After the death of his wife, a man struggles to raise his triplets, believing they belong to him. One day, however, he meets a stranger in the cemetery and learns that the babies he has devoted so long to raising are not really his.
Dry, rotten brown leaves crunched beneath Jordan Fox’s shoes as he pushed the pram into the ornate gates of a Manhattan cemetery. Dried flowers and half-burned candles were scattered across the lawn. A gust of wind blew through the rows of eastern red cedars, breaking the grave silence as he made his way to the grave of his late wife, Kira. It was the first anniversary of her death.
‘We’re going to see Mum…’ – he said to baby Alan, one of the triplets, leaning his voluminous nappy body on his left hip. The other two, Eric and Stan, were lying in the pram, looking up at the sky and babbling when they saw the dragonflies.
As Jordan approached the grave, his heart raced at the sight of the silhouette of a stranger, looking to be in his fifties, standing beside Kira’s grave. The man adjusted his Irish cap, bending down to touch the headstone with the epitaph: ‘The sparkle in our eyes and hearts is now in the sky. – In memory of Kira Fox.
Jordan struggled to remember, but couldn’t recognise the tall, stout man. ‘Who is he and what is he doing near my wife’s grave?’ – He wondered and walked over to him….
‘Amen!’ – said the man with a wry grin as he finished the sign of the cross and turned grimly to greet Jordan. He smiled, and there was impatience in his eyes as he raised his hand for a handshake, but withdrew it as soon as his gaze shifted to the babies.
Jordan raised his eyebrows in surprise. He wanted to know who this guy was and what he was doing at Kira’s grave. As far as Jordan could remember, he’d never seen this man before…not even at Kira’s funeral. ‘So who is he? And what’s he doing here?’ Jordan was puzzled.
‘I’m offering you a hundred thousand dollars! I’m willing to give you more if you want it. Take the money and give me the children.’
‘You must be Jordan Fox… Nice to meet you, Mr Fox,’ the guy pronounced. ‘I knew you were coming here today, and I’ve been waiting for you. I’m Denis… from Chicago… an ‘old’ mate of Kira’s.’
Jordan was a little surprised because Kira had never told him about having such an old friend from Chicago named Denis.
‘It’s nice to meet you, Denis. I’m not sure I know you… Have we met before? I haven’t been to Chicago before.’
‘Not really! I’ve just arrived in Manhattan. I found out that…’ Denis paused and fell silent, seeing the little ones again. ‘Can I look at your babies…if that’s okay?’
Jordan hesitated and pretended to ignore the man’s request because he wasn’t ready to entrust his babies to a stranger. Denis took it as a rejection, but didn’t fail to step forward and lean over the pram to look at the other two babies.
‘They are angels! Little sweet cinnamon buns! They have my nose and eyes… and brown hair…’ ‘And those big eyelashes… I had them when I was little!’ – muttered Denis. Then he looked up and said something Jordan wasn’t ready to hear.
‘Mr Fox, I know this may not make any sense to you, but…I know you’re wondering who I am and why I’m here. I’m the boys’ REAL father, and I’m here to take them away.’
‘TAKE THEM AWAY??’ Jordan frowned, and he felt like punching the man in the face for even saying that. He pitied him for his age and tried to rush past him, figuring the man had lost his mind.
‘Mr Fox, please believe me. I am the father of these children. The mistake I made in the past still haunts me. I want to correct it before it’s too late. Please send the children with me. I even have an amazing offer for you.’
‘Are you out of your mind, old man? Get out of my way before I call the police,’ Jordan gripped the pram with baby Alan tighter and ignored the guy.
But Denis didn’t budge and began recounting intricate details about the late Kira that left Jordan stunned.
‘Kira, your wife… She loved disco and bicycles… Was a brunette with a taste for art and French cuisine… Soup a la hoyon and crème brûlée were her favourite dishes. She had a peanut allergy and a small burn scar on her right thigh… and she had this…’
‘STOP…STOP!’ shouted Jordan. ‘I don’t want to hear another word about my wife. Who the hell are you and how do you know all this? What do you want?’
