Nora folded her hands on the table.
“Are you going to take her away?”
I looked toward the hallway where Ellie was showing Tom her pigtails.
There was something much harder we needed to discuss.
“I don’t know what happens legally, Nora. But I’m not going to frighten her.”
Nora began crying.
“I’m afraid you’ll think I stole her.”
“You didn’t.”
Nora began crying.
“I finally have a daughter, Claire.”
“I know.”
“And she’s yours.”
I stared at the hairbrush between us.
“I’m afraid I’ll look at her and see everything I missed.”
“I finally have a daughter, Claire.”
Nora wiped her cheeks.
That hurt.
Because she was right.
I couldn’t recover Ellie’s first words or the birthdays I’d spent visiting a grave.
She was right.
***
Two days later, our attorney called with an update.
The records review had identified two newborns whose hospital identification numbers appeared to have been transposed during a neonatal transfer.
