Page 107 of The Other Brother

Mum makes a beeline for Kate lying propped up on the hospital bed. Kate looks tired but beams, holding a bundle of blankets. It doesn’t take much brainpower to work out my nephew is inside.

Mum gives her a kiss on the top of her head and peers down at the baby, her face going all soft.

“Congratulations.” Dad shakes Chris’s hand.

“Oh, yeah, congrats,” I say.

Chris gives me a hug too, then hugs Mum. Basically, it’s a whole hugging festival happening in room 22.

I go to give Kate a hug and look at the newest member of the family.

Jesus.

It takes Herculean control to stop myself recoiling back. The baby has got a weird-shaped cone head, and his features are all scrunched up in the middle of his face, and his skin has a weird blueish-purplish tinge.

The kid is not winning any beauty awards at the moment, that’s for sure. The closest thing I can come to describing him is a mutant Smurf.

Luckily, I have a survival instinct, so I keep that observation to myself.

“Do you want to hold your grandson?” Kate asks Mum.

Tears well in Mum’s eyes as she nods. Kate carefully lowers the baby into Mum’s arms. I’m peering over her shoulder, trying to scrounge a single feature I can compliment, when there’s a noise at the door.

It’s Frank.

My breath slams out of me.

Because, behind Frank comes Heather in a wheelchair with Cody pushing her. He scans the room, stopping when his gaze locks on me.

For a second we just stare at each other before he looks down and fiddles with the wheelchair brake.

I stumble backwards, collapsing into one of the visitor’s chairs in the corner.

I can do this. I can do this.

“Hello,” Frank says stiffly. He goes around to Kate’s other side, giving her a quick hug, glancing over to his grandson in Mum’s arms.

“It’s a little boy,” Mum says softly, lifting her gaze to Frank.

Frank’s staring at her, and there’s something in his eyes that’s not the usual animosity they have when they look at each other.

Sadness.

I recognize it because it’s an emotion that I’m overly familiar with at the moment.

Why are they so sad? Have they finally realized that this is what happens when you mess up your family? That it continues to mess up the next generations too?

I flick a glance at Cody, and he’s standing with one hand holding Heather’s wheelchair, his gaze fixed on the floor. But I can’t miss the look of despair on his face.

Oh God.

Although, am I just projecting what I’m feeling onto him? Is he just awkward because seeing your ex is always some degree of awkward?

“Have you decided on a name yet?” Dad asks.

Kate smiles. “Yes. Ethan.”

“Oh, that’s lovely,” Mum says.