Camille and Michael’s attorney negotiated temporary arrangements for communication and financial disclosures. The house remained disputed, but no one was permitted to treat the disagreement as permission to harass me. My mother kept a list of emergency contacts on the refrigerator.
One evening I opened the velvet box containing my wedding ring. I remembered the woman who had put it on, believing loyalty meant never giving up. I did not despise her. She had loved with the information she had.
I placed the ring in a drawer and folded two tiny blankets into a hospital bag.
The next morning I woke to contractions earlier than expected. My mother drove while I counted breaths and tried not to imagine every possible outcome. At the hospital, nurses moved calmly, explaining what was happening and why. Their steadiness gave me something to hold onto.
CHAPTER 19: TWO NAMES
My daughters arrived after a carefully managed delivery, small and furious and astonishingly loud. The medical team checked them closely because they were early. I heard the first cry, then the second, and something inside me finally unclenched.
