“Don’t know anything, you’re listed as the father on the form, come and get the twins!”
Three years after the divorce, I suddenly found myself the father of newborn twin boys. Serves me right for not finalising the paperwork properly. But turned out, it was a blessing in disguise…
Olivia and I had been married ten years. We had two daughters, Henrietta and Tabitha, close in age. Seemed decent enough on paper: work during the day, family in the evenings. But lately, Mum started finding reasons to be out more often. Popping round a friend’s, caught in a shop queue, snowed under at the office… Eventually, someone ‘helpful’ clued me in: Olivia had a lover.
Naturally, I confronted her. Olivia went straight on the defensive, and as they say, the best defence is a good offence. She claimed she wasn’t getting enough attention from me, didn’t feel like a woman anymore, the domestic grind devoured all her time, and apparently, the girls only ever loved me… She shouted, declared she was leaving for her lover, and she did. Properly left, leaving the girls with me.
Henrietta and Tabitha were bewildered at first, wondering where Mummy had gone, but they adjusted. Soon after, work offered a transfer to another city — leading a new branch. I jumped at it. We packed quickly; everything happened at such a pace, I never got round to making the divorce official before we moved.
At the new job, I met a lovely woman, Charlotte. My age, also raising two daughters single-handedly. We didn’t hang about; we moved in together, becoming one big, noisy household. Our girls were all much the same age. Evenings were chaos, a proper madhouse, God’s truth — either giggling together or squabbling over something! Charlotte and I cherished them, though secretly, we longed for a son together. It just never happened.
By the time of that odd phone call, Charlotte and I had lived together two years, giving up hope of a son… Well, not meant to be, we’d make do with our girls. Now, about that call.
The mobile number showed it was coming from my hometown’s exchange.
“Nicholas Parker?”
“Speaking.”
“I’m afraid I have bad news… Your wife, Olivia Sutton, unfortunately never regained consciousness and passed away today. We’re discharging the babies tomorrow, so you’ll need to collect them. We can explain the arrangements concerning Mrs. Sutton tomorrow.”
“This is a joke, right? I haven’t seen Olivia Sutton in three years. Our daughters are right here with me.”
“Don’t know anything, you’re listed as the father on the form, come and get the twins!”
The line went dead. Stunned, I checked the number online: it was genuinely the maternity hospital in my hometown.
Charlotte stared at me wide-eyed, just as baffled; she’d heard it all. We scrambled, dropped the girls with my parents, and set off to sort out this mess with my ex.
Outside the hospital, we ran into an old friend of Olivia’s. She filled us in: the lover had dumped Olivia the second she told him about the baby. The pregnancy was rough—twins, after all—and near the end, things went horribly wrong… They saved the babies right away, but their mother fell into a coma and never regained consciousness. Registering the twins after birth, with Olivia incapacitated, they used the existing registry office records where I was still listed as her husband. So, legally, I was the father.
Olivia’s friend, tearful, promised to help if needed and left. Charlotte stood beside me, squeezing my hand incredibly tightly.
“Lottie, what is it?”
“Nick… we are taking them, aren’t we?”
I could see her fighting to conceal pure joy and a huge smile.
“Who? The twins?”
“Yes, yes! Please? Maybe ours was never meant to be, and here are two, ready-made…”
“Lottie, they aren’t toys! I don’t know…”
“Nick, I’m serious! And just think, the girls will be over the moon! Yours are their half-brothers after all… Come on, Nick…”
Well, I crumbled. We collected the twins. Paid our respects to Olivia properly at the funeral.
The girls shrieked with delight, thrilled with their new baby brothers, and were totally puzzled how they’d missed Mummy Charlotte’s bump!
Claim Your Twins: The Father You Didn’t Know You Were!
