by Mia Taylor
To her surprise, Bea nodded understandingly.
“Ah, I see,” she murmured, sitting gracefully on the off-white leather loveseat in the sunken living room. “I should have known this would happen.”
Fallon stared at her in disbelief.
“How could you possibly know this would happen? He was amazing when Cypher was born! What changed? It was his idea to have a second child!”
The words were falling from her lips in a torrent, but she couldn’t stop herself from saying them. It had been so long since she’d had companionship that was not of the babbling variety. She was exhausted and her nerves were shot as she sensed her marriage was on the rocks.
“It was different with Cypher,” Bea explained patiently. “He was Dan’s first son.”
Fallon gaped at her.
“So what? The novelty wore off? Briar is old news?” she choked. She didn’t believe Bea knew what she was talking about but her sister-in-law inhaled deeply and shook her red bob, her emerald eyes glittering.
“Daniel has always wanted the perfect family,” she explained softly. “The white picket fence and the perfect wife.”
Fallon snorted, running her hand through the mess of overgrown hair falling in strings around her shoulders. In some ways, she felt more bedraggled than she had before she’d reencountered the Wexleys.
I am a Wexley now, she reminded herself. Whether or not Daniel likes it.
“I guess I’m not the perfect wife,” she grunted, falling unceremoniously next to Bea. The woman laughed merrily and reached forward to grab Fallon’s hands.
“On the contrary,” she replied. “You’ve given my brother everything he’s wanted except…”
Fallon’s head jerked up and she stared at Bea expectantly.
“Except for what?” she demanded. “What have I failed in?”
“No, darling, you can’t look at this as a failure but as trial and error.”
Perplexed, Fallon stared blankly at her, waiting for Bea to get to the point, hopefully before the children woke from their naps. Secretly, she wished Bea would leave so she could get a couple minutes of sleep in for herself but she didn’t want to overtly throw her sister-in-law out of the house. The gratitude she felt toward Bea had not diminished, even in her time of upset.
“You’re tired,” Beatrice announced, apparently noticing the look of displeasure on Fallon’s face. “I’ll let you rest while the kids are asleep.”
“No!” Fallon begged. “No, tell me what you were going to say!”
Bea looked uncomfortable for the first time that Fallon could remember and she played with her trademark pearls to display her discomfort.
“Daniel would probably kill me if he found out I was telling you this,” she sighed. “But I opened my big mouth now. I better finish my thought before you go to him.”
“Please, Bea, I promise I won’t say anything to him, but tell me why he’s acting so distant since Briar was born.”
Bea inhaled sharply, raising her eyes to meet Fallon’s reluctantly.
“He wants the perfect family,” she said again but Fallon had no idea what that meant until she finished her thought. “He wants a daughter.”
Fallon’s eyebrows shot up so far, they almost disappeared into her hairline and she began to snicker, despite the mounting anger growing in her stomach.
“Are you crazy?” she yelled, leaping to her feet. “Another kid when he won’t help me with the ones we have?”
“Shh! Fallon, you’ll wake the babies!” Bea urged, her face blushing with worry. “Calm down and listen.”
Fallon idly wondered if anyone in the history of being told to calm down had ever done so but she swallowed her anger and waited for Bea to justify what she had just said.
“Daniel will come around with Briar,” she rushed on. “Trust me, I know my brother. He loves both his boys. Of course he does, but he was so sure that Briar was going to be a girl. He feels like he’s lost a child in some way.”
Fallon did not hide her scoff and she eyed Bea with disgust.
“You have to be joking!” she snapped. “Briar is a sweet baby, innocent and the only one I was pregnant with at the time. Just because he isn’t a girl—”
“I’m not saying I agree with him,” Bea interjected. “I’m telling you what he feels. He had his heart set on having a daughter. That girl will change everything for him.”
Fallon’s jaw dropped as she realized that Bea was not kidding.
“Don’t look at me like that, Fallon. You wanted to know what was happening and I’m telling you. I’m not suggesting that you have another baby with him but I can tell you that having that daughter would make him as happy as he was when Cypher was born.”
Fallon felt her body seep of all energy as if the will to fight had completely been eliminated.
No wonder he didn’t say anything to me. He knows how insane this all sounds and he knows I would never agree to have another baby, especially not so soon, not when I’m so tired.
“Rest,” Bea suggested, rising, and not for the first time, Fallon saw how the Wexley siblings seemed to read her mind. “And please, Fallon, I’m begging you not to tell Daniel I told you this. I can see by your face that you’re disgusted with me and probably with him but you deserve to know the truth about your family.”
Fallon nodded slowly, rising also to see Bea to the door but the CEO waved her back down.
“Just rest,” she insisted. “I can see myself out.”
She paused in the arched entranceway to turn back and stare at Fallon.
“Fallon, you really should think about hiring someone to help you out around here. I understand your point but you need to keep your strength up for everyone’s sake.”
Bea glanced at her hopefully.
“Do you need me back at the office already?” she asked, realizing how much she missed doing something other than changing dirty diapers and singing along to Bubble Guppies.
