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We’d had no idea how hard it could all fall apart

I found the package of nursing pads and pulled out a pair, judged their thickness, and took twoto dry up was another insult

When I got back to the bedroom, Corabelle was curled on the bed in her underwear, the black dress on the floor I sat next to her "We have to get ready, baby We’re supposed to meet your parents in twenty minutes"

"The dress doesn’t fit," she said

"Is it an old dress?"

"I wore it to Uncle Ben’s funeral last year"

"You’ve had a baby since then"

She rolled on her belly, her face pressed into the pillow

"Corabelle, you’re perfect"

Her voice was muffled "I’m pathetic, leaky, fat, and I have no baby"

I tried touching her shoulder, but she jerked like I had burned her "Can I go buy you so else to wear?"

"In twenty minutes?"

"Letand retrieved the dress She stuck the pads in her bra, this terrible dead look in her eyes, as I figured out which end hich and dropped it over her head

She was right, though The front was tight on her swollen chest "Maybe a jacket could cover it?" I asked

She flung herself back on the bed "Make this day be over"

"We’ll get through it"

"I don’t want to go through it"

Her phone buzzed but she ignored it I picked it up "Your parents are asking if we’ve left"

"Screw the off in her as she ju the dress down "I don’t want to coo! I want him to be fine! I don’t want to see him in that horrible blue coffin!"

Sobs overtook her then, and I did my best to hold on to her even as she stiffened when I pulled her in I had no idea what I was doing I needed a rule book, sooing torooet her out the door She didn’t have shoes "Hold on," I said and raced back to the closet She seehtness of the dress, and I hoped I could at least get her to her parents They were doing a better job of helping her than I was

I found a pair of black puet her in them at that moment, so I just led her out to the Caot there