Finding you that morning — picking you up off that floor and carrying you out to the car and driving you away to your real life — that was the best thing I have ever done in my entire life.

The best thing.

Do you understand me?” Fiona looked at me for a long, long moment.

And then her whole face broke into a smile that reached all the way up into her eyes.

“I’m glad you came home early from the hospital that morning, Mommy,” she whispered, and wrapped her arms around my neck.

“Me too, baby,” I choked out, holding her as tight as I dared.

“Me too.