The Strength Within (Sebastian Vettel)

31. Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

Emily paced up and down their hotel room.

"Emily calm down," Seb said. "Try not to worry. He'll be fine. Sure, he might be a little pissed but he'll be happy for you, for us."

They were waiting for Joel to arrive. They'd invited him around to break the news about their marriage.

"He's going to be so annoyed that I didn't invite him. Why didn't we Seb? He's my only family."

"You know it was all a last minute decision. He'd already planned to go to Florida with the lads. And we wanted something small, if we'd have invited him we'd have had to invited Demi, then Harry and Kara would have come. Then all my family. Our day was perfect. It was nice to have Antti and Britta there as witnesses but it was mainly a day just for us. Joel will understand."

"I hope he will."

"My family were OK when we told them, I'm sure he will be too."

They had told Seb's family on a Zoom call the day before. Heike had started squealing and Norbert had actually cried. They ended the call saying they were going to tell Fabian and Seb's older sisters straight away.

Carla had been over the moon and was going to break the news to the girls when they returned from staying at their maternal grandparents'.

There was a knock on the door. Seb got up and went to answer it.

"Hey Seb, hey sis. Seems like ages since I saw you. Oh my lord, look at bump. He's growing! People are going to start noticing soon. How far are you now?"

"Just over 14 weeks. It's good to see you Joel."

"Ems, is everything OK?" he asked, sensing something was not quite right with his sister.

"Yeah, um, about that. Joel you might want to sit down." He frowned.

"Oh my God, it's twins isn't it?" he blurted out, sitting down on the sofa next to Seb.

Emily perched on the end of the bed and gave a nervous laugh.

"No, definitely only one. Seb show him." Seb got up and retrieved the scan photo out of Emily's suitcase. He handed it to Joel.

Joel stared at the black and white image with a smile on his face.

"You know Ems, I have to agree with Seb. That's a girl, look at her! Definitely girl features."

"Not you as well," Emily sighed. "How can you tell from that picture? It's not even a 3d one. I'm telling you, it's a boy."

"Haha, we'll see. Now if it's not twins, what's bothering you?"

Emily started twisting a lock of hair around her finger. Joel knew from experience that she did that when she felt guilty about something.

"Emily Victoria, what have you done?" he asked, with a hint of suspicion creeping into his voice.

"OK, so please don't be mad."

"Spit it out."

"So you know we've planned the wedding for June?"

"Yes. Oh no, you haven't arranged a fancy dress one or something have you? Or worse, Seb hasn't discovered he has Scottish ancestry and wants us to wear kilts?"

Emily shook her head, laughing in spite of her nerves.

"Emily, what is it?"

"We couldn't wait. We just wanted to be husband and wife. We are still having our Switzerland wedding, but it's just going to be a blessing."