‘I told you I’m the father of her children. Mr Fox, I know this is weird, and I can’t get custody of my kids. I know that, okay? But I’m sure you won’t want to waste your youth on them and will be grateful for my company in raising them. You’re young and charming and have your whole life ahead of you. But look at me. I’m old, and I have no one but these little ones. I want them back. Please give them to me and move on with your life.’
‘Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about. And it’s none of your business what I do with my life, okay? Are you crazy, old man? You sound like a crazy person… Go and get on with your life. I don’t know you and I think you have me confused with someone else… Fuck off. And stay away from my kids.’
‘Mr Fox, the children are mine and that’s the truth…and I’d do anything to take them with me. But I don’t want to ruin your life, since you’ve raised them for so long. So let me get this straight. I’m offering you $100,000. I’m willing to give you more if you want it. Take the money and give me the children.’
‘I know more about your wife Kira than you know about her. Take your time and get in touch with me, okay? Here’s my card.’
Tears of shock and grief came to Jordan’s eyes. He couldn’t believe Denis knew so much about Kira. For a moment he wanted to think it was a lie and some random older man was playing a joke on him. Alas, Jordan couldn’t forget how Denis had mentioned the burn mark on Kira’s right thigh.
‘That’s not a bribe, Mr Fox. I want to thank you for raising my kids, okay? And you don’t have to worry about anything. I’m fifty-seven, and I have plenty of experience raising children. You must be glad you put them in good, safe hands. I know how you feel. But don’t worry. Take your time, think about it, and come back. Call me on this number, okay? I’ll be waiting. Denis Roberts doesn’t take no for an answer, so….’.
Denis put a business card in Jordan’s hand and hurried away, leaving him more than shocked and heartbroken.
The flickering flame and smoke of the candle on Kira’s headstone caught Jordan’s attention. He placed the bouquet on the grave and after a moment of silence, he hurried with the children to the cemetery. For a moment he was haunted by thoughts of what Denis had told him.
Jordan couldn’t concentrate on the road. He stopped the car on the side of the road at random intervals, trying to focus, but in vain.
‘Was everything she told me a lie? How could she do this to me?’ – he cried, imagining Kira sitting next to him in the passenger seat. Jordan needed answers to a lot of questions, and he didn’t want to believe what Denis was saying.
But what about the burn scar on her right thigh? He couldn’t help but suspect her, given the circumstances under which he’d met her two years ago.
It had been the spring of 2016. Jordan was making cocktails behind the bar when his gaze fell on the young and beautiful Kira. She was with her friends and was the rowdiest in the gang. Jordan thought she was pretty and wanted to date such a beauty, but never found the means or time to do so. A few days passed and Kira started frequenting the bar and Jordan took great pleasure in serving her whenever she came in.
‘Another margarita on the rocks, please!’ – she often told him with a glossy smile flickering across her face. Kira had never looked at Jordan ‘differently’ and only treated him as a kind, young bartender. But he’d already fallen head over heels in love with her. Every day he left for the night shift, rehearsing his smile and adjusting his hair, black bow tie and muted grey shirt at least a dozen times, confident that he would impress Kira.
Jordan was crushed one night when he saw her making out with another guy in the pub. Reality hit him hard when he realised that Kira was just treating him like a bar worker and nothing special. Heartbroken, Jordan began to keep his distance from her, knowing that she would never be his. One night, however, he couldn’t help himself when he saw Kira crying bitterly alone in the waiting room.
‘Miss, hi, are you alright?’ – He asked and saw her boyfriend, Sean, dancing with another girl. Jordan’s heart melted and he could partially guess what had hurt Kira. Her eyes were puffy and rimmed with red. Warm tears were running down her cheeks, leaving smudges of smeared eyeliner on her make-up.
‘I want to go somewhere…please take me away. I feel like dying,’ she ducked her face into her palms and burst into tears. She cried her heart out to a stranger, but Jordan didn’t treat her like a stranger. She meant more to him than anything else, so he was willing to do anything to comfort her.
He took time off work and offered to drive her home since she was too drunk to leave alone.
