She had a decent job at a bookstore and promised it wouldn’t all fall on him. Slowly, Vincent started to believe her. Maybe he could be a father. Maybe they’d make it work. But everything shattered in the ultrasound room when the doctor turned the screen and calmly said: “Seven.”
Seven embryos. Not one. Not two. Seven tiny pulses flickering across the monitor. The room fell silent as the doctor explained how rare this was—an extraordinary genetic anomaly. Fewer than a handful of natural septuplet pregnancies existed in the world. Vincent had barely been able to breathe through one heartbeat. Seven? He went cold. Linda, on the other hand, gripped his hand and smiled. “They’re real,” she whispered. Her eyes were wet, but they sparkled. She meant it.