Chapter 18 - Leo Comes HomeLeo came home thirteen days after Grace.
The nurses clapped softly when we left.
Dr. Ellis hugged me, then pretended she had not.
Nora cried openly.
Leo wore a blue cap too big for his head and made one offended squeak as if the world had failed to meet his standards.
Grace met him at home by sleeping through his arrival.
My father declared this sibling bonding.
For three days, life narrowed to bottles, diapers, alarms, naps, and whispered gratitude. I learned the geography of their faces. Grace frowned before sneezing. Leo stretched one leg before settling. Grace liked noise. Leo startled at everything but my voice.
At night, when both babies finally slept, fear came crawling back.
What if Leo stopped breathing again?
What if Grace got sick?
What if Travis won some legal right and brought Deborah near them?
What if I was not enough?
Nora found me one night sitting on the nursery floor between the cribs, wide awake, one hand on each mattress.
She lowered herself beside me with a groan.
“My knees are too old for dramatic floor scenes,” she muttered.
I smiled weakly.
“I’m scared to sleep.”
“I know.”
“What if something happens?”
“Then you handle it.”
“What if I can’t?”
“You already did.”
I looked at her.
She nodded toward the twins.
“Mara, courage is not what you feel before the ambulance comes. Courage is what you do while terrified.”
I wiped my eyes.
“I don’t feel courageous.”
“Good. Reckless people feel courageous. Mothers feel everything and move anyway.”
We sat in silence.
Then I asked the question that had been haunting me.
“Why did you come to the door that day?”
Nora looked toward the cribs.
“I heard you scream.”
“That’s all?”
“No.”
I waited.
She sighed.
“I had a bad feeling about Deborah for weeks.”
My skin prickled.
“What do you mean?”
“She came over twice asking odd questions. Not like a worried grandmother. Like someone planning around inconvenience. She wanted to know whether labor could be delayed. Whether stress could cause confusion. Whether hospitals listened to husbands over wives.”
Cold spread through me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t understand what I was hearing until that day.” Her voice broke. “I am so sorry.”
I took her hand.
“You came.”
Her eyes filled.
“Barely in time.”
“But in time.”
She nodded.
The next morning, Lena filed a supplemental motion including Nora’s account of Deborah’s questions.
Deborah’s lawyer withdrew from representing her two days later.
That news arrived while I was burping Leo.
I looked down at my son.
“Your grandmother is becoming difficult to defend,” I told him.
May you like
He spit up on my shirt.
Nora said that was his first legal opinion.
