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"Moht down the hall," I said "Daddy will tuck you in, and I’ll sit with you when I get back"
"When will you be back?" Eli asked, pouting He was trying not to cry
"Soon Before you fall asleep Snuggle with your brother until then"
Eli turned his back tohis arm over Emerson Shepley sat next to Ezra and winked at me before I left them to follow the nurse to Abby’s room
The hard soles of my shoes echoed in the hallway, the warm color of the wallpapered walls a contrast to the cold, white tile floors Generic pictures of mother and babies, traditional fa their brand of nor with a colicky baby, or postpartus, insecurity, poverty, fear First-ti home with the vision we see in every diaper co infant in an imging their baby in the wee hours of thethe door with vo whether to shower or eat, clean, or sleep I wondered how many four-member families actually left the maternity ward financially stable and ereeted by two great parents ere crazy in love and a large, loving extended faents What was normal, anyway?
I paused in the ether Abby’s father, Mick, was tangled with the Vegas mafia She’d had more than one run-in with them to keep him alive My intuition told ure out what Thoo after him?
The nurse stopped in front of a door and flattened one hand on the wood, the other on the handle "Everything all right?" she asked, pausing when she realized I wasn’t right behind her
"Yes," I said, joining her outside the door
Just as she began to push the door open, another nurse yanked on it fro her sister in to--"
"I’m sorry," the nurse said "No visitors at this tiht" She shouldered past us, and I peeked in as the door slowly closed Severalfeverishly around Abby, but I couldn’t see her I caught just a gli over his shoulder at me with fear in his eyes
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TAYLOR
THE MOMENT THE WHEELS OF THE PLANE touched down at O’Hare in Chicago, I switched es filled my lock screen Before we’d taken off, Dad said everyone was at the hospital with Travis and Abby According to the es, the baby still hadn’t arrived, but Abby was close