Choosing Life

Chapter Fifty Two

Mal groaned as she bent over the toilet, trying to keep Ben from hearing her as he was in a Portal call with Phil Jr and Emma. Carlos had invented the teleconferencing app back when Jane had been pregnant with Caroline as a way to make house calls easier for the more routine cases, but it had quickly taken off. Carlos had told Ben once that the name had come from Persephone's portal, Mal having told him about the portal calls a few times when Carlos was giving Estelle a routine physical.

The three royals, however, were trying to determine faster trade routes for Uma to use for their respective kingdoms since she was dangerously close to her due date and still stubbornly insisted on sailing the routes. No way was Mal going to derail that just because of a little stomach bug.

A stomach bug that also came with an intense craving for strawberries and her clothes not fitting her like they used to...no, no. She was not pregnant again. Sure, she and Ben had had some well needed alone time after the Learning to be Royal gathering but they were careful!

And yes, okay, Mal knew that even the best protection wasn't exactly full proof but still! There was no way she was pregnant. She and Ben had told each other that they weren't going to try for another kid until the twins were at least five and there was no way Mal was going to break that. She was not pregnant. No way.

"You're pregnant...and in denial."

"What the?!" Mal exclaimed as she looked over at her aunt, who had appeared in her bathroom. "Aunt Eileithyia, what are you doing here?"

"Your inner thoughts aren't as internal as you think they are, Malinda," Eileithyia said with a small smile.

"I kept everything off the link this time!"

"Your verbal thoughts, yes, but your nausea? Stubbornness? Frustration? Those were sent through the link. Don't worry though, with young Uma nearing her due date, most of the Gods thought the feelings were hers rather than yours. I was able to separate the two though."

"How?"

Eileithyia gave Mal a look. "Malinda, did your pregnancy brain make you forget who I'm the Goddess of? I'd need to be able to separate everyone's feelings on the mental link so I could be able to tell if there was a pregnant member of Olympus who needed assistance. And I'm so grateful you realized you were pregnant when you did. Any longer and you would have been delivering the baby not knowing you were due to have one."

Mal shook her head. "I'm telling you, Aunt Eileithyia, there's no way I'm pregnant."

"Fine, if you want to be stubborn about this," Eileithyia sighed and pulled out her 'big book of babies', as Hades liked to call it. Where she pulled it from, Mal honestly wasn't sure as there were no visible pockets in her aunt's wardrobe. Eileithyia flipped it open and ran her finger down the list. "Let's see...ah here we are Le Bête. See for yourself Malinda."

She turned the book around and handed it to Mal, pointing to where Mal's name was on the page. Mal carefully took the book and looked at where her aunt was indicating.

There, in bright purple ink...wait, purple?

"Why is it purple?" Mal asked, looking at her aunt.

"The name reflects the favorite color of the mother. And if two mothers have the same favorite color, then one of them gets a different shade of the color. It's all to make sure everything stands out," Eileithyia said. "And now you're distracting both me and yourself. What does the page say, Malinda?"

Mal sighed and looked down at the page once more. There was no denying it. Right there, in bright purple ink, was her name with the word 'pregnant' next to it.