Someone Had to Stay

I was telling our daughter I would stay.

Two vows, made within a hundred feet of each other, in opposite directions.

Only one of us kept the promise we made that night, and it was the one who had nothing to gain from it except a sleeping baby’s trust.

Chapter 8 — Brenda Arrives

About twenty minutes later, the automatic sliding doors hummed open, and Liam’s mother, Brenda, walked into the waiting room.

She was wearing a heavy wool coat thrown on over what looked like her flannel pajamas, and her graying hair was tied back in a hasty, lopsided way, as if she had dressed in the dark in a hurry.