Someone Had to Stay

That told me something too.

Chapter 21 — The Quiet Nursery

At Mason’s house, my sister-in-law, Clara, was waiting, and the two of them folded us in without fuss or interrogation.

Clara had already begun turning their spare room into a quiet little nursery, and together we finished it, set up a place for Hazel to sleep, drew the curtains against the morning light, made the room soft and dim and safe.

There was a kindness in the wordlessness of it, in the way Clara simply worked beside me without asking me to explain or to justify or to relive.