Family

"His name was Wren Kingston"

Ali's pov

"Mom?" Lily asks, sitting on the sofa beside me

"Yes Lil?"

"Last night, when Uncle Toby said we weren't wanted...what did he mean?" She asks with sunken eyes

"Grace come here" I scream

Grace runs out her playroom and jumps on the sofa at the other side of me

"Girls, don't ever think that you aren't wanted. You are everything me and Mom have ever wanted. Since I was a little girl I had always dreamt of being a mother, and I couldn't hope for anyone better than you to be my daughters"

"Who's our dad?" Grace asks

"We will tell you when you are old enough to understand"

"Mom please? Who is our dad?"

"Your father's name is Wr..."

"Alison?" Emily asks as she comes back from walking Snow

"Em"

"Can I talk to you...in private?"

My heart begins to race and I feel as if I am a naughty child who has been sent to the principals office

"Yes?"

"What are you doing? Were you seriously going to tell them his name?"

"I wasn't going to tell them anything else but I didn't see why I couldn't tell them his name"

"Because Alison, there is the internet. What if they googled his name?"

"Then nothing would come up because no one knows what Alex did to us and no one knows that Wren is dead" I shout in a whisper

"Emily, they have us but if they want to know about their dad we can't hide it from them forever. Maybe if they know his name they will drop it"

"They are only eight"

"Almost nine" I correct her

Emily's pov

Maybe Alison has a point. Maybe we should tell them his name, what harm can it do?

"Okay" I sigh

"They will thank us" Alison smiles with concern

"Grace, Lily. Are you sure you want to know about your dad?"

"Yes. Why does everyone else have a dad and we don't?"

"His name was Wren Kingston"

"Was?" Grace questions

"Look girls. We love you with all our heart and we hope that we will be enough for you" Alison smiles, grabbing onto my hand

"You are" Lily smiles

"Wren Kingston. Why have I heard that name before?" Grace asks

"Well you pay attention don't you?" I awkwardly giggle, unsure how to answer all her questions

"He was engaged to Aunt Spencer's sister"

"And dated her twin" Alison whispers, louder than she intended to

"What? Aunt Spencer is a twin? Like us?"

"Ummm...yes"

"What's her name? Can we meet her? Why isn't she here?"

'Fuck' Alison mouths to me

And just like Alison my eyes bulge out of my head. My heart rate increases as I try to think of an explanation.

"Because she's a bad person"

"Why? What did she do?"

"Girls, you just have to understand that there are somethings in the world that you are too young to understand. I promise that we will explain everything when you are older... it's...it's just..." Alison begins to stutter

"Complicated" I explain

"Is Wren Kingston, Emerson's dad as well?"

"No. God no"

Lily and Grace's eyes shift between each other and Alison and I. They look confused by my reaction. I squeeze my eyes shut hoping that I will wake up from this bad dream, hoping that we aren't fucking up our "talk" with our daughters about their "dad"

"Why not?"

"Because..." I pause, not knowing how to tell them that Wren is dead

"He's dead" Alison blankly tells them

"Lily and Grace you may be too young to understand but the man who you keep calling dad was a very bad man. We knew him when we were teenagers and he was kind however, he fell in love with Aunt Spencer's twin and became evil. He took advantage of me and Mom and our friends. He's just not a kind person. You may feel sad because everyone else in your class has a father and you don't; but you are better off without him"

"Sweethearts, I may be blowing my own trumpet but I think that you are the luckiest girls alive to have two moms who love you more than anything in the world" Alison continues

"We are" Grace smiles

"We don't need a dad, when we have two moms to look after us"

"Good. I love you both" I smirk, drawing them into a hug

I hold my daughters in my arms as Alison wraps her arms around me, placing her hands on their backs. Emerson begins to cry; breaking our hug, Alison lets go to soothe him

"Mom can I do it?" Lily asks

"Do what?"

"Change his diaper"

Alison's eyes shoot over to me with confusion before returning to Lily

"Oh I don't think you want to do that" she giggles

"I do Mom. I want to be a helpful big sister"

"Okay, but I'll help" Alison laughs with a high pitched questioning tone

We watch as Lily opens Emerson's diaper. Luckily for her he only has a wet diaper however, it is still strange to see an 8 year old smile as she changes a baby's diaper.

"Can we take him?" Grace asks

"Take him where?"

"To our room" Lily smiles

"Why?" Alison asks with an extremely puzzled look on her face

"Because we want to play princesses with prince Emerson"

"That's very sweet girls but Emerson is too young to play games"

"Just like we are too young to know about our dad" Lily mutters

"When will he be able to play?" Grace asks

"When he can walk"

"When is that?"

"You are full of questions today aren't you?" I scoff

"Yes" Grace smiles

"You both started walking when you were thirteen months. Emerson will probably start walking at the same time. So you have another year to wait"

"A year?" Lily screams with a gasp

"Yes a year. You can hold him if you want though"

"Maybe later. Come on Grace, let's go get Queen Snow. The kingdom needs her" Lily giggles, interlocking her hand in Grace's

"Poor Snow" Alison laughs as she buttons Emerson's baby-grow before picking him off of the floor and sitting on the sofa cradling him in her arms

"What if they ask us about Wren again? Do you think we should have told them everything?"

"Emily you were right, they are too young. They don't even know about the birds and the bees so how are they going to understand what happened between us and Wren? Let's make a deal we will tell them when they go to high school"

"Okay deal" I say as the edge of my mouth twitches into a nervous smile