Bea laughed in disbelief.
“Oh, honey, you can’t be thinking about going back to work!” she chuckled. “You’re a mom now! Your job is here, with your children.”
She didn’t wait for Fallon to respond and she disappeared in her typical Bea exit. Resentment and self-pity touched Fallon’s heart as the reality of Bea’s words touched her heart.
She’s right. I have no future at any job. My future is here, under this roof with my family and I’d be an idiot to think otherwise.
She didn’t know from where the melancholy stemmed exactly. She wanted for nothing and she wasn’t abused or mistreated. Yes, her husband was indifferent to the children but he still came home every night and slept in the same bed as her. He wasn’t cheating on her, as far as she could tell. Fallon would be lying if she said that he didn’t still excite her, despite her resolve to be furious with him for the way he treated his sons.
But now I understand what he wants. The question is, can I give it to him?
“Hey.”
Her eyes flew open. Fallon hadn’t even realized she had closed them after Bea had left.
“Hey,” she replied, rubbing her gritty lids. “You’re home early.”
“I know.”
Daniel sat beside her and immediately wrapped her in his arms, holding her close.
“Why don’t you have a nap and I’ll deal with the boys when they wake up from their naps?”
Fallon stared at him.
“Really?” she gasped, wondering if Bea had spoken to him, but she dared not ask lest it lead to questions about why she had been there.
“Yes,” he told her softly, kissing the top of her head. “I’m sorry I haven’t been here as much as I should have been.”
Relief flooded her and tears filled her eyes to her dismay. She knew she was an emotional wreck but the words meant so much to her in that moment.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “You’re here now.”
“Go upstairs and lie down,”
he urged. “I’ll see about dinner too.”
Slowly, she ambled to her feet, her eyes fixated on him.
“What?” he asked when she didn’t move. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” she replied quickly. “I was just thinking…”
“Thinking what?”
“I was thinking that maybe we should try for a daughter.”
Chapter Seven
The Truth Comes Out
“Mama, the baby is crying,” Cypher informed Fallon as she chopped vegetables at the counter. Somehow, she had not heard the soft wail of the infant through the baby monitor, her mind in a thousand other places as it always was.
Fallon turned to her oldest boy.
“Will you tend to him, sweetheart?” she asked softly, her voice barely above a whisper. “Mama is busy.”
“Yes, Mama,” he agreed, and affection swelled in Fallon’s heart.
He’s such a good boy, so loving and sweet. He’ll be a doctor or something which helps people, I’m sure. Daniel was right about him; Cypher will change the world.
The four-year-old turned to deal with his infant brother and Fallon glanced over her shoulder at the other two boys coloring at the kitchen table.
“Where is your father, Briar?” she asked the second oldest boy but he only shrugged. Fallon was sure she had heard Daniel come home an hour earlier but as usual, he was nowhere to be seen, more than likely locking himself in his study to ignore his ever-growing family as he always did.
A moment later, Cypher appeared, carrying the three-month-old in his arms and Fallon gasped, running to take the baby from the toddler.
“How did you get him out of his crib?” she choked, shocked to see the sight but also secretly pleased at the boy’s ingenuity.
“I used my toothbrushing stool,” he replied, and Fallon exhaled, scooping the little one into her arms. The infant was such a good baby, quiet and mild-mannered, not unlike his brother Briar. The other two had been handfuls and even still, the two-year-old was fussy about everything.
“I’ll be right back,” she told the horde, holding the baby to her chest. “Go and play in the living room, please.”
“Yes, Mama,” they chorused in unison, dutifully packing up their belongings to oblige her request.
She watched to ensure they had gone before moving toward the back hall, cooing sweetly.
Fallon was a pro now, able to juggle four bodies under the age of five without an ounce of help from Daniel. She fed, cleaned and nurtured the boys while Daniel barely made an appearance. He wasn’t a husband. He was barely a roommate, sleeping in his study, hiding behind the guise of work. And just as suddenly, Bea was unavailable for conversation.
She wanted to leave with the boys, but she reasoned that being in a loveless marriage was hardly a cause to upset the lives of her children. They were well provided for, after all, and unharmed, even if Fallon’s heart ached every night as she tried to sleep, wishing the Daniel she had married would come back to her.
She knew that whatever romance they had shared had died although how it had happened was beyond her.
When they are grown and understand, I’ll leave, she promised herself, but the idea filled her with such sorrow, she didn’t often entertain it. Fallon couldn’t see how Daniel could have loved her so much once upon a time and then abruptly changed his mind like a wind shift on a stormy day.
It was difficult for her to reconcile that having a daughter meant so much to him that he was willing to throw away their connection. She was left second-guessing herself again.
Moreover, she couldn’t comprehend how she had been manipulated into having four children when it was clear that their marriage was already in shambles.
I am as much to blame for this as he is, she thought bitterly. I should never have let him touch me when I saw that he was capable of being so cold toward the children we had already.
