The Promise He Kept From Me

He was holding it above his head with both hands, making a sound effect that was mostly just him saying *whoooosh* very seriously.

He had Mark’s eyes and his own everything else.

I pressed my hand to my stomach, where my daughter turned slowly, finding her position.

*I’m going to tell her about him,* I thought.

*When she’s old enough.

I’m going to tell her she had a brother she never got to meet.*

I didn’t say it out loud.

Josephine Ruth arrived three weeks later, at 4:47 in the morning, seven pounds and two ounces, with dark hair and a furious expression that made the midwife laugh.

I named her after my grandmother and Mark’s mother, in that order.

Ruth cried when I told her.

She was in the waiting room, and when the nurse brought her in she stood at the edge of the room with both hands pressed to her mouth and didn’t move for a long moment.

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