» The Hopper Legacy Chapter 1.4 - Then Comes Marriage

Ava and Odin eloped that night, privately, just outside of the bistro where they’d first met. Some might think it unromantic to marry right outside of one’s workplace, but those people couldn’t have seen how happy the couple was and how gorgeous the stars were blinking down on them that night.

Heather Crosby, however, was furious. She still hadn’t accepted the divorce and hoped to use Lizette as a means of luring Odin back to her. But because she wanted to avoid a custody suit, she agreed that Odin could have full visitation rights as long as Lizette could remain in her custody. The Crosbys sold the house but Odin graciously allowed Heather to keep the profits to find herself a new place. Odin moved in with Ava.

The first month of the marriage was absolute bliss. It was strange to go from being good friends to suddenly being married, but Ava and Odin were so compatible that it felt perfectly natural. They had taken some time off work to get Odin settled in and the two of them spent all their time together… much of it in bed. Ava was madly in love and was loved in return for the first time in her life. She’d never been so happy.

Heather and Lizette had moved into a new place, and, in what they assumed was a gesture of goodwill, Heather invited the newlyweds to a Halloween party. Odin wanted to go, but Ava was dreading it. This was in part due to her immense dislike of Heather, but mostly because she hadn’t been feeling well lately.

Still, Odin was eager to make peace with his ex-wife, hoping that everyone could learn to tolerate each other for the sake of his daughter. Ava, trying her best to be a good wife, agreed to accompany him to the party.

Heather’s house was on the small side, but Ava thought it was cute, and Heather had come outside to invite the couple in.

“Maybe we can get along after all,” Ava whispered.

Upon entering the house, though, Ava changed her mind.

Ava and Odin watched, dumbfounded, as the baby began to scream in her mother’s arms. Instead of feeding the obviously hungry Lizette, Heather simply placed her on the floor.

“I’ll pick you up again after you shut up!” Heather grunted at the baby with a sneer. Lizette continued to cry while Heather stalked off to the bathroom. Ava noticed Odin’s fists clench at his sides.

She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll look after Lizette while you talk to Heather.”

Ava did her best to calm the weeping child while screams emanated from the bathroom.

“When was the last time you even fed her?! And what kind of mother just tosses a crying baby on the floor? Do you even have a crib in this hellhole?!”

Heather was angry, but she put up a weak fight. “We’re taking Lizette home with us,” said Odin, and there was a note of finality in his voice. “Come on, Ava.”

Heather didn’t even try to follow them out the door.

Ava held little Lizette in the car, since they hadn’t bought a car seat yet. Odin drove to the store on the way home to buy a crib, which he assembled that night as Lizette slept in Ava’s arms. She assured her husband that she was happy to have Lizette join their household. He often forgot that she had been neglected as a child, and it pained her to see an innocent infant treated that way.

Ava tucked in Lizette, who was quite a cheerful baby when her tummy was full. Then she went to the living room to comfort her husband, who felt guilty for having allowed his little girl to live in those conditions.

“Lizette is safe now,” said Ava, pulling Odin in for a hug. “Go back to bed. I’ll stay out here a while in case she wakes up. Everything is going to be okay.”

She sat in the baby’s room until both Lizette and her husband had fallen asleep. When she stood up, she felt an unfamiliar stirring in her gut. In that moment, Ava became sure of something she’d been suspecting for a few days: she was pregnant.