I’ve eliminated anything ending in an a, and obviously nothing from your father’s side. The heart disease history is too risky for a namesake.”

Over the following months the takeover escalated. Boxes started arriving. She bought a high-end baby monitor with a 360-degree camera — one she cheerfully admitted she could access from an app on her own phone.

“So I can check on the little angel whenever I miss them.”

She bought out boutiques and left the invoices on our counter, charging Corey. When I showed him what we owed for things we hadn’t wanted, he played the same record.

“She’s excited, Dani. She means well. Let her have this.”

That fall we made a tactical mistake. Squeezed by medical bills and Corey’s argument that we’d save on childcare, we moved into a larger duplex four blocks from Thornfield Court.