A Home for Valentino

Preview - Chapter 1

It was the beginning of February, and the rain came down like it would never stop, throughout all that noisy rain fall, Ava heard the knocker on the front door pounding, whoever was knocking had resorted to pounding on the door like the hounds of hell were on their heels. It was an annoying sound. She thought she ought to install a doorbell, even the neighbors had been complaining about her visitors always knocking and disturbing their peace, but her neighbors were the least of her concern right now. She was halfway through her make up and still had to get dressed. She thought it strange that Leroy would be this early and knock like that, he was never early.

The pounding persisted, but harder and louder; Ava angrily walked out of her bedroom to open the door and stopped dead in her tracks as she came face to face with her twin sister Emma.

“Hey Emma,” Ava said barely audible.

“Hey yourself,” her sister responded.

Ava crushed her sister into a long hug, tears streaming down her face messing up her make up. Ava broke the hug and looked at her sister, who hadn’t returned her hug, but that didn’t bother her at all, she was glad to see her sister she hadn’t seen in over two years. Ava had looked for Emma at first when she didn’t hear from her but stopped once she realized she was the only one reaching out, Emma was around, but she didn’t want to be found. Emma was an adult, Ava was past treating her like a child, even though Emma tended to act like one.

“Wow, come in. Where have you been?” She stepped back to make way for Emma to come in.

Emma was rooted where she stood and didn’t move, “I’m sorry, I can’t come in and I can’t stay either.”

A faint sound of whimpering came from outside Ava’s door next to Emma. Ava was too absorbed seeing Emma that she didn’t register a small baby carrier and a baby bag next to her sister. As she focused on what she thought she saw, a small hand popped out of the carrier.

“Is that a baby?”

“Yes, it’s a baby, well my baby. Your nephew,” Emma said casually.

Ava shook her head, trying to wake up from what she thought was a dream. Emma had a baby. What? When?

“I see you’re still shaken a bit, and I’m sorry for rocking up like this, but I didn’t know where to go.”

“You know you’re always welcome to come to me and stay with me Emma, come in, let’s talk.”

“I can’t, I must go, but I can’t take the baby with me. I need you to look after him,” Emma told her picking up the baby carrier together with a baby bag and handing it over to Ava. “His name is Valentino.”

“Hey, what is going on?” Ava asked sadly.

“I’m sorry for everything over the years, I know I’ve been nothing but a pain to you,” Emma told her walking away, tears tricking down her face.

Ava couldn’t believe Emma was walking away. She walked behind her with the baby, not forgetting the fact that she was wearing a very short gown and she was barefoot, “Emma come back here! What is going on?”

Emma didn’t even slow down, she walked faster, down the stairs she went, Ava was struggling to keep up due to the baby and the baby bag she was carrying.

“Emma please stop. Come on. At least tell me who is the father. Why aren’t you taking the baby to him? Talk to me.”

Emma slowed down, but didn’t turn around, the silence stretched as Ava waited, the baby getting heavier in her hands. The child’s cry broke the silence, a painful wail that cut right through Ava’s heart.

“He is hungry, he hasn’t had anything to eat since this morning. I know with you, Valentino will have a better life, he will be fed and taken care of. I know you’ll do better.” Emma said between sobs still with her back to Ava.

“Emma, why don’t you take the baby to the father, it’s his responsibility too. Who is he? We can go together.” Ava pleaded.

“He doesn’t want the baby, he knows about him, but he told me he doesn’t want him, I can’t provide for him either, so it’s better if you keep him, Ava. I can’t put him in an orphanage, you know how it is there, how it was for us. I don’t want that for my baby. Promise me you won’t take him to an orphanage or let him get in the system.”

“Emma, you’re not making sense come back here. We can talk.”

Emma turned around, “Just promise me Ava please, that you won’t let him be raised by anyone else.”

Ava couldn’t stop crying and couldn’t help but weakly respond, “I promise.”

“Thank you, I love you Ava, bye.”

Emma left Ava standing there and didn’t look back; she exited the building. Ava couldn’t even run after her, she was holding the baby, the rain was pouring, and the baby was loudly crying and running or screaming after her sister wouldn’t help.

Ava walked back to her apartment not knowing what to do. The baby kept painfully wailing, and Ava did her best to quiet him.

She carried the baby in her arms protectively like it was the most natural thing for her, Ava was crying quietly as well, her mind filled with a million questions. She finally saw her sister after such a long time, only to lose her again and she didn’t have time to talk to her, it was too painful to even think about. After what seemed like forever, she must have done something right because the baby stopped crying and she realized he was sleeping. She took that moment to put down the baby, she walked to her bedroom and gently put him on the bed. She had the first proper glimpse of Valentino, and she found herself crying out in amazement.

“I can’t believe it, you look just like your mother,” she told the sleeping baby.

Emma couldn’t believe it, that this beautiful tiny baby boy was her blood, he bore such a resemblance to his mother, as little as he was, it wasn’t hard to see, there was no doubt he was her nephew, he was his mother’s son. He was the image of Emma. He had the same long, cute nose, high cheekbones, and blue eyes like his mom. He was perfect. Emma didn’t know much about babies to guess how old he was, so she rampaged through his bag, it had a disposable nappy and baby wipes, baby lotion and an empty milk bottle. She found and envelope in the bag as well.

The small envelope had a picture of her sister with Valentino after he was born at the hospital, she flipped the photo so see if there was something written on it, as she had guessed, the photo had a date, which she assumed was Valentino’s date of birth, 01 October 2022 was written on the back of the photo and below the date there was a name - Valentino Romeo Doyle.

“So, you’re Valentino Romeo Doyle. Beautiful names.  Pleased to meet you little one, I’m Ava, your auntie.” She told the sleeping baby as if he can hear her. Ava wasn’t surprised that her sister named his boy those names. Emma always had these weird fantasies of romance and prince charming when growing up, and her looks encouraged her because all the boys were always after her. She was grateful that they were fraternal twins as she felt that it gave them both a sense of their own identity.

Looking further in the envelope and the bag, she couldn’t find anything like a birth certificate or something that could be more useful. She only found receipts of baby food and baby formula. She was still confused on what to do, she wasn’t going to call police because she knew how that would end, they would call the social services and her sister would be wanted for child negligence and they would take the baby away from her. She knew how it went, she was once there, she had promised her sister and she was going to keep that promise.

“Emma why! “Ava cried as she held the photo tight against her chest. Thinking how her life drastically changed in a moment by just a knock on her door.