“Piece D has two holes.”
“I have two holes.”
“You are not a crib part.”
I laughed so hard I dropped the Allen wrench.
For the first time in weeks, our home sounded like us.
Later, while Emily rested, I drove to my mother’s apartment to retrieve the baby shower gifts. I did not go alone. Marcus came with me, still in his warehouse jacket, carrying the calm expression of a man prepared to be polite until politeness stopped working.
My mother lived twenty minutes away in a brick building with peeling paint around the buzzer. She opened the door only after I called twice.
When she saw Marcus, her face tightened.
“You brought another witness?”
“Yes.”
“You really think I’m some criminal?”
“I think I want this conversation remembered accurately.”
Her apartment smelled of lavender spray and old smoke. Boxes lined one wall. My son’s diapers were stacked beside her television. A bag of baby clothes sat open on the couch. The handmade blanket was folded over the back of a chair.
Relief hit first.
Then I saw the gift cards.
Or rather, I saw the envelopes they had come in, torn open and empty.
I picked one up. Target. Fifty dollars. Signed by three guys from loading dock.
“Where are these?”
My mother looked away. “I needed groceries.”
Marcus made a small sound under his breath.
I kept my voice even. “Those were for the baby.”
“And the baby needs a grandmother who can eat.”
There it was again: need sharpened into entitlement.
I gathered the clothes, diapers, bottles, and blanket. Marcus helped without a word. My mother followed us to the door.
“You think Emily will stay perfect forever?” she asked. “One day you’ll see people aren’t so simple.”
I paused with a box in my arms.
“No one is perfect,” I said. “That was never the requirement.”
Her expression shifted, but only for a second.
I left before she found another way to pull me backward.
That night, Emily cried over the blanket.
Mrs. Alvarez had washed it for us, and it smelled faintly of baby detergent. Emily pressed it to her cheek, eyes closed.
“I thought it was gone,” she said.
“Most of it was there.”