down.”
He looked at them.
They were.
He turned them around.
“I am going to blame the hospital.”
“That seems fair.”
He bent over the bassinet and counted the bracelets as if they were inventory.
“Luna and Leo.”
“Correct.”
“I passed.”
“You barely passed.”
He pulled a chair close to me.
“Can I hold Leo?”
I nodded.
Daniel lifted him carefully and sat down.
For a few minutes, nobody mentioned Vivian, papers, family arrangements, or who belonged where.
There was only Daniel whispering, “Hello, little man,” and Luna sleeping with her hand beside her cheek.
Then Daniel looked at me.
“She will want to come.”
“I know.”
“I can tell her no.”
“Let the nurses handle the door.”
He nodded.
At 12:15, Daniel stood beside the window with his phone while I set both birth bracelets beside my water cup.
He took three pictures.
“Why three?”
“The first one
has your water cup in it.”
“The cup is not the important part.”
“I know.”
He took another.
“Now your hand is covering Luna’s blanket.”
“Daniel.”
“One more.”
I looked at the two tiny bracelets.
They were plain, white bands with names printed in dark letters.
Luna Sterling.
Leo Sterling.
Daniel lowered the phone.
“They are real.”
“They have been real all morning.”
“I mean the names.”
He sat beside me.
I touched the edge of Leo’s bracelet.
“For the first time today, I only want to be their mother.”
Daniel did not answer right away.
Then he said, “You are.”
A nurse came in and checked the bassinet.
“Your mother is downstairs,” she said.
Daniel looked at me.
“I did not tell her the room number.”
“I know.”
The nurse gave him a questioning look.
“Someone must have.”
The door opened before either of us could say more.
Vivian
stepped inside carrying her purse.
She looked first at Daniel.
Then at the babies.
Her eyes rested on Leo.
“I heard they were safe,” she said.
Daniel stood.
“Mom.”
Vivian smiled at him.
“May I see them?”
“You can look from there.”
She stopped beside the chair.
“I came to make sure everything was settled.”
I moved the water cup closer to me.
“Nothing needs settling today.”
Vivian touched the front of her cardigan, then let her hand fall.
“I would think after what we discussed, you might have reconsidered.”
Daniel glanced at me.
“Mom, not now.”
Vivian kept her attention on me.
“You said you wanted to think.”
“I did.”
“And?”
“I decided.”
She waited.
I did not fill the silence.
Vivian looked toward the bassinet again.
“You understand what this means for the Sterling family.”
I looked at Leo.
“I understand what it means for me.”
Her mouth
