Lilli
At first, the flight with the twins, mainly Walsh, was crazy. He hated the plane. I was finally able to situate both babies in my lap. Once Livy was next to him, he started to calm down. Phoebe was quiet, which I appreciated. She hadn’t heard the whole story but she was letting me have the time that I needed to cope.
Halfway into our flight, the twins fell asleep and I started to doze off myself. As I felt myself slipping into slumber, the image of Loreley's naked body wrapped around Aidan's flashed behind my eyelids. I gasped and my eyes flew open.
"Lilli, are you okay?" Phoebe looked at me concerned.
I shook my head as the tears started. That was when I told Phoebe everything that had happened, from the weird message up to when I met with her to fly to Winter Harbor.
"I am so sorry." She held me in her arms as I sobbed, my tears dripping onto the first class seat.
"I can't get it out of my head." I growled out and sat back into my seat.
"Things will work out, just take the time you need to figure out what you are going to do." Phoebe rubbed my leg as she spoke.
I nodded, sniffled, and sat quietly the rest of the flight.
When we arrived to my father's house, I couldn't help but smile. Donald walked out onto the porch as we approached. He was walking around and looking good. No wheelchair, no bedridden sickly man; it was about the only thing that could make me smile at this point.
"Lilli!" He wrapped his arms around me as I gave him a one armed hug. I had Walsh in my other arm. "And here is my handsome grandson!" He beamed down to Walsh as he ruffled his hair. Walsh shied away into my shoulder.
"You look good, Dad. Like, really good." I smiled. "Millie's been taking good care of you."
"Yeah, yeah." He smiled. "Where's my..? There she is!" I turned and saw Phoebe approach with Livy.
"Ah, Donald, I never knew how much you missed me?" Phoebe giggled and then winked.
"I missed you too, Phoebe." Donald chuckled and then walked over to Livy, who was shying away into Phoebe's shoulder. Donald rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head. "Come on, let's get inside."
We followed dad inside and were immediately met by Millie, who fawned over the kids.
"They have gotten so big." She smiled and kissed each of their cheeks.
Donald helped me set out a blanket and toys for the kids so Phoebe and I could get the rest of the luggage out of the car.
After taking everything into my old room and setting up the playpen, I returned downstairs to sit with my family. Phoebe and I made dinner while my dad tried to teach the twins about baseball. Millie would laugh every so often at Donald. Phoebe kept giggling when she would overhear the twins babbling after Donald would speak.
The twins could say a few words, but were mostly babbling like crazy and making noises. It was adorable.
Phoebe left a couple of days later and my only true distractions were the kids. Aidan had called me repeatedly but I still couldn't bring myself to talk to him yet. I called Viola once to tell her that we were in Winter Harbor with my dad and that we were fine. She begged me to call Aidan, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It was all still too fresh. I felt like someone had reached into my chest and pulled my heart from behind my ribcage.
Week one in Winter Harbor was dedicated to taking the twins around as much as I could in the weather. We went to the small ice cream parlor, the pizza place and the diner. There were a couple of new additions to the town. There was a McDonald's now, with an indoor play area, so I took them there. A daycare offering ‘Mommy and Me’ playdates had also opened, we took full advantage.
Week two and I still remained as focused on Livy and Walsh as ever. I didn't want to think about Aidan. I had sent him exactly one text while we had been here, stating that I was ok. He had text back that he was coming to talk to me and I told him not to come. I hadn't heard from him since and was thankful.
I had explained everything to my dad one late night after he overheard me during my ritual of crying alone in the shower before bed. He had yelled for me to come down to the couch in the living room and proceeded to hug me tightly as I sobbed and talked. It was very unlike Donald to take emotions on so forwardly, he usually avoided tears.
Three and a half weeks of being in Winter Harbor, my dad approached me one more time about Aidan.
"Lilli?" He yelled up to me as I was heading to the shower.
"Yeah, Dad?" I asked in a flat tone.
"Come here, please."
I walked down the steps and came face to face with Donald and Sarah.
"W-what..?"
"Please sit, baby." My mother said as she patted the cushion between her and my father.
I furrowed my brow and slouched down into the couch.
"Lilli, I've watched you mope around this house for the past three weeks..."
"I am not..."
"Let your father finish."