‘Sean and I have known each other for six months,’ Kiera ranted, her breath reeking of alcohol. ‘That pervert! He left me for that stupid Lily… What does she have that I don’t? The jerk! He said he didn’t want to continue a relationship with me. What the…’
‘I’m so sorry for you. Be strong, miss. These things happen… and life must go on. Maybe he doesn’t deserve you at all. It’s his loss… Please don’t cry. I’ll always be there for you, as a friend, whenever you need me, okay?’
Kira nodded, her dewy eyes staring at Jordan before he passed out on the seat. He woke her up when she reached the house and helped her out.
‘Thanks, Jordan!’ Kiera smiled through the fogged up car window. ‘I’ll see you again!’
After that, their meetings became a ritual. Jordan and Kiera fell in love with each other and started dating. They danced, walked the night streets of Manhattan, and kissed before saying, ‘I love you! He asked her to promise to quit drinking, and she agreed. She asked him to promise he wouldn’t dump her like her ex-boyfriend and he assured her he would.
It had only been two weeks since their love story had blossomed when Kira told Jordan that she was pregnant with his triplets and talked him into marrying her. He was shocked because it had all happened too fast. He wasn’t ready for it, but was thrilled to become a father.
The couple was soon married in a private ceremony, and it was strange that no one from Kira’s family attended the wedding. Jordan didn’t know anything about her parents, and when he asked her, she said they were dead. That was all he knew and he didn’t bother her anymore because he didn’t want to hurt her. At the time, nothing had been more important to him than starting a life with her, and he had trusted her blindly.
Now it all seemed like an evil joke. Jordan looked at the wedding ring he still wore after Kyra’s death and realised that she had always kept him in a web of lies.
‘I was an idiot! Everything she told me was a lie… Her love was a game… She married me because she needed a man to be the father of someone else’s children.’
‘I should have known the children weren’t mine when she told me she was only two weeks pregnant. I was so stupid! She cheated on me…and with an old man too. How disgusting!’ – he wheezed, tears pouring endlessly from his bloodshot eyes.
The babies suddenly woke up and started crying in the back seat. Jordan was so disturbed and upset that he wanted to run away somewhere where he wouldn’t hear those cries again. But at the same time, he couldn’t start hating his babies just because someone told him they weren’t his. He was confused by the depth of truth in Denis’s claims, so he immediately returned home, still sceptical of any further action.
Jordan decided to forget about the encounter with the stranger and got to work. He put the babies in the cot, taking their nappies off one by one. First was Alan, then Eric, and then Stan. He bathed the babies and changed their nappies. He sang a lullaby, trying hard not to sound like a hungry bear growling in the woods.
When all three were asleep in their cots after the meal, Jordan started washing the dishes, but no sooner had he finished than he smelled the smell of burning. ‘Oh shit, spaghetti!’ – he shrieked, nearly burning his fingers trying to get the pan off the cooker. That’s when he remembered the laundry and ran upstairs to the bathroom, overflowing with foam. Because of the stress, Jordan had used too much laundry detergent. It seemed that this day in his life was all about raining problems.
He saw that it was already time to rush to the bar for the night shift. Then he called Mrs Wills, his elderly neighbour, to come and look after the children.
‘Thank you, Mrs Wills… I’ll be here until you get here,’ he told her and went to check on his little ones. They were sound asleep in their cots. Jordan agonised at the sight of them and couldn’t settle down. He used to think he had the strength and spirit to do everything for his children. But now everything seemed so different and sour, and Denis’s words kept echoing in his head.
‘Why did you do this to me, Kiera? I have never lied or cheated on you… how could you do this? You’ve always lied to me about everything and I can’t figure out what’s true and what isn’t… Even the day you died, you told me you were at a party. I still don’t know where you went that night,’ Jordan whimpered, tears running down his folds as he remembered that dark day that still haunts him.
It had been a rainy night and Jordan was restless, looking out the window every now and then to see if Kiera had come in. His phone was starting to run out of battery because of the constant calls to all her friends, asking if she was with them. Kira told him that she was at a party at a friend’s house, but no one had seen her. Her phone was switched off, probably due to a dead battery, and Jordan began to panic as the time was nearing midnight. His newborn babies started crying. They were hungry and he didn’t know how to comfort them.
Jordan somehow put his babies to sleep. He picked up his phone to see if Kira had called and instead got a call from the station.
‘Yes, Jordan Fox here.’
‘Mr Fox, we’re calling from the station. Could you please come to the morgue? We need help identifying a woman’s body.’
Jordan was sweating as he left his children at his neighbour’s house and rushed to the hospital. He had been called to identify the body of a young woman found in a car crash that night.
He slowed his step and almost froze when the thin white sheet over the body was lifted for identification. Jordan’s heart dropped and tears came to his eyes. Kira’s lifeless body lay motionless, and as it was later discovered, she had been in a drug overdose at the time of the accident.
Jordan’s world changed after that. He felt numb, weak, and afraid to raise his children alone. He felt guilty for being the only one left alive, and at one point his tears stopped with anger. Jordan couldn’t forgive Kira for leaving him with such a huge responsibility on his shoulders. He couldn’t accept her loss and move on with his life, but he forced himself to do so after seeing his children.
They were the only reason he continued to live. He vowed to himself that he would do anything to make sure his children had a good life. After that, Jordan never dated another woman because he still loved Kyra. He still wore their wedding ring and believed she wasn’t going anywhere.
He became a mother and father to his three young sons and devoted his life to them. Jordan tossed between work and his children and hardly found time for himself. He forgot what a good night’s sleep was like. He stopped socialising with his friends and began to live his life thinking more about his children than himself.
But now, now that he knew he wasn’t their real father, he began to doubt whether he could ever see them the same way again, and whether he really wanted to spend his time and energy raising them.
‘I can’t do this anymore…I just can’t,’ Jordan stammered, pushing his chair, the legs of which scraped across the wooden floor, waking the babies. A strange thought occurred to him as he slammed the door shut and left, not even saying his usual ‘Thank you and have a good day!’ to his neighbour Mrs. Wills when she came to watch the kids.
Jordan couldn’t settle down all that night in the pub. When he got home after his shift, he went straight to his room to find Denis’s card. He didn’t even stop to look at his babies or cuddle with them like he usually did.
A few minutes later, Jordan came out of his room and saw the three little ones gesturing to him and babbling ‘Yes-Da’s’ in their baby language, asking him to carry them.
Jordan’s heart fell to the ground. ‘How could I… How could I even think about leaving you guys? I can’t live without you guys… You’re my everything… God, how could I even think about leaving them?’ – he cried, his eyes fixed on the call that had already been connected to Denis.
‘Hello? Hello… is anyone there?’ – came through the receiver in the faint voice of an elderly man.
‘Mr Roberts, it’s me, Jordan.’
‘I’ve been waiting for your call, Mr Fox. I’m so happy you called me…finally! So, what have you decided? When should I meet you with the cheque and pick up the little ones?’
‘I’m sorry, Mr Roberts…but I can’t take you up on your offer. A father is the one who raises his children, not necessarily the one who gives birth to them. I may not be their real father, but they are still my children. I can’t imagine life without them,’ Jordan said sternly and politely.
‘Mr Fox… wait a minute… please. Look, we can talk about this again, okay? You don’t understand…I want my children. I can’t live without them.’
‘I’m sorry, Mr Roberts. Even I can’t live without them. They are my world. And I don’t want your money. You can’t trade love for money.’
‘I’ll tell my children about you when they’re big. They’ll decide for themselves who they want to choose. But I can’t send them to you because I love them and am their FATHER! Goodbye!’
Denis was discouraged. ‘Okay, if that’s what you decide. But let’s meet tomorrow at a café… or maybe at your place? You decide.’
‘I’m sorry, Mr Roberts, but I’m busy tomorrow. I don’t think I’ll be able to…’
‘Don’t you want to know the whole truth, Mr Fox? I’ve only told you part of it. There’s something else you don’t know yet.’
Jordan agreed, catching his breath, surprised at the strangeness of Denis’s question. He took the night shift the next evening and waited impatiently for him to meet him at his house.
