Chapter 99 Goodbyes

• The day that Ryan gave up the twins had to be the hardest one that he had ever faced in his entire life. He dropped them off at their grandparents himself, hardly able to look Anna and Noah in the face as they received him into their house. His bodyguard brought Tyler and Taylor's belongings from the car into the house, while Margie busied herself with setting up the children's nursery, trying to make it as close to the one that they had at home. The week before, Ryan had had her come over to this house and remodel the room that was to be the nursery to look like the one back home. Now she was arranging their stuff the way they had been arranged back home too.
• The lump in his throat refused to go no matter how many times or how hard he swallowed to clear it, especially when he saw how uncomfortable the twins, especially Taylor, looked with the effusive petting of her grandparents. Tyler actually did not look too bothered and was busily chewing on a piece of cookie that Anna had given him. Taylor’s cookie was in her hand, but she wasn’t eating it. Instead, she was clinging to one of Ryan’s fingers with her free hand, almost as though she knew exactly why he had brought her and her brother here.
• The silence between Ryan and Craig’s parents was a most uncomfortable one, one that was only broken by Tyler’s loud baby talk. He seemed to be the only one who was interested in talking, and when the awkwardness became unbearable, Craig’s parents would talk busy themselves with talking to him, as if he could understand them, or they could understand him. Ryan could not bring himself to think of anything sensible to say to them, not that he was in any mood to talk to anyone, especially them, but he did not want the twins to notice his resentment, so he tried his best to act nonchalant.