Chapter 95 - Dominic gets Married

The day he had been waiting for was here at last.

Dominic married Hermione in the River family home surrounded by their relatives.

Hermione was now getting very big, very quickly. A scan revealed that she was carrying twins. 

The couple were a little surprised, but as Dominic was a twin himself they guessed it must just run in the family.

Owen had insisted on building the couple a house on the other side of the Nagi's. Dominic had felt rather bad about this and had a quiet word with Owen to make sure this was the best idea. 

Dominic knew Owen and Martha desperate for children and Dominic was marrying Hermione after getting her pregnant from a one night stand, he didn't want to be causing them more pain than he had to. However, Owen insisted on having him close and Dominic who didn't want to move far agreed.

Hamlet was now a fully grown horse.

Merlin was taking after his father and had decided to try his hand at horse riding. After a few false starts, it turned out he was rather good

He entered Hamlet into a beginners race and to everyone's surprise actually won.

Freya had decided to return to inventing and one day had unveiled Siddharta, the simbot. Freya felt that Siddhartha would be a great help with the house work. In the olden days female members of the River family had learnt to cook and clean. Now they relied on a daily maid, but there were times in the evening that cleaning was needed and the maid had never cooked any meals. Freya knew she was getting old and wanted to leave someone to look after them all when she was gone.

Lance River had only lived a year into his new marriage before passing away and he wasn't the only recent death. Martha had lost her father; Chin-Han, after a long illness. It had led to her suffering with depression and having to have time off work. She kept dwelling on how even now if they managed by some miracle to have kids, they would never know her father.

The house opposite Owen's, which had been vacated by Lance River had been taken by a family with the surname Pond. Since the Ponds had intermarried more than once with the River family, Owen wasn't too upset at this development. In fact Rapheal Pond was the nephew of Melody River, so they were practically family anyway. Rapheal lived with his wife Lisa and newborn little boy Herbert.

There were still no pitter patter of tiny feet and Owen was starting to fear for Martha's mental health. She appeared to be under a lot of strain with her father's death coupled with the lack of success at IVF. He was particularly alarmed at how her depression intensified with the marriage of Dominic and Hermione.

Owen watched her carefully at the wedding and felt that the birth of Dominic's twins might just be the breaking point. He felt so helpless, he didn't know what to do.