“I can’t believe they talked us into this,” Victor murmurs, anxiously massaging his temple with two fingers and glancing at me in the rearview mirror. I’m sitting in the back seat with one twin in my lap, the other pressed tight against my side. Rafe, seated next to Victor in the driver’s seat, likewise looks back at me dubiously.

“It will be fine,” I murmur, ignoring both of them to kiss Ian’s head and stroke his hair. “They’ve had a hard day – it makes sense that they want to be close to us.”

“Yeah, dad!” Alvin says, smiling towards the front seat. “Plus, Ian already got to see the jail, and I want to see it too –“

“Only fair,” Ian murmurs, still staring out the window. “There, Alvin! Did you see that white sign? That means we’re close!”

Alvin, excited, starts to chitter to his brother, which gives me time to sort my thoughts. Perhaps predictably, I’m torn – half of my mind is now on my pregnancy, now suddenly real when for weeks it had just been…half real? A little fantasy all my own that I very much hoped was true?

And the other half is, of course, on my father.

Victor offered to do it all himself – to deliver the news, to take him home, to arrange it all. But…I just didn’t feel right about it. Since the decision was mine, I should be the one to deliver the blow. Still…I sigh, wondering if the stress is worth it. Especially now that I know that I’m pregnant.

My time for thinking it over is done, though, when Victor swings the car up to an intimidating gate, rolling down his window to gain entrance. I take a deep breath and Ian senses my dour mood, turning to me. “Don’t worry, mama,” he whispers, “it’s not as scary as you think it will be.”

“Thank you, baby,” I murmur in reply. “I’m glad I have you to lean on if I get scared.”

“And me,” Alvin whispers, looking up at me with bright eyes. I nod to him seriously, letting him know that I appreciate him as well.

guarding it. Victor comes to me, though, taking my hand and walking close. I smile as he does this – he’s always been attentive but…I am

this is…normal?” he asks quietly as we walk towards the door to

but considering that you’re asking about our family, I don’t think the

To tell their grandfather he’s going to be living on house arrest and their uncle that he’s going to be locked up for the rest of his life. Is that…okay? Is

hair, “it’s…Sunday, so they don’t

have this conversation with my mate, not wanting him distracted by his duties when he enters the jail. He stops as well, looking seriously down into

normal, happy childhoods, I think that that ship has sailed. Do I think it’s weird that they begged to go to a jail as a

laughs a little, shaking his

stay home watching Paw Patrol? No, I don’t.” I shake my head, really meaning it. “I think we have to walk a fine line, Victor, of keeping them safe and happy while showing them the realities of the world to which we’re raising them. I think it will be better for them to be raised within it, rather than sheltered from it, so that they really

them. “They’ve only got twelve years until

“Their birthday

I’m right. “God, I really need to invest

up at him. He moves

it?” Rafe calls to us, clearly a little frustrated. “God, what’s going on with you two

a little glare, but I tug Victor’s hand. We both move forward, ready to get

seriously, looking between them.

him and, simultaneous, give a

world now, after all. It is perhaps not what I wanted

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