Eleanor had been given keys as a visitor and caregiver, not as a resident entitled to come and go without permission.

We asked the building staff to contact us if she or Chloe appeared.

On the morning Maya was discharged, Liam wore the little blue hat I’d bought in Germany.

Maya laughed when she saw it.

“He looks like a tiny professor.”
“A very demanding one,” I said.

Our laughter felt fragile, then real.

We drove to the temporary apartment without informing my relatives where we were staying.

For the first time since his birth, I carried Liam over a threshold that belonged only to his parents’ decisions.