

“I am sorry to hear that,” I murmur.

“Thank you. The issue becomes that I took your advice, although it is perhaps also…instinct, knowing that my son was in the wrong. But I backed Amelia, and we left.”

I note, silently, that Victor has – for the first time – accidentally dropped a hint about his identity. “How do you feel about this?”

“Honestly? I feel horribly guilty. The boys were crying so hard when we left, and they accused me – falsely, of course – of not loving them. I know that they’re just kids, and they’re overreacting, and that they will, of course, not think that I don’t love them forever. But I have to admit – it’s just killing me that they think that. Even for one night.”

“That sounds really hard,” I say, my heart in my throat. “As a mom…I can definitely emote with how difficult it is when your sons challenge you like this.” Little does he know that I know precisely what he means, as his sons are, in fact, my sons.

“Amelia needed me in that moment – I’m glad I stood by her…but how do I balance this? How do

an impossible task, unfortunately. You just have to do the best you can,

hear his frustration. He wants fast, direct solutions. “How

minute. Sometimes being there for then means you

“What?”

I thank Mark for the knowledge and the metaphor. “You let the other, less dangerous flames wait until you deal with the

letting him process the

he says, murmuring it. “Going where I’m needed

made the right choice. Your fiancé really needed you – or so it sounds – and it was good that you went with her. It sounds like your son can wait, and perhaps

the other line and I wait for a few minutes, seeing

I say. “It seems to be something that throws you off more than anything else. That’s typically when I get these unscheduled calls, when you’re feeling

sighing. “It’s rather a…pattern in my life.

you like to tell me

in. “Well, this is therapy, I suppose. I frequently felt this way as a child – torn between my allegiance to

I say, surprised. “You’re so eager to wed and have a family – I assumed, as is usually the case, that you were eager to reproduce something you experienced when you were young. Children from unhappy unions tend, more frequently, to be more hesitant about getting

that what

ten

in the

“I usually find that…the patient is eager to be married in order to fix their childhood trauma. To

silent so, again, I push. “Do you feel that that applies

unfortunately,” he says, begrudgingly. “I felt a lot of pressure, as a child, to hold my parents together –

that a way that you’d like

his voice. “I’d…I’d feel horrible, if I was giving

perhaps,” I say gently, “you need to find some ways to let them know that it’s okay to mess up, and make mistakes. That you being mad at them doesn’t mean you don’t love them, it doesn’t mean the end of the

isn’t that exactly what I’ve failed to do tonight, when I took

when he raises his voice. “I think you need to embrace a little of the chaos. This is you, again, seeking the balance, wanting to be everywhere fixing everything at once. You’re that little boy again, wanting to fix

it’s okay for them to sit with their frustration. That just because you don’t attend to them immediately, it doesn’t mean you don’t love them. They have to learn to trust that, in your hearts, you’re always going to