His Wife, Her Sister, Their Secret novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Photograph
Poppy's boy is born, Joss holds him and asks Marianne to take the picture, and then he tells a room full of people the child is his.
At ten past four in the morning, my sister threw a plastic cup of water at the midwife and missed.
"Sorry," my sister panted. "I was aiming for the wall."
"That was the wall," the midwife said. "I'm standing in front of it."
My sister laughed, and the laugh turned into a groan, and the groan turned into her crushing my fingers.
I felt my wedding ring grind against the bone.
Fourteen hours.
I had the birth plan by heart.
I had her yellow socks with the ducks on, because she said they made her feel less like a patient.
I had her playlist on my phone, her lip balm in my pocket, and a cereal bar I kept forgetting to eat.
I had my husband's last text too.
Stuck at the garage, then the club. Back by morning, I promise. Tell her to breathe.
I had not told her to breathe since midnight, because she had threatened to bite me.
"Who's the dad, Poppy?" I'd asked her in January, the day she turned up on my doorstep seven months gone.
"Nobody," she'd said. "He's gone. Don't ask me again."
So I hadn't.
I had given her the spare room instead, and my Saturdays, and the shifts I took on at the chemist so we could cover the scan fees and the cot.
I hadn't minded.
At 4:52 she gave one last scream, and the midwife said, "Here he is," and there he was, red and furious and perfectly formed.
"A boy," the midwife said. "Seven pounds two."
Poppy cried. I cried.
I wiped her face with the sleeve of my cardigan.
"Is Joss here?" she said.
It wasn't me she asked for, and it stung, and I told myself she was exhausted.
"He's on his way," I said.
He arrived eighteen minutes later.
The door opened and the whole corridor came in with him: Joss in his club vest with rain on the shoulders, and behind him Dennis, the president of the Black Gannets, with his wife and three of the lads from the garage.
Pauline from next door came last, still in her slippers, holding a carrier bag of flapjacks.
Dennis had a blanket over his arm.
It was blue.
"Lucky guess, Marianne," he said, and winked. "You can't go wrong with blue."
I loved Dennis.
He had held my hand at our son's funeral and washed every cup afterwards.
Joss didn't look at any of them.
He crossed the room, and the midwife put the baby in his arms.
He held him with one hand cupped under the little head and the other flat along his back.
It was exactly how he had held Ewan.
I had watched him do it six years ago in a different hospital, for nineteen days, and I had not seen him hold anything like that since.
My chest went tight and I did not look away.
"Mari," Joss said. "Take the photograph."
He held out his phone.
I took it.
I stood at the foot of the bed and framed them: my husband with a newborn on his arm, and my sister behind them, propped up on the pillows, not looking at the camera.
Poppy was looking at Joss.
I pressed the button.
Dennis stepped up with both hands out. "Come here, little man, let Uncle Den have a go."
Poppy turned her shoulder to him.
Joss swung the baby to his far arm without a word, and Dennis laughed and dropped his hands.
"Possessive already," Dennis said. "Good lad."
Then Joss looked round at us all.
"Everybody's here," he said. "I'd rather say it once."
Pauline stopped unwrapping a flapjack.
I thought he was going to make us godparents.
I remember that clearly. I remember smiling.
"This is my son," Joss said.
Nobody moved.
"Poppy's boy is mine," he said. "I should have said it months ago. I'm saying it now, in front of the people who matter."
Pauline's flapjack hit the floor.
One of the lads said, "Anchor, mate," very quietly, and Dennis put a hand on his arm.
I turned my head and looked at my sister.
She had gone white to the lips.
She looked at the baby, and at Joss, and at the wall.
She did not look at me.
I held my left hand out in front of me and turned the ring until it came off over the knuckle.
Then I put it on the bedside table next to her lip balm.
So I stepped out.
Behind me I heard Joss say my name once, and I heard Poppy say nothing at all.
She didn't tell him he was wrong.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend