21

"Don't hurt my momma!" Zahir yelled out, adding a whole new dimension to the chaos.

His chubby little hands were fisted at his sides and he was in obvious fighting mode, staring straight at Zayed.

"Zahir," she started to say, only to see Zian dropping his frogs down as he noticed the man in the kitchen and to turn his fight mode on.

Both her boys stood on her either side glaring at the man in the kitchen. And her little girl, Zada hugged her legs and turned around to glare at the intruder.

Ava glanced at Zayed. All she saw was an almost naked man with a knife in his hand, staring at the three little munchkins with a stunned expression on his face.

"Don't just stand there and stare, Zayed. Go wear some clothes and come."

He looked down at her, then back at the kids, then down at himself.

He must have realised his indecent dressing in front of three five year olds, because he looked back at the kids and nodded curtly before moving off to the bedroom.

While bending down to try and catch the slippery, jumping frogs, she glanced up at her sons, wondering why they weren't bending down to help her in getting rid of these creatures.

Instead, they were glaring at the door where the strange man had disappeared, obviously trying to figure out why the stranger had gone into their mother's room.


"Zahir Zian, stop it! You're not going to fight that man, so stop acting like soldiers and help me catch these horrible creatures," she commanded in as gentle a voice as possible under the circumstances.

They didn't obey, but instead followed Zayed with their eyes, glaring daggers at the unknown man who, in their mind, was a threat to their beloved mother,
When Zayed was gone, Zahir put his arms around Ava's shoulders and patted her back.

"It's okay, momma. He's gone now."

Ava would have laughed at how cute her little man was, how proud he was to have protected his mother and siblings, but she was still frantically trying to get the frogs back into the box.

They really hadn't enjoyed being in the box which had been in the cold fridge and now they were not cooperating when she and Zian tried to get them back into their so called home.

Nor would she, Ava thought. She wouldn't like being put back into the fridge, so she'd be trying to pop out of any box that might go back into cold storage too.

"Zahir, please help me," she groaned as she picked up yet another one and dumped it into the box.

"Not like that momma. They will get hurt. You have to be gentle," Zian, the animal lover explained as he carefully caught one and put it in the box.

Unfortunately, the spry little devil just shot back up again.

Zayed reappeared, dressed in his jeans and shirt once again. With efficient hands, he picked up several that were escaping into her living room, and captured three more in his path to the box. He then dumped them all inside and covered it while he found the others.

"Is that all there is?" he asked, looking at Zian who is still glaring at him without blinking.

With a sigh of relief, Ava picked up the box, careful not to drop it even though the disgusting things were still popping around.

"Zian, these are going outside and I don't ever want to see any kind of creature in my fridge, ever again. Do you understand? Do you Zian?"

"But momma, they needed..."

She immediately sliced the air with her hand and made a stern expression on her face, cutting off any explanation he might have.

This was a non-negotiable issue in her mind.

"No! The fridge is not to keep anything cool other than food. No excuses and no getting around that rule."

Zian sighed, realising his mother’s tone meant she wouldn’t listen to any excuses.

"Yes, momma." Zian said in a low voice, though he hadn't averted his glare from the man in the kitchen

"And all of you, stop glaring. Three of you need to get back into bed."

"Is he leaving?" Zahir asked, still glaring at Zayed despite Ava's attempts for him to stop.

"Yes. But he and I have some things to talk about. The sooner all of you are in bed and asleep, the sooner he will leave." She shuffled three of them off to their room, tucked them in and gave each of them a soft kiss.

"Go to sleep," she ordered gently. Since they'd never been up this late, she wasn't sure if they were too wound up to fall back
to sleep, or if they would fall to sleep immediately now that things were quiet once again.

She turned and found Zayed standing in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked down at the kids in their little beds.

She walked out of the bedroom and made a bee line for the living room.

As all the chaos ended, reality crashed into her hard.

Zayed knows.

Zayed now knows about her babies.

Zayed now knows about his babies.

How much ever he mistrusts her, there is no way he is going to doubt the paternity of the triplets. Because they are simply xerox copies of him. There is no room for any doubt.

He knows he is a father now.

And what is she going to do now? What would he do now? Will he try to snatch them away from her?

No. She will not let him.

There was a time when Ava would have done anything, given up anything for Zayed Ahmed. But that Ava is no more.

That Ava had been a fool, madly in love with her husband.

Now she is more. She is a mother. There is no way she will let anyone take them away from her.

Not until her last breath.

She felt a tight grip on her hands and she was turned around in such a speed that she fell against his chest.

She looked up to see the naked fury in his eyes and she trembled at the intensity of it.

"How could you? How dare you?" Zayed asked through clenched teeth, his eyes spitting fire.