“But you didn’t give me a choice.”
Ryan said nothing.
“You didn’t trust me enough to fail beside me.”
Those words seemed to hit him harder than anything I could have said.
“I know,” he whispered.
Melissa shook her head.
“This was never about losing your job.”
She wiped at her tears.
“It was about you deciding I couldn’t handle the truth.”
Then she turned toward me.
Or rather, toward Hope.
Her face softened immediately.
She slowly walked across the room.
“Can I hold her?”
I didn’t hesitate.
I placed Hope carefully into her mother’s arms.
The moment Melissa held her daughter against her chest, she began to cry.
Not the desperate cry from the hospital.
This was different.
It was grief, relief, love, anger, and gratitude all mixed together.
She kissed Hope’s forehead again and again.
“My baby,” she whispered.
I let them have that moment before I spoke.
