38Julian
As Nora’s breathing slows and evens out, her body relaxes against mine. An occasional shudder still ripples through her, but even that stops as she sinks deeper into sleep.
I should sleep too. I haven’t closed my eyes since the night before Nora’s birthday—which means I’ve been awake for over forty-eight hours.
Forty-eight hours that count among the worst of my life.
We survived. Everything will be all right. We’ll soon go back to normal. My reassurances to Nora ring hollow in my ears. I want to believe my own words, but the loss is too fresh, the agony too sharp.
A child. A baby that was part me and part Nora. It should’ve been nothing, just a bundle of cells with potential, but even at ten weeks, the tiny creature had made my chest overflow with emotion, twisting me around
