Chapter 20 - MOM’S CHOICE
Mom listened to the recording.
She cried before it finished.
“I didn’t know he canceled the doctor.”
“No.”
“I thought she was just sore.”
“She told you she was tightening.”
“I thought Braxton Hicks.”
“You’re not a doctor.”
“I know.”
“Daniel is.”
Mom looked at me.
“That’s why I didn’t call him.”
“What?”
“Because I knew Daniel would tell her to go in.”
I stared.
Mom covered her face.
“I thought I was helping her keep control.”
The contradiction hurt.
“You helped Brent keep control.”
“Yes.”
She whispered it.
Finally.
No defensive sentence.
No:
I didn’t mean.
That came later.
At our family mediation months afterward, Mom said:
“I spent my whole life believing a family crisis was something you kept private until everyone calmed down.”
Lauren replied:
May you like
“My placenta did not care about privacy.”
Nobody spoke for a long time.