Denis showed up a couple of hours later with several boxes. ‘Just new jumpers, nappies and blankets for the babies!’ – he laughed, hanging his overcoat on a rack and making himself comfortable. Denis’s gaze fell on the empty cot, and he realised that Jordan had hidden his children somewhere far away, away from his gaze and understanding.
Jordan hated the silence around him. He couldn’t wait to find out the ‘truth’ this man was bragging about, and after a few seconds of staring at each other, he broke the silence.
‘So… what’s the matter? You said there was still something I should know.’
Denis smiled grimly, unzipped his jacket and pulled out an old photograph. He kept looking at it, and Jordan thought it was odd.
‘Mr Roberts… what’s this? Look, I don’t have time, and I’d appreciate it if you’d make this quick.’
Suddenly tears streamed down Denis’s face. He couldn’t hold them back as his gaze remained fixed on the photograph.
‘Mr Fox, the children with you aren’t yours…and they aren’t mine either. In fact, I am their CITIZEN!’
Dennis handed Jordan the picture of him with Kira and stood up, tearfully making his way to the window.
‘Oh my God… Where have you been all these days… Kira told me that her parents DIED… She didn’t tell me anything about you. What happened to you? Why didn’t you come to her funeral?’
‘I’ve been such a bad father, Mr Fox,’ Denis cried. ‘I did what no father should do to his child.’
‘After my wife died, I raised my daughter alone. I gave her everything…love, money and education. I wanted her to live the life I imagined, but she lost her way and lost her way because of her addiction.’
‘I wanted to send Kira to rehab and even threatened to disinherit her. But she refused and things went downhill after that. She started coming home late and every night I would see a random bloke giving her a lift home. My name and reputation were being ruined, so I kicked her out. She was furious and before she left she told me I was the worst father ever and asked me not to look for her. I thought she would come back as soon as the money ran out, but she never came back. I can’t forgive myself for not trying to help my child. I abandoned her, and now she’s gone for good.’
‘But how did you find me? And how did you know the children weren’t mine?’ Jordan interrupted Denis, curiously trying to put the puzzle together.
‘I didn’t even know that my daughter was married, had children and died until I recently met Amy, her best friend in Chicago… She told me about you and the babies and I flew here immediately to meet you,’ Denis said.
‘When she was pregnant, Kyra met with her friend and told her about her fears. She told Amy that she was afraid you’d leave her if you found out the babies weren’t yours.’
‘Oh my God…so those are her ex-boyfriend Sean’s kids?’ Jordan was stunned.
‘I’m not sure about that because my daughter told Amy that she dated and broke up with three other men around the same time she married you. Kira herself didn’t know who the father was. We still don’t know the real father and we don’t want to know,’ Denis lamented.
‘All I can say is that I am happy that my grandchildren have a man they can call ‘daddy’. Mr Fox, only you can love and raise them well. I’m sorry I lied to you about being their father. I don’t know what went through my head. I was afraid you wouldn’t let me raise them, and I knew I would never get custody of them unless you gave them up. That’s why I offered you the money. I’m so sorry. It’s my fault and I have no tears left to cry. I’m getting old and I just want to be involved in my grandchildren’s lives. I haven’t been a good father, but I want to be a good grandfather.’
Jordan said nothing more and hugged Denis. It was the least he could do to comfort the grief-stricken old man who couldn’t forgive himself for abandoning his daughter when she needed him most.
Over time, Denis began to visit Jordan and the children often, and at one point even decided to move in with them. He treated Jordan as his son and was happy to be involved in raising his grandchildren.
What can we learn from this story?
- A real parent is not only the one who gives birth to children, but also the one who raises them with love and care. When Jordan found out that he was not the biological father of his triplets, he decided to set the record straight by giving them to Denis, who claimed to be their birth father. But then Jordan changed his mind and told Denis that a real father is someone who raises his children, not just someone who gives birth to them.
- Don’t make hasty decisions that could make you regret them for the rest of your life. When Denis couldn’t cope with his daughter’s addiction, he advised her to go to rehab. When she refused, he kicked her out of the house, knowing he would never get the chance to see her again.
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