Chapter 3 — The Triplets

Three months earlier, my family had flown from our hometown to a luxury resort for Tate and Sela’s gender reveal.

Not one baby.

They were expecting triplets.

The whole thing had been cinematic.

My mother ordered custom-embroidered silk shirts for everyone.

My father — a man who had complained about the price of gas my entire childhood — paid for first-class upgrades because, as he put it, “This is family history, Maribeth.

You can’t put a price on legacy.” My aunt hired a drone videographer and a beach photographer.

They gathered on a private coastline at sunset and wept under three coordinated clouds of blue smoke as though they had witnessed the parting of a sea.

Chapter 4 — I Was Happy for Them

I was happy for them.

I truly was.

I even paid for my parents’ oceanfront suite, after my father called me, his voice tight with embarrassment, to say they were a little short on the deposit.

I transferred the money at once, skipping my own car payment to do it.