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“Are you going to send me back?” His eyes widened. “Pleaswe, let me stay here. I like staying with you and Katiew. You both are my beswt friends now.”

I rushed to him without even thinking. Just hearing the sad tone in his voice made me want to sob a mess.

“Of course not, Luka.” I wrapped my arm around him from the side. “You’re not going anywhere. You are stuck with us.”

Lan followed suit and crouched to meet his eyes. “We are not making you go back to St. Mary’s. Well, not unless you want to. Katy and I want you to stay with us till you grow up to be a big boy or even after that.”

“Promwise?”

“Promise,” we both said at the same time.

A faint smile curved Luka’s lips as he nodded.

“Okay, so the important thing we want to talk to you about is that our little family is going to grow a lot bigger soon,” Lan said.

“How?” He frowned.

Lan reached over and palmed my belly. “Katy is pregnant. She is soon going to be giving birth to two babies and you get to be their big brother. Is that a responsibility you can handle, buddy?”

Luka’s eyes widened, and he turned his attention to me. “How is there two babies inside you, Katy? Ms. Quill said she was having a baby once, and there was only one baby in her belly.”

“You can have more than one baby in your belly, Luka.” I lifted my arm for a fake bicep curl. “Girls are strong like that.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“So there’s…” He licked his lips, his small hands hovering over my stomach. “Babies inside there.”

“Yes.” I smiled. “Do you want to feel them?”

“Hmm.” He slid a hesitant glance toward Lan, who gave him an encouraging nod. “Okay,” he muttered.

Lan carefully took his hands and placed them over my stomach.

Luka blinked, and seconds later, he started to slowly move them up and down. “It’s so big,” he muttered.

I chuckled. “It needs to get big to house two babies.”

Luka’s lips formed an “O.”

The familiar feeling of butterflies erupted inside me and it was followed by the heavy rolling activity.

The sudden motion made Luka yelp back in a startle.

“Whoa there, buddy, you okay?” Lan asked, laughing as he caught him.

His rounded eyes almost bugged out of his head. “That was... that was.” Panic clouded his expression. “There’s something in your belly, Katiew.”

“It’s the babies,” I said softly, ushering him over. “Come on, you can feel it. They are just rolling around and having playtime.”

“Really?” he breathed.

“Yep.”

Lan scooted him forward and gently returned his hand to its previous position.

A whirlwind of emotions crossed his face, and excitement flashed in his eyes when they met mine. “They are really playing inside your belly, Katiew.”