Too Late To Love Me I Already Left With His Twins (Lydia and Dave) novel Chapter 264

No guarantee

Dave pov

She reached for her phone.

“I know someone.”

“Who?”

“A therapist named Dr Sana, she’s someone familiar with us.‘

Anna unlocked her phone and searched for the number.

Her thumb hovered over the call button for a second.

Then she pressed it.

One ring.

Two.

Three.

“Hi, Dr. Sana.”

Her voice changed instantly.

Softer.

More vulnerable.

“This is Anna.”

She paused.

“Lydia was involved in a very serious car accident yesterday. She’s currently unconscious and in critical

condition.”

I watched her face as she listened.

Whatever Dr. Sana said made Anna’s lips tremble.

She looked down.

Her shoulders rose with a shaky breath.

She blinked rapidly.

Then she wiped beneath one eye with the side of her finger.

I looked away.

I didn’t know what to say.

What exactly did you tell someone whose best friend was fighting for her life?

Ny querem

Will it be okay?

I couldn’t guarantee thats

Don’t cry?

I was barely holding myself together.

The only thing keeping me upright was the knowledge that two children were downstairs waiting for adults to make sense of a world that suddenly didn’t.

Anna listened for another few moments.

“So the issue now is whether we tell the kids or not.

She swallowed.

“We’re looking for an expert opinion. We don’t want to handle this badly and cause psychological harm that follows them for years.”

She listened.

“Okay.”

Another pause.

“Right.

She nodded slowly.

“Okay. I’ll be in touch.”

The call ended.

For several seconds, she simply stared at the phone.

I leaned forward.

“Okay…”

She looked up.

“So?”

She placed the phone on the desk.

“Dr. Sana agrees that we should tell them.”

My stomach tightened.

“Now?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because children generally cope better with difficult realities when they’re given honest, age–appropriate information and a sense of safety around it.

She paused.

“She said hiding it isn’t automatically protective.”

I listened.

“She explained that if they sense something is seriously wrong but everyone around them keeps pretending everything is normal, they may become more anxious. Their imagination can fill in the gaps with something worse than reality.”

I nodded slowly.

Anna continued.

“And because they’re old enough to understand illness, accidents and separation, we shouldn’t treat them as if they’re incapable of understanding.”

I looked toward the door.

The children were downstairs.

Probably eating.

Probably laughing.

Probably unaware that the adults upstairs were preparing to change the shape of their world.

Anna picked up the paper again.

“She gave me four rules.”

“Four?”

“Four important ones.”

She held up one finger.

“First: we need to regulate ourselves before we speak to them.”

I frowned.

“What does that mean exactly?”

“We don’t walk downstairs sobbing. We don’t start hyperventilating. We don’t make them comfort us.

She looked directly at me.

“They’re going to look at our faces before they listen to our words.”

That hit me.

“Children co–regulate with adults,” she said. “They use the emotional state of the adults around them to judge whether they’re safe. If we look terrified, they will assume there’s something catastrophic happening even before we explain anything.”

I nodded.

“So we stay calm.”

“Calm enough to be reassuring. Not emotionless. We’re allowed to be sad. But we have to remain present and capable of answering them.”

She raised a second finger.

“Second: clear and simple truths.”

She picked up the pen.

“We don’t say, ‘Mommy isn’t feeling well.‘ That’s too vague.

“Okay.”

“We say something like, ‘Mommy was involved in a car accident. The doctors worked very hard to help her, and they were able to treat her injuries. She is unconscious right now, and the doctors are taking care of her.

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