I heard a gasp behind me and quickly turned around, blindly standing Lili up.
My wife. I smiled seeing the happiness written across her face
"Is that my girl walking?" my wife cooed.
I glanced back at Lili and let go, watching as she took three steps this time before falling into her mother's arms with a shriek. She scooped up Lili and held her tight to her chest, right above her growing belly. Lili's fat feet dangled on the sides of her waist.
Our gazes met and my stomach tightened. I will never get over the fact that this beautiful woman was now my wife. How I fucking loved her to the ends of the earth.
Her eyes shimmered up at me and her soft smile made my heart pound.
"Allo, Malysh. When did you get here?"
This was my favorite time of the day that I looked forward to after we said our morning goodbyes—when Adrianna brought all of our daughters to gymnastics practice. It was one of the very limited things she could do while being on bed rest. While she should not be doing anything at all, I knew I had to give her something, otherwise she would take the directions lightly and overdo it. She could take the girls to and from school, and she liked to bathe and put them to sleep. That was it.
I reached out to palm Adrianna's belly and stepped close to her with Lili sandwiched between us.
"Just now."
She smiled and rose up on her tiptoes to give me a kiss, but Lili gave her a wet one first. There was slobber all over my wife's cheek and she laughed. My lips twitched seeing her happy.
"Why? Did you miss me?" she asked, and she angled her brows.
"You already left me once, just making sure you were not making another run for it. I never know with you."
Her eyes lit up ready to retaliate and she punched my stomach. I grabbed her hand and held it tenderly. I looked down at her with nothing but love. I do not let her live down the fact that she left me.
My palm skimmed along her pelvis to feel her rounded stomach. Her shirt was too short and showing part of her lower belly. I loved that little space of skin on her. For someone so small, she wore pregnancy extremely well. Adrianna claimed to enjoy being pregnant, and since I loved seeing her grow with my child, it was a win for the both of us.
Breaking apart, Lili rested her head on her mother's shoulder and then placed her thumb in her mouth, twirling hair around her finger.
Though each pregnancy Adrianna glowed more than the previous one, it came with a steep price. I did not want her light to burn out and I was terrified it would. Our growing family was a heavy burden on her body, one I did not wish to keep chancing. We were fortunate enough to have made it this far after several specialists had agreed we most likely would not.
When we were told that Lili's pregnancy was the last her body could handle, Adrianna had cried her eyes out for days. We knew this would come one day. She was not ready and had begged me for one more baby, hoping it would be a boy this time. She did not want that choice to be taken from her again.
She wanted one more chance to give me a son on her terms. Our terms.
I felt we were blessed to have our daughters and I had told her it was not necessary, but Adrianna had this incessant need to defy all odds.
We had argued about it at first. A lot.
Adrianna was the love of my life. We had walked through fire and hell to get here. I had told her she could fight me all she wanted but I was not changing my mind. Call me selfish, I was selfish. I wanted her to stay healthy to be with our family. I was not going to lose her for good this time, because I knew I would never survive living this life without her again.
Lili had only been born about two months prior before she went on this emotional tirade. Her hormones were making her crazy. Of course, I could not tell her that. However, I had told her she was being irresponsible and that we had four gorgeous children already and was that not enough for her.
She had slapped me.
The woman loved to slap me.
She would not talk to me for a full two weeks, though every night she came to me.
I had tried to put my foot down, but she was adamant. My wife had this endless need to push her body to the limit. It drove me absolutely insane, but I loved her so fucking much that I had eventually caved and we tried for one more baby.
Surprisingly, it had not taken long to conceive.
Adrianna loved to remind me it was meant to be and the reason why it had happened so easily.
I wanted to give Adrianna the world, not hold it back from her. I felt like she was taking a huge risk every time we conceived, but it was hard to say no to her when I knew all she wanted was a big family.
Our doctors were confident she could carry to term one last time, but she was still labeled as high-risk.
As I approached the golden age, I had this constant fear inside of me that something was going to happen to her and my kids. It consumed me. They were little spitfires who took after their mother, and they were my world. I was already wrapped around their boney little fingers, which was why I planned to keep them locked up until at least thirty-five. No public schools. No cell phones. No boyfriends. Adrianna laughed every time I brought it up because she thought I was kidding, but I really was not. I could already feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about who I would have to fight off. It almost made me feel bad for being with Adrianna when she was so young.
Almost. Not entirely.
"Where are the rest of the—"
Before I could finish, Mia, Svetlana, and Nastia came barreling into the gym, running straight for me in a race of who could get to me first. Squatting down again, my knees popped and Ria winced at the sound. I opened my arms as Lili squealed behind me at seeing her three sisters.
"Daddy!" I heard about eight times in the span of three seconds right before they plowed into my chest.
I pretended to fall back on the floor, and they giggled in response, falling over me dramatically. I glanced above their little heads at Adrianna. Our eyes met and she smiled down at me. I loved the sound of our girls’ high-pitched laughs. It did shit to my heart that I could not explain and made this life that much sweeter. Leaning my head up, I gave them tons of animated kisses and they chuckled even more. I never knew how much I could love like this until my wife gave us children. Now I felt like I was going to erupt from it.
Nastia jumped on me again and I grunted in response. My wife covered her mouth and tried to stifle a laugh. I could see the smile behind her hand. At this rate, I would not be able to give Adrianna any more kids even if I wanted to if they kept kneeing my dick all the time. I wrapped my arms around the three of them and held them until they were giggling from my tickles, begging me to stop.
At first, we had been concerned if Adrianna could get pregnant after many failed attempts. She had said it was karma and a constant reminder of what we had endured as a couple. She was never able to fully let go of losing our first child and had nearly damaged herself emotionally in the process. It had wrecked me to see her so miserable.
All of Adrianna's specialists had gathered in one room to discuss if she could get pregnant at all when we had decided we were ready. She had not had a regular period for years, and the doctors were concerned about the health risks she could possibly undergo being pregnant with stage four kidney disease. The medication she had been taking for years had caused harsh side effects. She was not the same. The medication damaged parts of her body that would never be able to recover.
After a year of trying to conceive and false pregnancy tests and tears I kissed my way through, we had turned to fertility drugs.