Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 95107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“Oh my God,” I moan.
“No,” Garrett says, holding up his hand as if that’ll achieve anything.
Tucker takes up the narrative. “This particular dollmaker designed ten dolls, each one custom-made but part of the series. We had an alert set if any other dolls in the lot came up for sale. And last week, one became available! I think they call that serendipity. Maybe. I’m not sure. But it’s wild, huh?”
Sabrina nods enthusiastically. “Wild.”
“So we said to Jamie, hey, what’s better than one doll for Auntie Hannah’s baby? And what did you say back, princess?”
“I said two!” Jamie dances around her father’s legs. This poor innocent child whose parents recruited her to do their malevolent bidding. They had to know that if Jamie wasn’t here right now, I’d be trying to shove Alexander in the garbage disposal.
“Two dolls are always better than one,” Tucker agrees, and then he pulls out a second porcelain nightmare and holds it up.
This one is a girl doll, with white-blonde curls that, oh God, look like they could be actual human hair. Her cheeks are like two red apples, her pink lips stretched in a macabre frozen smile. In a blue dress with a white sash and shiny red shoes like Alexander, she is creepy and awful and I want to punch Tucker in the face with her.
“Her name is Cassandra,” Sabrina says, grinning at my expression. “And don’t you worry, she comes with a verified biography. It’s in the box. Some fun reading for later.”
Tucker winks. “We don’t want to spoil it for you, but let’s just say while Alexander and Willie were traversing the California Trail, Cassandra here served as a wonderful companion for a child in a German insane asylum.”
“Yayyyyy!” Jamie starts clapping, clearly ignorant to what most of those words mean.
“Yay,” Garrett says weakly.
I glower at our supposed friends. “I’ll never forget this.”
“Wonderful!” Sabrina says, clapping too. “Hear that, little one? Auntie Hannah says she’s never going to forget this gift.”
I glance at Garrett and sigh. We need new friends.
Forty-five minutes later, we’re in the exam room, bickering about the fate of the two haunted dolls we left back at home. I vote we should burn them, but Garrett is too superstitious.
“I think we need to bring someone in to do some sort of exorcism before we burn anything,” he argues. “What if the dead kids’ spirits exit the dolls during the fire and then haunt the house itself?”
“Ahem.”
Our attention shifts to the door, where my doctor stands, eyeing us warily.
“Ignore everything you just heard,” I advise her.
“Snitches get stitches,” Garrett adds solemnly, and I promptly punch him in the arm.
“Ignore that too,” I say.
Chuckling, the doctor moves the ultrasound machine closer and squirts a bunch of cold gel on my belly. I’m still barely showing, but apparently that’s normal. Sabrina had warned me that with her pregnancy, she’d barely had a bump the first two trimesters, until at six months she’d suddenly ballooned. Not that I trust anything Sabrina James-Tucker says anymore.
“You ready?” the doc asks as Garrett squeezes my hand.
“Let her rip,” I answer, and she laughs at that.
Garrett kisses my knuckles, my engagement ring catching the light. Though I didn’t need it, he’d surprised me with a formal proposal a few weeks ago. Got down on one knee and everything. I never thought I’d be one of those pregnant brides waddling down the aisle, but here we are. Funny how life works out sometimes.
“What’s in the bag?” I ask, noticing a small plastic bag beside Garrett’s chair.
He grins. “Check this out. I saw it in a store window the other day.” With a flourish, he pulls out a tiny Bruins hockey jersey with GRAHAM on the back.
“It could still be too early to know the sex,” I remind him. “We don’t know it’s a boy.” Though he’s been convinced it is.
“It’s a unisex jersey,” he says smugly.
“I thought so,” the doctor says under her breath.
I look over, slightly alarmed. “What’s up?”
“I couldn’t be sure during your last visit because of the position of the fetus. However, it’s quite clear now.”
My pulse spikes.
“Something wrong?” Garrett asks, sitting forward as we both stare at the screen.
“Congratulations,” she announces with a grin. “You’re having twins.”
“Twins?” I echo stupidly.
“You serious, Doc?”
“Twins?” I say again. “Like two?”
“Two,” she confirms.
Garrett’s face collapses. “I only bought one jersey.”
“Can you tell the sexes?” I ask, squinting at the screen as if I can discern it myself.
“It’s still a bit early. From what I can see, though, yes, I believe we can tell. Would you like to know?”
My pulse spikes as I turn toward Garrett. Our gazes lock, and he nods. “Yes,” I tell the doctor. “We want to know.”
“You’re having a baby boy…and a baby girl.”
THE END