Stepping-Stone for Mia novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Last Hour

The lawyer brought the phone in a gallon freezer bag.

It was the second Tuesday in May, in the same small room.

The phone was pink, with a cracked corner and a sticker on the back that said WORLD'S OKAYEST MOM.

Kelly's mother had charged it overnight. She'd told the lawyer she couldn't turn it on herself.

The lawyer set it on the table between Ronnie and me.

He picked up the phone. His thumb hovered over the screen.

He typed the four numbers.

0402.

The wallpaper was an ultrasound picture.

He made a small sound and set it down again.

After a minute he slid it across the table to me.

"You find it," he said. "I'll watch."

Her streaming app had a setting that saved a copy of every live to the camera roll. Kelly had turned it on.

There it was, at the top of her videos.

March 14. One hour, twenty-one minutes.

I propped the phone against the lawyer's water bottle, turned it so we could both see, and pressed play.

Kelly filled the screen.

Round face, curls in a scrunchie, a hospital gown with blue snowflakes.

She was laughing.

"Okay, you guys. It's twelve-thirty, and I'm eight centimeters, and I sent Ronnie home to sleep because the nurse said hours, and now I think she lied!"

Ronnie's hand closed on the edge of the table.

"Ronnie, if you're watching, you're not watching, because you're asleep like I told you, and I love you, and you're going to be so mad you missed this."

She laughed again, then grabbed the bed rail and breathed through a contraction, eyes squeezed shut.

"Okay," she gasped. "Okay. Ow. Somebody in the comments get my husband."

Ronnie laughed.

His eyes were already streaming.

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