Chapter 2: The Name She Wouldn't Say
PART 2 ⬇️
Sloan sat down slowly, like her legs had stopped working.
She kept her eyes on Willa the whole time, not on me.
"She stopped breathing," Sloan finally said.
"Three days after she was born.
In the middle of the night.
I was alone and I didn't know what was happening and I thought—" Her voice broke.
She pressed her lips together and started again.
"The doctors said it may happen again.
They don't know why yet.
They're still running tests."
The room went completely still.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.
Sloan looked up.
"Because I knew what you would do.
You would take over.
You would call every specialist in the country, hire a night nurse, put her on a monitor, and turn her into a problem to be managed.
And I couldn't let that happen to her.
Not yet."
I wanted to argue.
I couldn't.
Because she was right.
That is exactly what I would have done.
I looked down at Willa, still calm in my arms, completely unaware of what her mother had just carried alone for four weeks.
Then Sloan's phone lit up on the counter.
She saw the name on the screen and went pale all over again.
She didn't answer it.
"Sloan," I said quietly.
"Who is that?"
She picked up the phone, turned the screen face-down, and said nothing.
---
What is Sloan hiding — and who just called?
The full truth is more painful than anyone expected.
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