T O X I C | ORIGINAL

35

"Aw, he's so cute," I cradled my adorable new-born nephew, Nolan while his mother sitting right across to me. "Oh my goodness, Claire, he really is the most handsome baby boy I've ever seen,"

Claire laughed lightly—she was so beautiful, "I think so too, but I thought it was just because I'm his mother,"

"Are you kidding? He really is so handsome," I looked up to Bryan, Claire's boyfriend and also the father of Nolan. Lucky for Claire, he decided to come back and stay around for Claire and Nolan. "Here," Bryan took Nolan from my arms.

"Jesus, Chanti," Claire breathed, "You're still wearing that fucking ring?" I looked down to the ring. I nodded, earning a heavy sigh from Claire.

"It's nothing really, I just—" I glanced over to her and one corner of my mouth moved upward a little, "It's beautiful,"

"Have you heard anything from that asshole?" Claire asked.

"I don't know and to be honest, I don't wanna know anymore," I shrugged, "I can do this without him, Claire. I've figured out things that I need to do to raise my kids,"

"Good for you, honey, but I'm still here if you need anything, okay?"

I'd moved out from my old apartment that I used to share with Elliot. When my dad passed away, he left me and Claire half of his money and property while the rest of it belongs to my mom. I still kept the money for something important and now I finally used that money to rent a house.

I thought I'd be better for me to raise my girls in a pretty decent house rather than some crappy small apartment. Ryan, Claire and Bryan helped a lot with my moving; we even painted the girls' room by ourselves and put away some of their stuffs, like their cribs, a rocking chair placed on the corner of the room and a twinning table for me to change their diapers. Ryan was the one who excited the most; he even helped me with the names.

I really liked Amara—the name that Elliot picked out long before I even found out that I was pregnant. Claire loved it as well, because I was still going to use Her middle name if I ended up using Amara. Ryan didn't mind Amara but he also loved Yasmine so that she could have a cute nickname like Yazzy or Yaz and I instantly fell in love to that beautiful name.

The doctor said I'd possibly be giving birth sometime around this month, which was exciting and frightening at the same time; knowing that I'd be alone in that room without my partner, but I'd had grown stronger and more independent each days and I almost felt like. . . I didn't need Elliot anymore.

However, I told Ryan to tell Elliot that he was actually going to be a father of two baby girls. I thought and felt that Elliot still had right to know at least the babies' gender, even I knew, he'd probably don't and won't give a shit about it anyway. Ryan never really actually told me much about Elliot and I supposed it was all his command for Ryan to not to do so. The last thing Ryan told me that Elliot had almost completely free from alcohol and he'd done so well with his therapy

It was a good thing for him and to be quite honest, I was proud and happy for him.

"Alright guys, I have to go, okay?" I stood up carefully from the couch because I was so damn huge now.

"Oh, so early?" Claire was breastfeeding Nolan while rocking him a little.

"Yeah, I still have some stuff to—" then I felt something wet dripping off my legs, "Oh my God," I almost squealed, "I think my water just broke,"

***

"Okay honey you can do this, that's it take a deep breath and push!" The nurse held my hand as I practically squeezed her hands really hard and while doing all the pushing. I was sweating and in extreme pain. I wish Kelsey was here, but the asshole on the door wouldn't let her in. "Keep it going baby girl, you're doing so great,"