"You can't have this baby, Kholwa. Think of your future," Megan begged her adamant daughter, their identical eyes shining different by the emotions in them. "You're studying chemistry with a part-time job and Carson,.. Carson might be a good boy but he's a dishwasher. There's no need to rush."
Kholwa released her hands from her mother's hold, sealing them captive by standing akimbo. "I can take care of myself, Mom. Carson and I love each other..."
"Love wouldn't feed you. Love wouldn't give you a stress-free life. Kholwa," her mother's tone dropped into reasoning, "at least wait until after you've graduated medical school. That's your dream, isn't it?"
Not the type to back down from a staring contest, Kholwa stood firm in her decision against her Mother's eyes that'd dimmed into logic. "It's not impossible to attend school and take care of a baby. Since Carson has no interest in school, he'd be the one mostly looking after the child. We..."
Banging her fists against the coffee table, Megan stood in anger glaring at her daughter. "You're still a child. A child can't take care of one. At nineteen you should be thinking of your future. A baby can wait."
Kholwa swayed like a drunk snake, her arms flailing below her waist, langorously regarding her Mother's botox youthful glowing face. "If you don't want to support me, that's fine. I only told you because I'd hoped you'd be a responsible Grandmother. You're my Mother, you deserved to know."
"Kholwa Lily Snowdrop! Stop being so stubborn. I know how much you want a home but..." her mother beat her chest, strawberry blonde hair falling down like a curtain when she bowed her head.
Choking back tears, she continued. "Use me as an example, Kholwa. I rushed into a marriage I thought I wanted because I was fixated..."
"That's different," Kholwa stroke a defending pose. "You were in the closet. Not brave for what you wanted and not knowing how to get it. I'm the complete opposite. I love Carson and unlike yours, I'd have a beautiful home with him."
Turning her back, Kholwa looked over her shoulder at her tear-filled mother. "I hope you change your mind. I want my child to know Megan who's a wonderful woman and Mother. Call me when you see her."
Kholwa Snowdrop would rather die than complain about how hard it was looking after twin boys, attending classes and working a part-time job. Not to her mother or Barbie Facial who disagreed with Kholwa's choices.
Loving her boys, it pained her she couldn't see them as often as Carson in his parents house. Cute, chubby redheads like their parents with babyish button noses similar to Carson's.
Wildflower, now a 19 year old apprentice TV cameraman was the only one in her family who frequently visited the boys patently sending regards from her absentee mother.
"What's done is done," Wildflower shrugged, tapping baby Clematis nose fussing in his thin arms. "No matter how Mom tries, there's no time rewinding sorcery."
Kholwa was hurting. How could her Mother not support her during a time like this? Adamant to drown her sorrows in the scent of her baby boys and a tired but happy Carson, Kholwa Snowdrop sure hadn't learnt her lesson by getting pregnant again. Obviously, she blamed Carson.
It was definitely the hormones. Definitely because she couldn't stop crying when her mother barged into the maternity ward, her angry small eyes immediately beating the crap out of Kholwa's tired shoulder threatening to kill Carson if she laid eyes of him.
Representing new beginning, Kholwa named her son Daffodil. One of her lucky charms along with the twins. It took a while for her mother to integrate herself with Carson and his family but the curdling babies reunited them in no time.
For the babies sake, Carson and Kholwa moved to her mother's house to the unsatisfaction but understanding of Carson's poor parents.
Though in good terms, Carson and her mother occasionally refused to see eye to eye; him for her absolute scorn of his bussing job and she for his complete love for his unprofitable bussing job.
"Can't you two get along?" tired from always being at the middle, Kholwa lazily swirled the red wine in her glass. "You're both family now."
Smug, Carson nodded. "We're getting married. We'd have the wedding when Kholwa graduates next year in the summer. You'd be my mother-in-law."
Prepared for a rebuff, Kholwa sighed in relief when her mother only nodded. "Of course." a false delightful pause, "It's only natural to get hitched after impregnating my daughter."
It was truly a miracle how the children could sleep with all the noisy arguments, Kholwa sipped her wine too fatigued to try and reason with either of them.
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