Melbourne , Victoria June '92

Ryan Munroe waited in the hospital room with his wife, Abigail Munroe, soon after her recovery from anesthesia. She was awake and now clearly aware that she had just given birth and wanted to see her new born .

The Munroe's were well known in their home town. Abigail was already the only daughter in a family worth millions , and she was the one helping her husband to get a great name in the business world. Forced marriage or not , Ryan at least got his own name .

Seven years ago, Ryan was starting a small company , and Abigail's father , Mr Westwood , the owner of the rival company was planning to involve Ryan in a scam. He was going to charge wrong accusations against him to bring Munroe's company down so they made a deal.

Ryan back then was new in the business. He was the youngest CEO in the area competing against big companies like Westwood 's , in fact he almost beating them and reaching the top. Clearly they could not accept it and they made a plan to bring him down. They made a deal where Ryan would marry his only daughter in order to let him have his share of place in the business world and Munroe's company would be saved. Ryan's father had built the company with his everything but after he passed away , Ryan had to take over it and then this happened. He had to do all this for the sake of his company. It was in a fragile state to handle any blows at that time. Ryan already sacrificed almost everything for the company , even his love.

At the afternoon Abigail gave birth to the cutest little girl in the world ; followed half an hour with another beautiful baby girl.

Abigail has decided before to have a natural birthing experience , but fate said it word and Abi had a Caesarean delivery.

The twins were not first born , six years ago Abi gave birth to her first son ; Jason , who was left at his grandparents house at the moment.

In few minutes after her awakening , a nurse walked in holding a crying baby who clearly was ferociously hungry, smiling down at the the fussy new born who stopped crying the moment the nurse transferred her to her mom's arms, as soon as the infant found her mommy's nipple she's started sucking like she was in race with time .

As they all agreed, the first born had her mother's mouth and chin but her eyes and nose clearly belonged to Ryan. Abigail named her Eve ; saying that she felt obligated to name the first girl Eve after she kept seeing a dream repeatedly during the nine months of pregnancy.

Eve was born as a healthy little girl weighted seven pounds and six ounce; the nurse who brought her to her mom said she was a fighter, after some complications happened to Abigail in the operation room. Eve came to this world with tight fists , as the nurse explained.

The second time's parents beamed with happiness at the news.

' You're such a little warrior , my precious'

Ryan said rubbing very gently on Eve's tiny hand

' this is for you , you just get half of my heart , I've  already given the other half to your other half'

Ryan continued , placing a little golden necklace with bluish sapphire designed as  half heart , a limited edition

'Aww that's so pretty !'

Abigail exclaimed,  loving the little present from Ryan , he has already gifted her almost similar necklace as her daughters, and was planted right there , above her cleavage.

But now the focus was on the arrival of Abigail's second baby; Eve's twin. After they asked about her.

Unlike her sister, the twin girl was born with health problems, more specifically with heart complications which needed an urgent surgery that Ryan already signed for it . And now the new baby was in the intensive care unit after a successful operation. Abigail was shocked by the news and in a moment of motherhood, she pulled her baby who was feeding from her breast, not satisfied yet and placed her in the bassinet beside her bed, forcing herself out of it to go to see her other baby, leaving baby Eve all crying .

Ryan noticed what his wife of seven years just has done. He knew their second child needed their full attention and so was Eve, what made it worse , that Eve was still hungry ; something deep down inside him told him that Abi was choosing between the both and he could say nothing about it.

Ryan called for the nurse to look after the baby while they're going to check on her twin.

From the glass , the little girl looked so peaceful that she didn't make any moves, but the nurse there assured them that she's been just asleep.

The girl as they noticed, she was spitting image of her father Ryan . But she was different than her old sister; they didn't seem like twin at all; they're not identical and that was rare. After a while they decided to name her Emily Rose. She was beautiful like a rose.

Later that evening, Ryan left to his house after checking on Emily and kissing goodnight his wife and the little Eve ,who was peacefully asleep. On his way ,Ryan couldn't get over what he had seen earlier, as much as he was utterly happy he was confused and scared of one thought, how would they take care of three children , taking good care of Eve while Emily's going to need the fully attention of the both , not forgetting their first child Jason, who turned five years in couple weeks ago.



Mornington , Victoria June '92

Heavy cold drops pouring down from the gray sky that was suddenly turned from a light blue one, it was the first rain of the season , welcoming and promising a cold winter ahead.

Deborah Christie nursed herself a glass of the scotch from the bar , and threw herself on the canopy after kicking her shoes out her feet, staring down at the glass in her hand, her world changed in matter of one day , just like blue sky that turned to black gray, portraying Deborah mood at the time. She was a successful surgeon in plastics though her young age. People were not very opened minded about this kind of specialty , but she has helped plenty of people who were badly in need , she was dedicated to her work as much as to her hobby, who was just an average school teacher.

Deborah couldn't think of anything else, the news she's heard already captured all her senses that made her emotionless. How she couldn't be, while she watched her dream falling and shattering into small pieces. It was miracle she back home safe.

The blue eyed brunette sipped from her glass in one shot move , letting the liquid burning it way down her throat. All what she hoped and all what she wished faded now to the darkness, if she had the ability she would exchanged everything she has worked for, for hearing that magical word.

Mama.

