“Babe? What are you doing?” Regan was awakened in the middle of the night by the constant thumping from the hallway. This had been going on all week, clearly Claus was uncomfortable. “I can’t stay here anymore, it’s driving me crazy Regan.”Regan sighed. “Claus, I love this house to death, but if you’re not comfortable then we’ll have to move.”

“And where are we going to go?”Regan smirked, Claus always put too much thought into everything. “Claus, we can get a piece of property and start building. I think we’ll both be more comfortable in a home that reflects us.”Claus looked up at Regan, trying to figure out what he did right to deserve such a wonderful woman.

Regan smiled lovingly at her husband. “We’ll be fine Claus, with or without your father’s money. Plus, I want five kids and this house will never hold that many.” Regan winked and looked out of the window, “The sun’s up? What do you want for breakfast?”

Claus pulled Regan in to a hug. He knew how much she loved this house and he was thankful that she would give it up for him. He smiled hen he thought about how his family oriented wife wanted five children, he never thought about having more than three but Regan gets what Regan wants. “It’s fine, I’ll pick something up on the way to work.”

Regan had had a long day, as soon as Claus left for work, she dressed and went out property hunting, although she hardly had to do any hunting. Just before the wedding she had found a piece of property in a nice area, then Jack had surprised them with the house. Regan called the landowner to find out if the lot was still available, when he said yes she agreed to a meeting and darted out of the house. Of course the money for the lot came from Jack but she would never tell Claus that, she had concocted a story about a distant aunt who died and left her fourteen thousand dollars.

Claus came in and dropped beside Regan on the couch. Regan hid her smile. “Claus?”“I’m fine.” He lied, he had spent all day trying to figure out where he would get money from, then he realized that they could not afford to leave this house for some time. “Guess what!” Regan shouted, ignoring Claus’ obvious lie.

“We’ve got ourselves a lot, we’re the proud owners of our own property and well on the way to having a new house!” She shrieked without waiting for him to guess.Claus looked at her blankly. “What? How?”“Long story, but babe don’t worry about that, focus on the house. Think about the color schemes and the themes and oh my gosh, the furniture!”

Snowie stopped by later on to see how her brother and new sister-in-law were settling in. Regan pounced on her, wrapping her in a tight hug, and telling her the news about the lot and the house they would soon own. Then she yawned, sang good night and turned in for the night.

“Claus are you sure about this? It’ll break Daddy’s heart.”“I can’t stay here knowing that his blood money paid for this house, especially if that blood belonged to our mother.”“First of all Claus, we’re not sure that Daddy actually killed Mom.”“I intend to find out if he did, and if he didn’t then we can pick up where we left off.”“And what if you can’t?”

“Then it’ll be his fault for never telling us about her, for not just coming out and saying what happened.”“She died when she hit her head after she slipped.” Snowie told her brother. “You were the one defending Dad, how the tables have turned.” Snowie mused.

“Snowie…”Jack’s eldest child held up her hand. “Claus, please. That man loves you, it’ll hurt if you find that he did kill our mother, but remember he raised us, he is the only parent we knew and until that night at Mortimer’s we never questioned him, we never even thought about not having a mother. Promise me that you won’t let the outcome of this get between you and Daddy.”“I can’t.” Claus said, but he did consider his sister’s words and he had to agree, but he had to know for sure what happened the night his mother died.

After Claus saw his sister out he went to the bedroom where his wife was waiting for him. Regan smiled seductively. “Now that you’re more comfortable…”

Regan got a job in the military to help out with the bills. She always wanted to be a soldier but when she starts having children she may consider changing her career to allow her more time with the kids or she may stop working all together.

A month later Regan stood in the front yard of her’s and Claus’ new home. She scribbled her signature on the checks, sealed them into envelopes and put them in the mailbox, as she headed inside she looked curiously at the tombstones that Claus had brought home to clean and shook her head.

So far their house had a small living room, a kitchen, a restroom and a bedroom. They planned on expanding as the money came in.

Their second night in the house there was a burglary, although the police in Claus kicked in, the burglar was a much better fighter than the rookie cop thought and escaped with everything in the bathroom with the exception of the lights.

Claus, as if he weren’t already distraught over money had to buy a new lesser quality toilet and a shower rather than the tub with the shower built in. Claus sighed, so far the start was rocky.

Bills came once a month, the Winter’s strategy to save was to alternate turns paying bills and putting money in the bank account. So far it was working pretty well.

One day Regan cornered her husband who was looking especially sexy in his uniform. “Hey Babe, I’ve got a surprise for you.”Claus grinned, “Well, aren’t you full of surprises. What is it this time? Are we getting a pool…or at least a video game system?”“I’m pregnant.”

