Elliot’s mouth fell open.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” I said. “This was our one last family trip. But not the way you thought. It was YOUR last trip with us.”
His face flushed a deep red.
“This was our one last family trip.”
“Is this some kind of joke?”
“No joke,” I said. “You gave me an ultimatum. Choose you or the boys. I chose the boys the moment you opened your mouth.”
He took a step closer, lowering his voice.
“You planned this? You dragged me across town to break up with me in front of clowns and cotton candy?”
A cluster of teenagers had stopped scrolling on their phones, watching openly.
“Is this some kind of joke?”
The twins looked up at me, sensing something serious was happening.
I placed a hand on each of their small shoulders and smiled down at them.
“Everything’s okay, buddies. We’re just taking a special picture. Just the three of us.”
Elliot let out a bitter laugh.
“You’re going to regret this. Nobody else is going to want you with two kids attached.”
“Then it’s a good thing I want myself,” I answered. “And I want them. That’s more than enough.”
Elliot let out a bitter laugh.
The photographer let out a cough that sounded a lot like a surprised laugh.
One of the teenagers said, “Ohhh… she cooked him.”
A man around our age had started recording on his phone.
Elliot exploded.
His voice boomed across the fairground.
“You’re seriously throwing away our engagement for someone else’s kids? Are you INSANE?”
“Ohhh… she cooked him.”
Heads turned.
The twins clung to my legs, wide-eyed.
“They’re my BROTHERS,” I said. “Not ‘someone else’s kids.'”
“All I asked was that you put them in foster care! That’s NORMAL! And you’re picking THEM over ME?”
A woman nearby gasped loudly.
“They’re my BROTHERS,”
“Did he just say foster care? About those little boys?”
An older man stepped forward, glaring at Elliot.
“Son, you should be ashamed of yourself. Screaming at a woman about her orphaned brothers in public? Walk away before you embarrass yourself further.”
Another voice chimed in from the growing circle.
