The Affection Multiplier - Chapter 271: Epilogue 2/3 – Family Christmas at a new home. (Patreon)

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” she asks.

“Yes, Martha, I’m sure,” Jonathan answers from the driver seat.

“It’s so out of the way! We’ve been driving away from town for like 20 minutes!”

“Kid, I’ve been there before. I know where we’re going.”

“Shut up! I’m not a kid anymore. And it’s dark already and there aren’t any lights along this road. Are you sure you’re not lost?”

“Mom, can you shut your daughter up for a minute, please?” Jonathan groans.

“You’re both adults already, stop this bickering,” her mother sighs.

“We should’ve come during the day,” her father comments.

But Martha can’t help being nervous. It’s been 10 years since her brother, David, graduated from Hayes Academy and revealed his secret to the rest of the family. He was dating eleven women, three of whom were his former teachers. That was probably the first time their father had been left completely speechless.

Boy, that meeting was awkward at first. Mostly for her dad and the older women, though. Their mom didn’t mind at all and was happy to get to know her future daughters-in-law. Not to mention they clicked really well. So did Martha, by the way. David’s girlfriends were really cool and mature.

It’s only been two years since the wedding, though. She remembers David being really embarrassed of proposing so early in the relationship and having to wait a whole 8 years. But their studies kept getting in the way, and it took them that much time to save enough money for their big project. Tonight, during Christmas Eve, Martha, her dad, her mom and her oldest brother are minutes from arriving at David’s new home. They bought land close to the town where the academy is and built a house from scratch. Martha can barely contain her excitement.

They soon reach the house, really out of the way from the main road. And actually, calling it a house was completely wrong! It was an outright mansion! Is this what happens when twelve people pool their money together? To start, a tall stone wall surrounds the entirety of the property, and an automatic gate opens for their car. The path is paved and lit up at the sides with small, white lights. It leads to a large parking lot under a metal sheet roof, with six other cars already parked there. Martha frowns, noticing her brother’s is not among them. Everywhere that’s not paved is grass. All of it. She can’t help but envy their future kids. They’re gonna have so much space to play!

The building itself is made out of limestone bricks in a style reminiscent of Florida architecture. It’s long and two stories tall with plenty of windows along them. It looks amazing!

Martha climbs the four steps to the main entrance, a set of wooden double doors, and presses the doorbell. It doesn’t take long for someone to open it, and she sees Anzu at the other side.

“Anzu!” Martha throws herself at the older woman, hugging her tightly.

“Martha!” the Asian woman laughs, hugging Martha back. “My god, how you’ve grown! You’re getting prettier by the day!”

“Aren’t I?” Martha giggles.

“Don’t compliment her too much, Anzu,” Jonathan sighs. “It gets to her head really quickly.”

“Shut up,” Martha groans.

Her mom walks up to Anzu and gives a big hug. “Congratulations on your PhD, honey! We’re all so proud of you!”

“Thank you so much!” Anzu smiles. “It was hard to both study and work, but thanks to everyone’s support, I made it happen. I’m really glad David insisted I push for it.”

“I bet work offers are just coming one after another,” her dad says.

“Fewer than you think, but yes,” Anzu chuckles. “I’m lucky to be able to choose at all.”

After the greeting, Anzu leads them from the wide entrance hallway to the spacious living room. The floor is of bright wooden tiles, the walls are white and couches and sofas are of dark brown leather. Of course, there’s the big Christmas tree, the decorations over the fireplace and all, but more important than any that, Martha’s eyes scan the room for her true objective.

“Where is she!? Tell me where she is!”

Anzu chuckles at her enthusiasm. “She should be coming down any minute now.”

Just as she says that, Martha turns her eyes to the set of dark wooden stairs to see Mia, looking like she hasn’t aged a day since she met her, and carrying in her arms a tiny bundle of joy.

“Let me see my cute little niece!” she runs up to them.

“Martha!” she hears her mother scold her from behind. “Say hi to Mia, first, at least! I swear, it’s like she regresses to a kid whenever she visits her brother.”

“It’s fine, Lisa,” Mia chuckles. “Want to hold her? She just ate, so she’s a little sleepy.”

“I can!? Oh my god!”

Mia carefully lets Martha hold the three-months-old baby girl. Luna still has that cute, roundish face and Mia’s big, dark green eyes. She looks back at Martha with half-closed eyes and a lazy smile that makes her heart melt.

“God, she’s adorable!”

Luna is David’s first and only child so far, and Mia was the first to get pregnant. Martha thinks it makes sense that she was first on the priority list, considering she’s the oldest one.