“We’re having a baby? No, no we can’t. Not yet at least, we can’t afford a baby yet. We’ll need a crib, diapers, formula, clothes…”“Claus! Claus! Focus!” She shook her husband’s shoulders, “Claus, I’m not having the baby right now, we’ve got nine months.” Regan pulled the hat off her head. “Are you good now?”“I…I…I think so…”Regan smiled. “No you’re not. I called your sister, she’ll give you something else to stress over.”

Regan was still early in her pregnancy but she was already feeling fatigued. An hour after she went to bed Snowie came over and grinned at her brother upheaveled look. “Regan told you?”“Yeah.”“Claus, what are you stressing about? You’re going to be a father, that’s something to be happy about.”

Claus gave his sister a long look. “Well…I guess you’re right.” Claus smiled, it was sinking in that he was going to be a father, in a few months he will be somebody’s Daddy.“And then you will understand the love of a father for his child.” Snowie hinted as she strode casually out the door.

Over the course of Regan’s pregnancy, she and Snowie became very close. They had become a team to keep Claus calm, but talking to Snowie kept Regan stress free too.

“So I’m going to be an aunty soon then?” Snowie asked.“You have another three months.”“Do you know what you’re having?” “I know.” Regan winked, “But you and Claus won’t until the baby’s here.”“But Rey!” Snowie whined.Regan beamed at her sister-in-law, sometimes Snowie and Claus were so much alike.

“Oh but when the baby get’s here your poor brother!” Regan threw her hands in the air. “There’s going to be a crying a baby, a demanding tot, some peace during it’s childhood and then it’ll become a teenager and Claus will want to keep it away from other hormonal teenagers of the opposite sex.” The two women shared a laugh at Claus’ expense, then Regan left to take a powernap.

Claus stood under the twilight sky staring at the home he grew up in. Finally there was nobody home. Jack was his boss which meant that he breathed down Claus’ neck all day at work, and when he went snooping around Jack’s house there was always someone there so he couldn’t do his snooping.

Claus took the top off the garbage and dug in. He had no idea what he’d hoped to find or even what he was looking for. But when he found it he was shocked. He pulled out the shoebox and looked at the contents, he doubted that his father would be so negligent as to dispose of all of Kate’s dirty little letters without shredding them. He frowned, now he knew who he would be interviewing first.

When he arrived home, he was surprised to find his wife sitting up in bed giving him the look. “Regan, I smell like garbage.”“So what? We can go take a shower once we’re done.” She winked naughtily.

When Regan woke up the next morning Claus was long gone, she found a note pinned to his pillow, attached was a receipt for a full spa package. Regan smiled, she had hit the jackpot when she married Claus Winter and pitied all the other women in town who had missed out on the opportunity to have such a loving man.

Regan didn’t use the ticket for another two months. She could go into labor any day, her heavy stomach was a constant strain on her back which ached all the time. Regan went into the spa waving her receipt, she was prepared to enjoy this spa day to the fullest.

After her day at the spa, Regan decided that she should go to the park as she was not yet ready to go home. She ran into her best friend Melissa who she hadn’t seen since high school and announced her pregnancy. The other woman took a wild guess at who the father is.

As Claus was unable to catch up with his father’s ex-wife he went over to his neighbor Vita’s house. She was a good friend of Agnes’ and he figured she would be able to answer some of his questions about his parents’ rocky marriage. Vita was also a good friend of Jack’s so Claus figured if anyone would give him unbiased answers it would be Vita Alto.

“Claus darling, I haven’t seen you since your birthday. How are you and the wife?”Claus smiled. “We’re fine, Regan is going to have the baby any day now.”“A baby? Congratulations. Now why are you here and in your uniform?”“I want to know about my parents’ marriage. I know from Mom’s book that it wasn’t the best, but do you actually think it was bad enough for him to kill her?”

“I always wondered why that girl married Jack Winter, I never approved of their union. Then I met Jack and found that that guy could charm the panties off a woman and understood how he convinced Agnes to marry him. I heard from Cornelia that they argued all the time. Well the two of them were hard headed, stubborn individuals, that is why they argued all the time. That’s the reason Jack never admitted that he loved her. Oh yes, somewhere along the line he fell in love with her, at the funeral it was clear to me that he was devastated by her death.”

“You think he loved her?”“I know he did.”Jack was about to say more when he received a call from the hospital. “Thank you for your time Vita. My wife’s in labor, I have to go.”“It was good to see you Claus.”