Then someone took her away.
“She needs to be checked,” Keaton said. “You need to rest.”
I believed him.
The next morning, I woke with a different baby cap beside my pillow—a plain pink one. Keaton explained that Liora had spit up on the flowered cap.
It was such a small detail that I forgot it almost immediately.
Elio visited that afternoon.
He climbed onto a chair beside my bed and stared at the baby in my arms.
“She’s smaller than the rabbit,” he whispered.
“Most babies are,” Keaton said.
Elio frowned at him.
“I’m talking to Mom.”
He offered one finger, and the baby’s hand closed around it.
Elio’s entire face softened.
“I’m your brother,” he told her. “Nobody gets to be mean to you.”
I cried because I thought I was looking at the beginning of their bond.
The following afternoon, Keaton drove us home.
I was exhausted, sore, and struggling to stay awake. Elio sat in the back beside the car seat, but he did not chatter the way he usually did.
Halfway home, I turned to look at him.
“You okay, sweetheart?”
He stared out the window.
“I’m tired.”
I assumed the hospital had overwhelmed him.
When we reached the house, Keaton carried the car seat upstairs. I followed slowly with one hand pressed against my stomach. Elio came behind me until we reached the nursery.
Then he stopped.
Keaton placed the baby in the crib and began loosening the straps.
“Elio,” I said. “Come see your sister in her room.”
He did not move.
His fingers tightened around the doorframe. The color drained from his face.
“That’s not her.”
Keaton glanced over his shoulder.
“What?”
Elio took one step backward.
“That’s not my sister.”
I almost smiled because I thought he was making a strange joke.
“Of course she is.”
“No.”
His voice was barely audible.
“You brought home the wrong baby.”
Keaton laughed, but the sound was impatient.
“Buddy, babies look different after they leave the hospital.”
Elio shook his head.
“I want to go to my room.”
He ran before either of us could stop him.
Keaton and I exchanged a look.
“He’s jealous,” Keaton said.
Elio had been our only child for five years. Every parenting article I had read warned that older children could behave strangely after a new baby arrived.
