And then she climbed up onto the edge of my bed, looked at her new brother, and looked at me, and said the truest thing anyone said in the whole of this story.

“You know what I think, Dr.

Samantha?

I think you were already part of our family the minute you fixed my tummy.

We just didn’t know it yet.”

I have thought, since, about everything that morning cost me and everything it gave me, and I have stopped believing they were two different things.

I arrived three hours late to a wedding that was never meant for me.

That is a fact.