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"Hurry Steven, hurry!" Beth moaned as another contraction gripped her. Steven was trying to dress his two sleepy sons who were protesting against being awakened by squirming and being altogether difficult.

"Let me take care of them, Steven," Mrs. Symonds said. "A hospital waiting room is no place for two small boys. "Are you still here?" Steven retorted. "I told you to get out of my house!" He would have said more but Beth's scream of pain stilled his tongue. He frantically assessed the chaos around him and knew he had no choice but to leave the boys with Mrs. Symonds. He would call the sitter when he got to the hospital and hope she would oblige him at such a late hour. "All right" he said. "You can stay with them until the sitter arrives. Then I want you out of this house!"

As Steven drove away with Beth, Mrs. Symonds turned to her grandsons and took them into her arms. They felt so warm and soft. She grieved for the precious time she'd lost with them. The boys tried to squirm out of her arms saying "We're hungry!" Mrs. Symonds found milk and cookies and sat at the table with them as they ate their late-night snack. She knew she couldn't waste too much time. Steven wouldn't be returning for some time, but if he had contacted the sitter, she could be there any minute. "Would you both like to see your Mama?" she asked. "Yes, yes!!" they cried, clapping their hands together in childish delight. Mrs. Symonds quickly dressed them and then called a taxi.

Tamara, startled, arose from the chair where she had been dozing. Was that a car door she heard slam? Had her mother come back? Going to the window, she pulled back the drapes and what she saw made her heart miss a beat. It was her mother and holding on to her hands were Matthew and Mark. "I must be dreaming!" she thought. But when she opened the door and two tiny bodies flung themselves at her, she knew this was for real. "My sons!" she cried. "I've missed you so very much!"

Mrs. Symonds wiped away her own tears. "Steven won't get those boys back," she vowed. She recalled the bitterness in Beth's voice as she berated Steven for placing his sons' needs before hers. That house was no place for them and she'd fight to keep them out of there and away from Beth. Tamara looked at her mother and whispered, "Thank you Mother. I don't know how you did this, but I'll be forever grateful to you."

Steven was livid. When the sitter called to tell him there had been no response to her repeated knocking on his door, he knew instantly where his children were. Beth was still in labor as he dialed Tamara's number. When he heard Mrs. Symond's voice on the other end, he told her to return his sons immediately. If she didn't, he would call the police and have her arrested for kidnapping.

"Now, you listen to me, Steven Parker," she said. "Those boys don't belong in a place where they aren't wanted! And Beth surely doesn't want them. She made that quite evident this evening. With a new baby of her own, she'll grow to resent them even more, making their lives and yours a living hell! They have a mother who loves them and they love her! And let me add that what I witnessed this evening won't go over too well with the authorities!" Steven knew that she spoke the truth. He was tired of Beth's constant complaining. He hadn't a minute's peace since the boys had come to live with them. With a sigh of resignation mixed with relief, he said, "Tell Tamara I'll come by with their things tomorrow." Hanging up the phone, he headed for the room where Beth lay giving birth to their child.

As Mrs. Symonds turned from the phone, she looked at Tamara, "Everything is settled. Steven will give you no further trouble. Now, I must hurry if I"m to catch my flight back home."

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