“It is mine,” I said.

And Ethan laughed.

Chapter 3 — Act Like a Mother

“You’re emotional,” he said, in the tone people use to dismiss a thing they do not want to hear.

“You just had a baby.”

Then more sounds reached me through the phone — music, and underneath it, faintly, the wash of waves.

And his sister Megan’s voice, raised, calling out gleefully: “Tell her we’re already at the resort!”

My stomach dropped.