Chapter 5: The Comment

I scrolled through all forty photos in the ICU bed.

Ruthann sat in the chair by the window and watched me do it.

Reece cutting a white cake with Kaitlyn's hand over his.

Reece carrying her over the threshold of the suite.

Reece in the king bed with his shirt open two buttons, holding up a champagne glass.

Under it, two hundred people had commented.

"YOU TWO FINALLY!!!"

"Called it in college lol."

"Dr. P we need the real one next!!"

A woman from the foundation had written, "The most beautiful couple at this hospital."

Kaitlyn had liked every comment.

She'd replied to that one with a heart and a ring emoji.

"Don't," Ruthann said. "Whatever you're about to do. Sleep first."

"I slept. In your OR."

"That's not sleep, that's anesthesia."

I opened my camera roll.

The NICU nurse had taken one photo of me and Kinley skin to skin.

My face wasn't in it.

Just my hospital band, my daughter's tiny back, the tube on her cheek and the incubator card in the corner.

The card said BABY GIRL CALLENDER. BORN 01/14, 9:41 PM. 5 LB 2 OZ.

"Andie."

"He told a room full of his own staff I was lying," I said. "She's telling three hundred people it was a joke."

"I'm done being the only one who knows what happened."

Ruthann chewed for a second.

Then she held out her hand for the phone.

"Give it here. You're making typos with that IV in."

She typed while I talked.

I kept it short.

Our daughter was born at 9:41 p.m. on January 14, five weeks early.

I'm alive. She's alive.

Happy birthday, Kait.

Ruthann attached the photo.

She looked at me over her reading glasses.

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