“Don’t get crazy,” she smiled. “Just don’t lose the allergy medicine.”
For the first time in six years, they shared a real joke without the weight of their past hanging over them.
Beatrice, meanwhile, was forced to accept something she had never imagined: being the children’s biological grandmother did not give her automatic access to them. Alex stood firm.
“If you ever meet them, it will be on Elena’s timeline and the kids’ terms,” Alex told his mother.
“I am their grandmother!” Beatrice cried.
“That’s biology, Mom. The rest is earned.”
It was the same lesson Elena had taught him.
It took Beatrice months to put her pride aside. When she eventually met the quadruplets at a neutral community center, there were no dramatic embraces. Leo asked why she had taken so long to come. Lucas wanted to know whether she knew how to play chess. Maya asked if she could bake nut-free cookies. Clara pointed to an old photograph of Alex as a boy that Beatrice carried in her wallet and asked why he looked so sad.
