Page 160 of Jordan

Chapter Sixty-Six

Vincenzo

It takes two days for Dr. White to call me. The second the phone rings, I answer it.

“Do you have results for me?” I lean back in my chair, trying not to get ahead of myself. I’m in my office, but I consider going to get Jordan. Morning sickness has been rough today, and she’s slept for most of it. I don’t want to disturb her, so I’ll tell her when she wakes up. It’ll be better coming from me anyway. After I share the news with her, we can tell Rafael.

“I do.”

“What took so long?” I grunt.

“I ran them multiple times because they were stumping me.”

“Stumping you how? You’ve been a doctor since the civil war,” I say. He’s used to me taking a dig at his age. Usually he laughs. This time he doesn’t, and that’s concerning.

“Vincenzo, I’m not sure how to say this.” He sighs.

I sit up, a tight feeling in my chest making it difficult to breathe. A million horrible thoughts run through my head. “Just say it.”

The only thing that would stump him is the answer being neither. As in, neither me nor Rafael are the father. Meaning it’s someone else.

But how? How the fuck is that possible? The rage rolling through me has me seeing red. She’s been here the whole time. Meaning…

One of my men. They’ll die. Every last one of those fuckers will burn to the goddamn ground.

“It’s called heteropaternal superfecundation, and—”

“Hatta what now?”

Pretty sure that isn’t fancy lingo for one of your men fucked your wife behind your back and knocked her up. Is it a technical way of saying there is no father? Like Jordan is the new Virgin Mary or some shit?

“Heteropaternal superfecundation,” he says slowly. “It means your wife’s twins have different fathers.”

The room around me spins. Everything goes dark. Fuzzy. Static is loud in my ears. My mouth is dry.

“Vincenzo, are you there?”

“Yes,” I choke out. “I’m here. Can you repeat that?”

He sighs again. This time I don’t miss the pity. “It’s extremely rare. I did some research and apparently there are only nineteen recorded cases of this. Your wife makes case number twenty. I’m honored to be handling her pregnancy.”

“Let me be clear here. You said two different fathers? How is that possible?”

“Again, it’s rare, but it is possible. A woman who has intercourse with multiple men within a twenty-four-hour or so period have a chance of sperm from both men fertilizing two different eggs. I mean, it’s amazing, if I’m being honest.”

“Yeah. Amazing.”

I can’t fucking believe this.

“Baby A is Rafael’s and Baby B is yours. Fitting, right? Baby B is Baby Bramante.” He chuckles, but I can’t find the humor in it. “Are you okay?” he asks in the fatherly tone he takes too often.

“I don’t know. What does this mean? Medically?”

This is unbelievable.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The babies are still twins. Their genetic makeup will be different. Like any other half sibling would be, only they’re twins.” He laughs again. “This is truly amazing.” I’m glad he sounds happy about it. I’m not sure what I think.

“Okay,” I say. “When will you need to see her again?”