"She isn't my daughter." He mumbled, shaking his head softly as he slouched down on his side of their bed.
They hadn't spoken to one another for over an hour- both of them being too lost in their own train of thought to worry about conversing with each other.
She raised a brow, staring at herself in the bathroom mirror as her eyes glossed over with a fresh set of tears. "She looks just like you." She stated in a low, almost defeated tone of voice.
There was no denying it, no matter how badly they both wanted too... They would just be lying to themselves, and while Stevie knew that, Lindsey wasn't willing to admit it.
"She isn't mine." He repeated, trying to sound one hundred percent certain of himself, but he wasn't fooling her.
Pushing herself away from the counter, she lingered in the doorway. "I'm very tired." She wasn't going to entertain in wild idea that Vivian just happened to have the wrong address, or any other excuse he was going to come up with.
She knew the truth, deep down, even if it was a harsh one.
She turned off the bathroom light, putting one foot in front of the other to get to bed. "It's been a busy day," she added, pulling the comforter back with one hand as she used the other to take out her earring.
To act normal was incredibly difficult, but she wanted to.
Lindsey let out a soft sigh, trying hard to read her emotions, but it wasn't very easy that night. "Are you okay?" He knew she probably wasn't, but he had to ask...
He just wanted to talk, so bad.
Slipping under the duvet, her eyes melted right into his instantly. "I can't think about it anymore tonight." She shook her head softly, wrapping one arm around his waist and sliding in a little closer. "We can talk tomorrow." She whispered, head meeting his chest as she felt him wrap her in his arms, tight.
She was mad- she knew she was, but there was this sudden sadness that was blocking that out, making it hard for her to show it.
They had shared a really wonderful day together, before Vivian had arrived at their home. They had spent the better part of the afternoon with their oldest daughter and the new baby, that had just made them grandparents... It felt like the best day ever for them.
And while a part of her was still in that blissful state, the other part, knew it was over for the time being.
As the saying goes, all good things, come to an end, eventually and their life was no exception.
"I love you, baby." He left a soft kiss to the top of her head, eyes following the ceiling fan.
He wasn't going to be able to sleep that night, not at all. There was far too much lingering heavy on his mind to even close his eyes.
"I love you." She assured with tears falling from hers. "Goodnight, Linds." Her voice cracked, even though she had tried her best not to make it obvious.
They both knew as they laid there in silence, staring off into the dark that this was their last night of normalcy. And even though they were both lost for words in that moment, it wasn't going to last forever... When the sun rose, their reality would as well.
~~~
Rubbing his eyes and letting out a deep yawn, Lindsey trailed down the hallway early the next morning.
He had woken up just a few minutes earlier, only to find that Stevie had already slipped out of bed and disappeared downstairs, which was unusual.
"You're up early." He announced when he found her sitting in the living room, staring into her cup of coffee like she'd lost something in it.
She was still in her silk nightgown, shawl draped over her shoulders, hair in loose curls and glasses perched on the bridge of her nose.
"How are we going to tell the kids?" She had been thinking about that all night long- she couldn't sleep because of it.
She could deal with just about anything, but she couldn't handle ruining their lives like that.
It would destroy them.
Sighing lightly, he headed further into the room. "We aren't going to tell our kids." He said that as if it were something small and simple... It wasn't either of those things.
This was big- it was life changing and the way he tried to shrug it off, didn't set well with his wife.
Creasing a brow, she finally looked over at him. "Lindsey, you have another daughter." She stated in a very blunt, yet very devastated tone. "What do you mean, we aren't going to tell them?" Stevie had a thick set of tears sitting heavy on the brims of her brown eyes as she stared at him, intently.
Raising a brow, he shrugged a shoulder lightly. "We aren't telling anyone, Stevie." He was stern when he said that- he was trying to act as strong as possible, but she saw through that.
She always had.
She scoffed lightly, leaning forward to set her cup down on the stand. "Clancy is coming home next week, Crew is here almost every day, Lola can smell trouble from a mile away and we have a trip coming up."
She said it, like it was all news to him. "How are we going to keep it from them?" At that point, Stevie had tears rolling down her cheeks as she stood up.
His jaw settled lightly as he shifted all his weight from one foot to the other. "I'm gonna go work for a little while, baby." Lindsey said after a moment of silence had come and gone.
"No," she shook her head, stunned that he would try to just ignore her like that. "We're going to talk about this." She demanded, brows creased and heart racing.
It had been a long time since they'd really disagreed on anything... After years of therapy, they'd finally started to figure out the whole communication aspect of marriage, which is something that had never really come easy for either of them.
"I love you, but I don't want to." He admitted, eyes silently telling her that he wasn't going to give in, not in that moment.
Pursing her lips to one side, she paused for a second. "Fine," she shrugged a shoulder, raising a brow softly. "But don't let this be our downfall, Lindsey."
