**Diary Entry 12th June**
I still remember the moment I held the phone to my ear, trembling, as Emilys voice crackled through the line. “Tom, Tomits twins! Theyre so tiny, just over five pounds each, but theyre healthy. Everythings fine!”
I muttered something about the ultrasound already showing twins, still half in shock. “Boys?” I asked.
“Yes, two little boys!” she sobbed, the tears of joy unmistakable. At long last, she held our sons in her arms.
Pregnancy hadnt been easy for Emily. For one, I hadnt been thrilled when she first told me. We worked togethershe was an accountant, I drove lorries for a small firm. Ours wasnt some grand love story, just two young people thrown together by circumstance. And Id been raw from my last breakupClaire, my ex-fiancée, had cheated on me with a mutual friend. Id caught them kissing in the car, and that was that. No wedding. So when Emily, fresh out of college at twenty, naive and sweet, came along, I wasnt exactly thinking long-term.
Emily had never been the sort to turn headsbright ginger hair that stuck out in every direction, freckles scattered across her face, and curves shed struggled with since school. I was her first proper boyfriend. She fell hard.
At first, I kept things quiet. Wed meet after work, avoiding crowdswalks by the Thames, evenings in a park gazebo. But gossip spreads fast in a small town. Soon, everyone knew. Friends ribbed me about “the new accountant,” and out of spite toward Claire, I played it up. “Madly in love,” I boasted. Those words got back to Emily, and she believed them.
She lived with her aunt in a tiny flat, scraping by. When her aunt found the pregnancy test, she didnt waste timeshe tracked down my mum. Turned out, theyd gone to school together.
Mum cornered me that evening. “So youve got a fiancée now?” she demanded.
“What? No, its nothing serious.”
“Then whys the whole town talking? And whys her aunt asking about wedding plans?”
I froze. “Wedding?”
“Dont play dumb. Shes pregnant, Tom. Youre having a child.”
I confronted Emily. “Why didnt you tell me?”
She looked down, whispering, “I was scared you wouldnt want it.”
Too late now. Everyone knew.
We married quietlyjust a registry office and a small dinner in my parents garden. My sister, Kate, pulled me aside. “Honestly, Tom, how could you trade Claire for *her*?” She shot Emily a look. My wife, in her beige dress, glowing with pregnancy, didnt notice. Or chose not to.
Mum took pity on Emily, especially when we found out it was twins. But it was obviousId married out of spite, not love. I avoided Emily, stayed late at work, never asked about the babies.
Then Claire showed up at the shops, smirking at Emilys swollen figure. “Now I see why Toms in no hurry to come home,” she sneered. Emily nearly collapsed from the painphysically, emotionallyand was rushed to hospital.
After the boys arrivedOliver and HenryI moved out. Claire had a flat; I went there. But life wasnt what Id imagined. Money was tight. Claire expected me to fund her lifestyle while she barely lifted a finger. No home-cooked meals, just takeaway. I lost weight, exhaustion gnawing at me.
Meanwhile, Emily thrived. The freckles suited her now. Shed slimmed down, her hair tamed into a long plait. When I visited the boys, something shifted. We talked, laughed, even joked.
Claire noticed. “Why do you keep going back?” she snapped.
“Because theyre my sons.”
She wanted me to divorce Emily, to kick her out of my parents house. I refused.
One evening, after another row, Claire stormed off to a karaoke bar. I didnt follow. Instead, I called Emily. “Can I stay tonight?”
She didnt ask questions.
Weeks passed like thisweekends with Emily and the boys, lies to Claire about “work trips.” Until one day, Claire announced she was visiting her parents. I packed my things and came home for good.
Emily threw her arms around me, crying. Mum and Dad watched, smiling.
As for Claire? She rang once, then gave up. Last I heard, shes engaged to that same friend she cheated with.
And me? Im here, with my family. Maybe love wasnt the reason we started, but its why we stayed.
Emily was right all along.