Yet Fallon knew she had to stay strong for her boys. She couldn’t allow her inner turmoil to affect the children and it was them who kept her going day after day.
She paused outside the closed study door and raised her hand to burst inside, demanding he help her as she’d done so many times before, but she paused as Daniel’s heated voice came piping through the walls.
“…your mind! She’s never going to agree to have another baby!”
Fallon froze, her body rigid. It was obvious he was talking about her but why would that be an argument to be had with anyone?
“No, Bea, I’m done with this. Find another surrogate. Fallon is not creating females, it’s that simple.”
There was a roaring sound in Fallon’s ears as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing.
“No! I’m done! I can’t live like this. Just find someone else. We have the males we need. If this is going into the next stages, Beatrice, we need to find females. You found Fallon, didn’t you? Now find another one.”
The sound of a phone slamming met her and Fallon gasped, stepping back in shock. None of the words made sense.
Find females for what? More than enough males for what?
Her stomach flipped sickly as she realized exactly what it sounded like but she couldn’t begin to believe that Daniel was a part of something so sick.
In her arms, the baby began to wail unexpectedly, clearly sensing his mother’s unrest, but before Fallon could flee to safety, the door to the study flew open.
“Fallon!” Daniel gasped. “Wh—how long have you been standing there?”
For a seemingly endless moment, they shared a look in silence, her mind whirling in confusion and fear. Suddenly, she knew she needed to flee her husband and gather her sons.
“I—I have to get back to the children,” she choked, turning to hurry away.
“Fallon, wait!”
She was torn as she froze, no longer sure of anything, but a dozen images flashed through her mind. There was Bea, ushering her into the Arbor Café, whisking her troubles away with the wave of a magic wand. There was Daniel smiling warmly at her outside Bea’s extravagant mansion. There was the quick engagement and the proclamations of love while they started a family, one which seemed thrust upon her while she sat back and watched in a trance.
This was an elaborate ruse. They searched for me and found me to have Daniel’s children but why? There are millions of women who could do that for him. What makes me so special?
She wondered if she was losing her mind, the bizarreness of what she was learning assaulting her common sense.
“Fallon, come in the study,” he said urgently but she shook her head without turning.
“I can’t. The boys—”
“The boys can take care of themselves.”
She whirled, her dark eyes flashing in fury as the baby continued to wail, shrill and scared.
“How can you say that?”
He sighed heavily and hung his head as Fallon shushed her son, anxiety building in her gut. She watched in horror as her husband’s face began to transform, his nose and mouth conjoining to a snout, unveiling a set of sharp teeth.
Fur touched the edges of his handsome face, his shirt peeling away from a growing barrel chest.
Fallon wanted to scream but as her mouth parted, nothing escaped, although the baby howled enough for them both.
She spun, saving her children the only thing on her mind, but before she could take one step, his voice reverberated through the hall, shaking the lamps on the sofa tables in the corridor.
“STOP!”
Blood rushed into her ears and Fallon clutched her son to her chest, unsure of what to do. There was no way she would be able to outrun the beast behind her, not with four small children, and she had no way of knowing what he would do to the boys.
She stared down at the baby’s face and pivoted slowly, her eyes wide as baseballs as the animal ambled toward her. Fallon saw now that it was a bear, but bigger than any one she’d ever seen in a National Geographic. He was
at least eight feet tall and massively wide.
“Don’t hurt the baby,” she pleaded. “I don’t care what you do to me, just leave my boys!”
He loomed above her and just as abruptly as he had transformed, the Daniel she knew and had fallen in love with appeared as if the creature she had seen was a hallucination.
Fallon walked backward, shaking her head in shock.
“What are you?” she whispered, terror gripping her heart. “What do you want with us?”
“I am your husband,” he said flatly. “And the father of those boys.”
“No!” Fallon choked. “You—you’re an animal!”
“Yes,” he agreed, nodding his head. “I am, but so are our children.”
Fallon stared at him, dimly aware of how the infant’s screams had escalated to an almost piercing pitch, but she was only able to focus on Daniel’s words.
“What are you talking about?” she spat. “My children are nothing like you!”
He smiled mirthlessly and nodded.
“They are,” he assured her. “You just haven’t seen that side of them yet. They will reach maturity at about age eleven and then the havoc will start.”
“What are you telling me?” Fallon demanded. “That you have infected the children with some virus?”
Ambrosia Pharmaceuticals. Have they been testing some new drug? Is this the side effects of some terrible experiment gone awry?
Daniel blinked, a sardonic smile on his face, and Fallon had never wanted to strike someone as much as she did him in that second, but of course she managed to hold back.
I will deal with him once I have my children to safety.
“I didn’t infect the boys. I didn’t have to. All I had to do was use the stain on myself and the gene is passed down. They are shifters and they will go on to do great things in this world. Lyca4 will empower all the future generations, making them virtually indestructible. The government contracted us for its use in warfare but why would we give it to them when we can use it to our advantage?”
Fallon’s head was swimming, wondering if he was insane, wondering if she was.
