“You left your daughter alone with our newborn?”
Laura nodded helplessly. “I thought he was asleep.”
“That’s not an answer,” Daniel said, and for the first time there was anger in him, clean and unmistakable.
Laura looked like she might fold in half under it.
Dr. Patel stepped back into the silence before it could become something worse.
“Babies are extremely fragile,” he said gently, looking not just at Laura but at all of us. “Even what feels like a strong hug from an adult can injure them. From a small child who doesn’t know when to stop, the risk is even higher.”
Emma looked up through tears.
“Is the baby going to die?”
No one in that room was prepared for the innocence of that question.
Megan wiped both eyes and crouched, though she did not go too close.
“No, sweetheart,” she said softly. “He’s going to be okay.”
Emma began crying harder, the relief almost as sharp as the guilt.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I’m sorry. I just wanted him to stop crying.”
Laura sank into the chair nearest the wall and looked like a woman discovering in public that one careless compromise had become the axis her life would spin on for years.
