2.8 Can't make you love me

Little Christina suffered from not receiving any fatherly attention at all. As long as her grandmother had still been around, she had never been alone for more than a few minutes. This was different now. Although her mother tried to check on her quite often, nobody really played with her. Instead, she was given a lot of food, which made her feel nauseous. Sometimes, when she was in bed, she felt like her grandmother would be back in their house, cuddling her and telling her what a sweet little girl she was. Exactly like she did before. She could almost feel a warm hand holding on to her, she could almost smell her grandmother’s breath on her, always smelling of peppermint. 

In the meantime, Karim stuck to his routine of taking care of Cyra only. The little girl who looked so much like him got all his attention, and he didn’t feel wrong about it. Most certainly she was the one to carry on the family, since her mind seemed to be a lot stronger than her sister’s. Strangely, there had been moments in the few past weeks that had made him feel as if another presence was in the same room as him, screaming and shouting at him. Whenever he turned around, he couldn’t see anything. But the sudden frostiness, clenching around his heart, he couldn’t have imagined. Or could he?

Even though these moments made him think a lot, he didn’t change his behavior at all. Christina was left alone, stuffed with food and bombarded with toys.

There was no way Britney could make up for an absent father, even though she tried so hard. Christina learned how to walk right after Cyra did, while the sun was sound asleep, as was the rest of the world. Britney was on maternity leave, so she didn’t have to stick to a certain schedule. And during the night were the only hours she could spend on her daughter whose eyes shone so brightly whenever her mother entered the room. The entire days were filled with research, writing articles and dealing with her pregnancy, which was harder on her than the one before.

In addition, she still had to take care of the house, which was something Karim refused to do. As much as she loved him, this was bugging her a lot.

To blow off some steam, she decided to continue her mother’s work in the garden, the one Anna had grown all on her own many moons ago. It was a satisfying experience, and even though Britney couldn’t imagine doing this every day, every hour, it was a nice change of pace. 

Said change of pace was something Karim aspired, too. His days at work had been stressful, given that his best journalist –his wife- was absent and barely submitting articles. Since he had been asked to make way for a new, young management a couple of times already, he now decided to retire. It was high time. Cyra was growing up into a child soon, and he wanted to be there for her all the time.

Britney was happy for her husband, silently hoping that he would open his eyes at some point, seeing his other daughter, as well. But she didn’t dare saying something to him, because she was afraid of the arguments that could arise from this topic. Arguments were bad for the unborn baby, which was still giving her a hard time.

 

Instead, she reluctantly watched him interacting with Cyra every single day. 

 

Although he didn’t seem to be aware of the fact that there even was a third baby who needed attention, waiting to be born, he at least still cared about his wife a lot. Britney was the love of his life, and being with her made him happier than he ever thought he could be. Especially since she gave birth to this wonderful daughter he was already incredibly proud of.

Their family was put to a test the day Britney went into labour. Karim had been in the living room with Cyra, when he heard loud screaming from the bedroom. When he rushed over, he found his wife being convulsed with pain. It was time.

 

Christopher Vocis was born on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Author's notes:  Slowly catching up to my gameplay... During the weeks I get nothing done, sims-wise, which is why I'm trying to catch up during the short Easter holiday. Happy Easter, by the way! ;)

Christopher is named after the amazing and talented Christopher Cross.