GHOST SQUAD

CHAPTER 38- CHANGE

"Shhhhh," Knave cut her off. "There are kids in the room, darling." He pointed out. "Speaking of Mendaline, I hope you remember that we have to visit her and Charlie in the evening."

"I'll get ready in a while." Alice said, giving a little pout. Knave smiled and bent down to give her a peck on the cheek.

"Mommy, Tris is pulling my hair!" Maria complained.

Alice shot Knave a resigned look. "Please handle it!" She begged.

Knave chuckled as he went over to their kids. "My boy, why are you troubling your sister?" He asked, as he climbed up the bed to join the kids. The bed squeaked, making Alice's heart beat fast again.

"Maria stole Tom!" Tristan complained, pointing at the action figurine which was in Maria's hand.

"She borrowed it," Knave replied. "She'll give it back in a jiffy." Tristan looked like a deflated balloon. "Why don't we play rock, paper, and scissors till then?" Knave offered.

Tristan perked up. "Okay!" 

"I wanna play too!" Maria cried.

"Hop in then!" Knave said. 

Maria squeaked and jumped to sit next to her father. Like him, she too had blue eyes. However, she had inherited her mother's hair.

Alice watched the three of them, allowing herself to admire her beautiful family. It was as if just yesterday that Knave had proposed to her in this very room. Aria had moved out a few years after Tristan was born.

"Aunt Pearl has left her house and boutique on my name," Aria had told Knave. "And I want to respect that."

"Aria, please stay!" Alice had begged, holding one-year-old Tristan.

"I would love to," Aria had said. "But I need to find myself, and I can't do that here."

That had rendered Alice and Knave speechless. A change of environment was what Aria desperately needed and so they all had reluctantly let her go.

Not long after Aria had shifted, that Knave's parents had gifted Aria a package for a world tour to let her know just how much they were grateful for her.

Aria had gladly accepted the gift and had been gone for almost three years. She still would've been travelling the world had it not been for Maria. 

As soon as Aria had heard Alice was expecting again, she had booked the next flight from Peru and was there for Alice as she had always been.

Alice supposed she couldn't have gotten through with both her pregnancies without Aria. Even now, she was a constant support. From giving her back massages, to staying up during the nights Alice couldn't sleep. Not to mention being with her in the delivery room when Knave had fainted the first time Alice had gone into labour.

Alice wished there was a way to use her magic to take away the pain, but even magic failed against the power of motherhood. She supposed one could never truly understand magic and its laws.

However, Alice was also glad that magic did not take away the sweet pain of giving birth. Somehow, her struggle during her pregnancies made her feel closer to her kids in a way she didn't believe could be possible.

Being a mother herself made Alice question, not for the first time, how Cora could kill her own kids without a second thought. How could she have taken the life of a child she herself had given life to?

"ALICE!" Knave shouted, snapping his fingers in front of her face.

At some point, Knave had gotten down from the bed and was now kneeling in front of her, looking concerned. The kids were nowhere to be seen.