Bebe Populous felt nauseous. Not yet the famliar nausea of morning sickness, though she was sure that would come. This was the nausea of guilt. What had come over her the day before, sleeping with a man who was practically a stranger, willing herself to bear his child? She had promised Asa that Xenia would be her last. He had kept to his side of the bargain, why couldn’t she have done likewise?

Xenia was now the eldest child at home, and she wanted to be a responsible big sister. She remembered how Vikram always fixed things and Wendy and Willow would always clean. She didn’t know how handy she would be, and she didn’t think her mum or dad would let her use any tools yet, but she could clean. Nichola was last in the bathroom and it smelled really bad, like sick. She hoped Nichola wasn’t poorly.

After her bout of sickness, Nichola crept into the baby’s room. She supposed if she was going to have one of these, she’d better get used to how they worked. He smelled unpleasant though, so she held him at arm’s length. One of his parents could deal with whatever was going on in his nappy.

Besides, she had a hairdresser’s appointment booked, and then she hoped to visit the spa again. If she was going to become huge and pregnant and swollen, she might as well do it with as much style and comfort as possible.

Asa Populous groaned as he showered. How could he have been so stupid as to sleep with another woman? He’d promised Bebe, and now he’d let her down, even though she’d kept her side of things. Nichola had said she would keep things secret, she’d said she loved him, and he wanted to believe her. He wanted to keep experiencing that love. But loving more than one woman at a time had not always caused him joy. He was racked with guilt – should he tell Bebe, or keep it secret? They’d said no more secrets… but he’d asked Nichola to stay here, and Bebe would blame him for bringing temptation to the house.

Unfortunately for Asa, when Nichola returned from the salon with her new hair extensions and some fancy designer glasses (Asa wondered how she could afford such luxuries, but didn’t dare ask), he received some news he did not want to hear.

The evidence of his encounter with Nichola was all too visible.

Perhaps it was the pregnancy hormones, but Nichola found herself increasingly drawn to Yabbie Creek. Still, it would be good practice for when her own child was born – and, knowing how important family was to Asa, if she could get to know his children, then it would make it easier for her to persuade him they should be together. After all, she was to be a new mother. She needed Asa more than Bebe, and she was giving him what Bebe no longer would.

Bebe’s body clock was out of sync. Night feeds with Yabbie Creek, hormones raging – she found she needed to sleep a little in the day. And as she slept, her body stirred and she dreamed of the life inside her. However much she regretted sleeping with Dark, however difficult it would be to tell Asa, she did not regret this child.

After she woke from her nap, she and Asa sat down to eat. She took a deep breath and was ready to speak when Asa blurted out that Nichola was pregnant. With his child.

Bebe choked on her lobster. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She didn’t know whether to be hurt, angry or relieved; whether to cry or laugh.

She then dropped her own bombshell.

Nichola, meanwhile, was enjoying another spa package. These things could get addictive – especially know she was living in a house where money grew on trees. She wouldn’t need to save anything – Asa would be able to provide her with everything she wanted. She knew how much he was on as mayor, and that was without the income from his garden.

Before returning home, she put in a call to her contacts at the paper. She had a story she thought they would want to hear.

As her pregnancy progressed, however, Nichola began to feel slightly nervous about her plan. She was beginning to get fed up of the endless parties with Bebe and Asa’s family. The ghosts in particular set her on edge. There was something unnatural about them. And Vikram and Rosemary were weird as well – what was up with the way they walked?

She still had a soft spot for Yabbie Creek, but his constant crying in the night meant she had little sleep, and she permanently found herself straining to keep awake.

Her belly was swollen larger than she’d ever imagined, and all the massages in the world couldn’t quite put an end to the pain her ankles and back felt from the strain.

The worst thing, though, was that, somehow, Bebe was pregnant again, despite Asa saying they wouldn’t have any more children. And this had seemed to make Asa even more in love with his wife than ever. Every time she walked past them, Asa was seranading his wife…

…or talking to her in that goooey way people who are infatuated with each other do.

Bebe and Asa were constantly hugging and kissing…

…and he seemed far more interested in his wife’s belly than hers.

Worse still, Bebe wanted to offer her motherly advice. That was something Nichola could really do without. Was she never going to be rid of this woman?

When her waters broke, she silently took herself to hospital, allowing a few tears to fall as she sat in the taxi – realising she could never compete. If having a child couldn’t make Asa turn his head towards her from his wife, then nothing would.

She wondered whether or not to ring her friend at the newspaper and ask them not to run the story. Was it worth ruining her son’s life, now she knew Asa couldn’t be hers? She sighed.  What was done was done, and part of her wanted to hurt him for not looking at her the way he looked at Bebe, for not wanting to be with her the way she wanted him.  She would let the newspaper do what they wished with the information she had given them, and only hoped her son would be spared too much pain in the fallout.

She returned home to a note saying Asa had taken Bebe to the hospital. Eddie was babysitting, and seemed engrossed in a game of chess with Xenia.

Nicola quietly laid Yeats in his cot, with his hospital name tag still on his wrist. She had specifically asked that he bear Asa’s surname and not her own.

She stroked her son’s head and kissed him, and silently, Nichola Paparazzi collected her few belongings and walked out of the Populouses’ lives.

Bebe was tired from labour. She was overjoyed to be a birth mother once more, but now she had her alphabet of children she was happy.

Zoe and Zolga had made their family complete.

But as they entered the house and heard Eddie reading a story to Xenia upstairs, a piercing cry filled the room – and it wasn’t Yabbie Creek’s cry.

They found newborn Yeats in his crib, in need of a hug. Nichola was nowhere to be seen. Bebe cradled him to her. She was, unexpectedly, a mother yet again.

–

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