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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: EVEN IF WE BREAK
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WHEN THE YOUNGEST SULLIVAN sibling was born, Vera Sullivan was the second person to hold her -- the first, of course, being their mother. Wren had retrieved the children from the waiting room the second the nurses had cleaned Maggie up and passed her into Delilah's eager arms. One-by-one, the three children appeared. First came Vera, who -- at the whopping age of six years and three months -- came sprinting into the room like a kid on a sugar high. The twins were curled up in Wren's arms, not yet old enough to realise they had a new baby sister. But Vera, she knew. All it took was one look at the soft pink blanket, the tuft of dark hair on Maggie's head, and she was in love.
"She's pretty, mummy," she told Delilah with a gap-toothed smile. She'd lost her first tooth the night before, and despite being on her way to the hospital with contractions, Delilah had ordered Wren to first and foremost leave a five dollar note underneath Vera's favourite Cinderella pillow. Hospital bag be damned, she had growled over the phone. Five dollars, Wren! Not that Vera remembered much of this. But she did know one thing. She had a new sister to take care of. A baby that was smaller than some of her dolls! "What's her name?"
"Margaret," Delilah declared, and laughed when Vera wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"But that's granny's name!" she protested, referring to Delilah's own grandmother. "Not baby's."
"Then you can give her a nickname," Delilah said in a placating tone, tucking a strand of short brown hair behind Vera's ear. Two ruby studs glittered on each of her earlobes; earrings that Vera had worn proudly since her mum took her to get them pierced for her fifth birthday. I look just like you, mum, she had gasped and twirled in front of the mirror. Delilah was Vera's whole world and then some. To look like her was her dream come true. "A nickname everyone will know her by."
So Vera was quiet for a while, and the sisters filled the silence by fussing over Margaret and trying to release the twins' death grip on Wren. They seemed afraid of the new baby, like they'd never seen one before (which, in truth, they hadn't; Wren had no children -- not for a lack of trying -- and most of their extended family lived too far away to visit.) Then, just when Delilah was beginning to forget what she'd promised Vera, the little girl gasped and clapped her hands together excitedly.
"I know! I know!" Vera was oblivious to her mother's confused frown. "Baby's name is Maggie."
"Maggie?"
"After Maggie Simpson," Vera giggled. Of course, the latest show to hook Vera's attention was The Simpsons, and for some strange reason, she adored baby Maggie the most. Before Delilah could protest, she had reached out to kiss her sister on the forehead, dreamily sighing, "Hello, my little Maggie."
And it stuck. In the early days, Delilah tried her best to stick to Margaret, but even she found herself slipping sometimes. Then the twins grew old enough to talk and followed Vera's lead, the little shits they were. So Margaret became Maggie, and the rest was quick to become history.
