PART 3
“One more push, Nora. You’ve got this.”
I pushed with everything I had left.
Then the room filled with a sound I will remember until the day I die — my niece’s first cry.
I laughed. I cried. Both at once.
“She’s perfect.”
I looked over at my brother. “Go hold your daughter.”
Daniel walked toward the nurse slowly, like his legs weren’t fully cooperating. She wrapped the baby and placed her in his arms. Everyone else stepped back to give him and Claire a moment.
I watched my brother look at his daughter for the first time in his life.
Then I watched something behind his eyes just switch off.
Not joy. Not shock. Something closer to a light going out.
His shoulders dropped. His lips parted like he was going to say something and then didn’t. He shifted the blanket back and looked, very carefully, at the base of her spine.
