Burning Bridges

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 Mom and Dad took the first flight out and when they returned to Florida, we went with them.   When mom was in labor with us, she went into labor in a restaurant and it was happening so fast that we were born in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.  Dad is the man who delivered us.  He was an EMT, said he fell in love with us the moment we were born and with mom maybe even quicker.  By the time we were old enough to walk they were married, and he had officially adopted us.

We always had a dad, just not our biological one and so our parents understood Tori's predicament.

I was able to transfer my job to an office about 45 mins from our parents’ house, so when the house across the street from our parents came up for rent, we decided to take it.  That way we would be close when the babies were born.

Mom had already agreed to babysit while Tori was working.  Everything seemed to be going well for us.  Tori made some money doing some freelance writing for a few different magazines and was able with the help  our parents to get everything that she needed for the babies before they were born.

Looking back now, those were the most memorable months of our life.  The last couple of months before the twins were born and the first couple after they were born, it seemed nothing could go wrong.

Tori’s Dr decided that she should have a c section and so her babies were taken two weeks before their due date which brought them to us in the beginning of March.  We immediately took the papers that Ian had left to a lawyer when the girls were born, to make sure that Tori didn't have to worry about him trying to come back years later.

I don’t know why we were worried about it.  Our father lives less than ten minutes away from us and has not bothered to ever look us up.  He knows who we are.  Any time mom sees him, and we are with her she makes sure to say hello to him and make sure he gets a good look at us.

He now has four kids.  I guess he finally decided that being a dad was his gig after he walked out on mom, because our brother is less than a year younger than us and dad raised him and his siblings.

Anyway, when the girls were about six weeks old, Tori gets a call from Ian asking if she had the babies.  Tori told him she did and even sent him a picture of them.  He asked could he come and see them, and since Tori had full custody and he had no rights, she decided to agree.

He made plans to come the next week.  He didn’t show up.  He had one excuse after another and kept begging to come.  Tori would have enough and tell him no, but he would drive her crazy and guilt her into giving him just "one" chance.  By the time the girls turned three months old, Ian had bailed five or six times.

Tori started getting depressed again.  Even after what he did, she still had this hope that they would get married and raise the girls together.  Every time he bailed, it would bring her further and further down.  She was getting to the point where she was not getting up and getting dressed. 

At first it started with her just not doing any writing and only taking care of the girls.  She would stay in her pajamas all day.  Pull her hair up, not take a shower for a week at a time.  After a couple of weeks of this, I would be getting ready for work and the babies would wake up, luckily mom was able to show us how to get them to sleep through the night by the time they were two months old. 

Tori wouldn’t get up and tend to them.  The first time, I went in and changed them and got their bottles ready and then took them to Tori because I had to get out the door.  I would get home from work to them screaming and her just watching tv as loud as it would go.  I had to clean the babies up and feed them.  After the third day of coming home to this, I called mom.

I did not want to fight with Tori, I knew she was going through a lot, but she needed to at least take care of the babies, and if she was in such a bad place where she can’t even do that, then she needed to get some help.

Mom and I sat down that night with her and talked to her.   She cried and said how unfair life was and how she just wants to die because Ian left her and keeps trying to play with her emotions.  We convinced her to change her phone number and seek some mental health.

Mom took the babies home with her for a couple of days to give Tori some time to just deal with things.  We were able to get her in to see someone almost immediately and they gave her some medicine.  The medicine would make her sleep so much that mom had to take care of the girls while I was at work and I would take care of them when I was home.