At her 28 years, the young Deborah now was officially sterile and there left no hope to have her own child. Deborah was delicate , she had twice carried babies but the fetuses were spontaneously aborted due to her delicate state. Now with all the examinations she passed through they're all gone in vain. The last one she hoped good from; she's got the cruelest news from her doctor; that she would not be able to conceive anymore, she's got a very bad infection in her uterus and there were some more complications that would left her infertile after, so she had to undergo an urgent surgery to remove her uterus, as soon as possible. There was of course another solution to have a child as her doctor told her, but if we need to talk about something; the medical science that was when it comes to 'vitro insemination' in the early 90s , it was still in its infant stages and the costs where astronomical and the success rate was only like 20% or so, they can't give you a 100% that it would work.

Infertile 

No longer a complete woman.

Now how would she tell her husband such news?

The place was dead calm before the sound of the old phone's echo penetrated the silence, but no one answered it. Soon the caller went to the answering machine after a long ringing ; Deborah at the moment couldn't care less , it must be one of the co-workers in the clinics she worked at , or at least it could be Ian, her husband, asking about the results, she thought to herself . All what she knew that she was not waiting for any call. It didn't last long to figure out that the voice was different, it definitely didn't belong to Ian , neither to her colleagues , it was familiar ; deep, masculine but friendly, the voice that she would never forget. His voice.

Debby's heart skipped several beats while she was listening to the message he left for her , she wanted to pick up the phone but she couldn't. Something was disallowing her to.




Melbourne , Victoria August '92

One of the bad things about depression is that it can sneak up on you and blindside you when you least expect it. Another bad thing is that you may not realize that you have it until your entire life is unraveling around you.

Abigail was clearly distressed and had obviously been crying and looked a mess . Considering that there are a lot of different kinds of depression , her symptoms were not the classic signs of depression. Abigail was irritated. Everything irritated her including her own kids . But the major symptom was that she lost all coping abilities . It has started after only three weeks since she brought the twin to this world , now its two months already and Abi with the time has grown a thin skin, getting more nervous over little things , feeling inexplicably tired and drained of energy, very sad and restless. Too much pressure, too much attention required for the three children. She tried to get her life together without any help but she failed.

When she gave birth , she thought it would be easy like her first child. Jason had been an easy baby, always contented and requiring only the slightest attention to keep him happy. Emily was calm new born who needed an extra time to look after her due to her health condition. But the problem was Eve. She had proven somewhat more difficult, perhaps the easy time Abigail had with Jason lulled her into thinking that raising Eve and Emily would also be a doddle. Sadly not, Abigail began to get more and more depressed, believing she was a poor mother , getting irritated with Eve's needs and even blaming her for every tiny thing that went wrong.

She hated her. Recalling what her family said about her , and blaming her for the fragile health of her twin. Add to it the new problems with Ryan was the final straw.

It was Friday night and Ryan had been away for almost a week due to an upcoming business in Canada, and he would stayed there for another week to seal the deal. Unfortunately Abi that night was in tight grip with her postnatal , she couldn't bear with the crying Eve anymore.

Abigail was devastated , her marriage was threatend to fall apart , the crying babies the entire 24/7 . She sat on the couch and stared at the blank TV screen for an hour or so , couldn't pull herself together , and with Ryan in Canada even for a work she thought the worst even though Ryan did not say it was over definitively.She finally got up and nursed herself a glass of Single malt Scotch whisky, she knew she shouldn't drink while she was breastfeeding the twins , but she couldn't disallow herself to do.

'Can't you just fucking shut up! '

Abi lost control on herself and started yelling on the crying baby , thinking that Eve was crying from hunger, but the cause was far from that ,the little baby was in pain.

Abigail cursed again, very unsatisfied , she walked to the nursery , Eve's crying has waken up her sister who soon begun her own .

' Can't you just take a break for a moment , why you're not mute!'

she said with hatred , pressing her palm on the baby's lips. Then she called the girls nanny , forgetting that she took three days off.

Suddenly a devilish thought had crossed her mind , she called after the driver who came in hurry , curious and scared

' I want you to take this piece of crap and throw her away , she's irritating me'

she said enraged pointing at Eve. The driver was shocked and couldn't believe what he has just heard. Abi looked at him with strict gaze. He finally dared to speak out

' Maybe she's just hungry or in pain, Ma'am' 

he tried to speak with the mother in her

' Hungry, hungry, hungry all the time , I'm not her cow, just take this jinx away from here , I don't want to see her face or hear her irritating voice anymore'

The driver reached his hands out carrying Eve out her bed, shaking her in try to calm her down, it broke his heart seeing the little angel's tears, it was too soon to shed them , and the fact what her mother mouthed was beyond unbelievable . But he didn't dare to stand up against her , he wanted to take Eve with him for few time till her father would back from his business trip , but Abigail was clear with her order , she wanted to get rid of the baby. He once again looked down at the girl in his arms , then nodded. Abigail has threatend him, so he was forced to take her and to never mention about what had happened to anyone else.

Three days later, Abigail back to her senses and felt sorry for what she has done , the regret started eating her inside like fire. Which mother can do that to her child , she didn't deserve to be a mother. She called the driver and he took her where he left the baby. But it was too late. The baby has gone leaving Abigail devastated , what she would tell Ryan when he'd back home and won't find his girl. No , worse, how she would ever recover from what she has done.