“Dad, want to hold her?” Martha offers with a teasing grin, knowing her old man is containing himself from taking his first granddaughter from her arms. Oscar Walker nods, and takes Luna in his arms with the care of a man who has already raised three children. He smiles tenderly at the baby, a look they usually never get to see from him.

“Oh! You guys are already here!” they hear Emma’s voice coming from the east wing, from inside the kitchen. “Why did nobody say anything?”

She’s wiping her wet hands with a cloth as she comes to greet them.

“Hey sis,” Jonathan greets her with a peck on the cheek. “Where’s my little brother?”

“He and Katherine got a last minute client, but they’re already on their way back here. Shouldn’t take them long,” Emma says.

Other members of the new Walker family quickly start coming to the living room, saying they were finishing things for dinner or fixing the rooms they’ll be sleeping in. Olivia and Lilian had to stay working late, this being the holiday season, but Mia assures they’ll be back for dinner. The whole group sits around the living room, with her mom now monopolizing little Luna and speaking to her in baby talk.

“Have you had any problems with the house?” her father asks, looking at Julia, who just like Mia, Anzu and Emma, barely looks any older than 30 years old. Seriously, how do they do it?

“None at all, thankfully,” the blonde teacher nods. “Again, thank you so much for your help, Mr. Walker. Construction went without any issues thanks to you.”

“My company did start with construction, after all. It’s only natural,” he says. “And you had no shortage of funds, either. I guess it’s no surprise, considering all your families contributed to it.”

“No kidding,” Emily says. “I wouldn’t have expected our mom to chip in a cent. I thought her wedding present would’ve been at most a set of glasses.”

“You don’t give her enough credit,” Julia chuckles. “She’s changed.”

“Emma, how is the academy these days?” Lisa asks.

“Still facing challenges,” the headmistress laughs nervously. “It took this long, but we’re finally coed. That comes with its own set of difficulties, however. We did hire a new literature teacher. His name is Simon Sinclair and he’s been a great help. He and David became fast friends, too.”

“He’s a cool guy,” Julia nods.

“I was talking to him the other day and he admitted he’s thinking of proposing to his girlfriends, too,” Mia reveals, grinning.

“Oh shit! Are you serious?” Julia asks. “About damn time!” she laughs.

“By the way,” Jonathan smirks, looking at Megan. “I watched the game. Could you have been anymore ruthless?”

“I watched it too,” Oscar nods in agreement. “That was brilliant.”

“Ahahaha…” Megan laughs nervously.

“That’s right! You had a game against a Spanish team!” Martha remembers. “What was the score?”

“6-2,” Megan says, proudly. “I broke my record for most goals in a single game!”

“Wow! Congratulations!”

“Makes an old coach proud, I tell you,” Julia says, wiping a fake tear off her eye and laughing when Megan throws a pillow at her.

“How about your soccer school, Emily?” Lisa asks. “Is that project going well?”

“Yeah, I just need to find the right area,” Emily nods. “I wanted it to be downtown, but there’s no good land for a soccer field there. I’m worried I might have to do it in the next town. The commute would kill me.”

“I hear someone complaining…” Emma giggles.

“I’ll do it if I have to, but it’d be a two hour drive each day…” Emily rubs her face. “I really want to find a good spot in this town.”

“Oh! Right, I wanted to ask this before I forgot,” Martha says, looking at Jessica. “Is your show really on hiatus?”

Jessica has been working on an independent animated show for about two years now, and it’s grown really popular. Martha watches it every time a new episode comes out, so she was really bummed to hear the news.

“Yes, sadly,” Jessica sighs. “Two of the key animators got into a car accident and got hurt. They’ll be fine, but they need at least two months of rest. We can still record lines, but well, we need our animators. I hear the director is thinking of looking for replacements, but no one in the team is very happy about it.”

“That sucks,” Martha groans. “Can you tell them a big fan is waiting for their return?”

“They’ll be happy to hear it,” Jessica smiles.

“Sophia,” Jonathan says. “I have a bone to pick with you.” He narrows her eyes at her.

“What? What did I do?” The black-haired girl lifts an eyebrow.

“Ever since that article of yours about electronics and the environment went viral, I’ve been receiving complaints about how my products are not ‘environment-friendly’,” he groans. “Thanks for opening their eyes. Now I have to look for new manufacturing partners.”

“Oh, then I’m doing my job right,” Sophia grins smugly. “Don’t worry, you’ll be making your profits back in no time. Consider it an investment.”

