The nurses took her down the hall briefly for the rest of her newborn assessment while the doctor finished caring for me.
I must have dozed off.
When I opened my eyes again, a nurse I hadn’t seen before entered the room carrying a bundled baby.
“There she is,” she said brightly.
Nolan stood immediately.
The nurse asked whether he wanted to hold his daughter.
I watched his whole face soften.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I’ve been waiting a long time.”
She placed the baby in his arms.
For one beautiful second, Nolan smiled down at her.
Then the blanket slipped slightly from her shoulder.
His expression changed.
I saw the color leave his face so quickly that I thought he was about to faint.
“Nolan?”
He didn’t answer.
He was staring at the baby’s shoulder.
The nurse noticed.
“Sir, are you feeling all right?”
Nolan slowly shook his head.
“No.”
My stomach tightened.
“What is it?”
He moved the blanket a little farther down.
A reddish patch was visible near the baby’s right shoulder.
Nolan stared at it.
Then he looked at me.
“No… that’s impossible.”
The nurse frowned.
“What is?”
“The birthmark.”
I pushed myself higher against the pillows despite the pain.
“What about it?”
Nolan’s voice had gone strangely calm.
“Our daughter’s mark was on the other side.”
The nurse looked down at the baby.
“Newborn skin can change a lot during the first few hours. There can be redness from delivery—”
“No.”
Nolan wasn’t shouting, but there was something in his voice that made the nurse stop.
“That isn’t the mark I saw.”
I remembered the conversation clearly.
Dark oval.
Left side.
Near the collarbone.
I had even heard the first nurse confirm that it was a birthmark.
“Nolan,” I said slowly, “are you absolutely sure?”
He looked almost offended.
“Elara, I stared at her for five minutes. I was trying to memorize everything.”
The room suddenly felt too warm.
The nurse immediately checked the identification band around the baby’s ankle.
My name was there.
Nolan’s name too.
The correct hospital number.
Everything matched.
“There,” the nurse said carefully. “Her band matches your chart.”
I expected Nolan to relax.
He didn’t.
“That doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
I held out my arms.
“Give her to me.”
Nolan brought the baby over.
She was warm and sleepy, with one tiny fist tucked under her chin.
For a moment, looking down at her, I felt ashamed of my fear.
She was a newborn.
She wasn’t evidence.
She wasn’t a mistake.
She was somebody’s daughter.
And that thought frightened me even more.
I looked at the nurse.
“Please call whoever is in charge.”
A few minutes later, the charge nurse came in with the nurse who had been present during Wren’s delivery.
Her name was Dana.
She listened carefully while Nolan explained what he had seen.
Then she turned to the delivery nurse.
“Do you remember the birthmark?”
The nurse hesitated only a moment.
“Yes.”
My heart started pounding.
“Where was it?” Dana asked.
“Left side. Just below the collarbone.”
The room went silent.
Nolan gripped the back of a chair.
I looked down at the baby in my arms.
“Did our daughter ever leave this room?”
The delivery nurse explained that Wren had been taken to a nearby assessment area for additional routine checks.
Dana asked how many babies had been there at the time.
The nurse frowned.
“I think two.”
Dana’s expression changed.
“You think?”
“It was extremely busy. I’d need to check the log.”
She left immediately.
Those next fifteen minutes felt longer than my entire labor.
Nolan kept pacing.
The baby in my arms slept through everything.
At one point, he stopped and looked at me.
“What if I’m wrong?”
“I hope you are.”
I meant it.
I wanted Nolan to have remembered badly.