“I know. It’s just a pain because I still have to wait for old contracts to end,” Jonathan sighs.

As the conversation continues, they hear a voice coming from the entrance. “I see an unknown car at the parking lot. Is my favorite sister-in-law in this house?”

“Lilian!” Martha stands up to greet her good friend with a warm hug. She and Lilian really clicked, with the older woman giving Martha great fashion advice. “Good to see you! Why are you working so late?”

“Incompetent people screwing everything up,” the slender blonde groans in annoyance. “But it doesn’t matter. Good to have you here. Tell me, found a boyfriend already?”

“Ugh,” Martha flinches, causing Jonathan to laugh loudly. “Shut up!” she yells at him.

“How you don’t have a boyfriend yet is a mystery not even Sherlock Holmes could solve,” Olivia says, coming from behind Lilian and greeting Martha with a kiss in the cheek. They also properly greet Jonathan and her parents, but make sure to pay extra attention to their daughter, who is starting to fall asleep.

“David isn’t here yet? She’s gonna miss him,” Olivia says, watching Luna’s eyes start to close. “It’s like she’s trying so hard to stay awake waiting for her dad.” But as if on cue, they hear the door and a voice coming from the entrance again.

“Lilian, you shut the gate in front of us!” Katherine complains.

“Shit, did I? Sorry!” Lilian laughs.

The redhead is the first to enter the living room, followed closely by David.

“Brother!” Martha runs up to him and hugs him, causing him to laugh. In the end, even though she grew taller, so did he. She couldn’t catch up like she’d told him she would.

“Don’t do that, you idiot. You’re not a kid anymore,” he tells her.

“Tell that to Jonathan! He still calls me a kid!”

Their mom stands up from her seat, little Luna still in her arms, and walks up to David. “Here, honey, your little girl has been waiting for you.”

“Has she, now?”

The smile in David’s face is adorable. He’s holds his daughter in his arms, firmly and tenderly, looking at her with the adoring eyes of a parent. Luna sees her daddy and starts giggling, stretching her little arms to touch his face. Of course, David lets her.

“It’s not good for you to stay up this late,” he whispers to her, brushing her cheek with the back of his finger. “You need to sleep.” He kisses her forehead, but that only makes Luna giggle even more. It’s such a lovely sound!

“I’ll put her to bed,” Mia says, coming to take Luna and taking the chance to kiss her husband. “Too much work?”

“Nothing terrible. I’ll tell you later.”

“Okay,” Mia smiles at him and turns to the stairs, whispering lovingly to her daughter. “You’re happy to have seen daddy, aren’t you? Yes, you are!”

David takes the time to greet every single one of his wives with a kiss before he even turns to Jonathan and their parents. The brothers shake hands and hug, patting their backs.

“So? When’s the second child, Dave?” Jonathan teases.

“When are you getting married?” David shoots back.

The two share a laugh before David turns to their father.

“I’m glad you could make it, dad,” he hugs him. “You don’t look as tired as the last time I saw you.”

“Decided to take your and Jonathan’s advice,” he admits with a small smile. “I’m getting old. I’m letting other people handle the tougher jobs. At this point, I’m just supervising.”

“You should just retire, old man,” Jonathan groans. “Leave the company to me.”

“No, you’re still too green,” their dad tells him, sternly.

“Green? I’ve been working with you for almost 20 years now,” Jonathan frowns.

“And you still make reckless decision knowing I’m there to save your butt. You’re still too green.”

“Dad,” David groans. “Cut it out or I’m not letting you play with Luna tomorrow.”

Martha has to swallow her laughter and hide her mouth behind her hand. She has never seen such terror in her father’s eyes.

“W-Wait. You can’t forbid me of seeing my granddaughter!” he argues.

“My house, my rules. You’re not allowed to talk about work tonight,” he casually says, removing his suit jacket. “I’m gonna take a shower before our other guests arrive.”

As he says that, his phone rings and he takes the call.

“Evening, Jake,” he answers. “It’s not Christmas yet, what are you talking about? Ah? Brazil? When on earth did you go there?” He keeps talking as he goes up the stairs.

Her brother really gives off an aura of a really reliable adult now. He was always reliable, actually, but now with a big family of his own, an adorable daughter and eleven loving wives, he’s grown even more. Enough to make her a little jealous.

The evening continues, and more people arrive for the Christmas Eve dinner. The parents of all the women are coming to visit too. With this many people, it’s no wonder David had to build such a big house. This almost resembles his wedding day, only 100 times less chaotic.