CHAPTER 10

"Mama!" I cried, holding her hand tightly.

"I'm not going to make it, Camilla," she struggled to tell me. "But we can save the baby."

I looked back at Papa pacing back and forth in distress. This only made me cry more. I was eight years old in this cold hospital room with my mom telling me she was going to die.

"Stop it, Rose!" Papa shouted at her. "Why are you telling the child such nonsense! If something was wrong, the doctors would say!"

"This is not my first pregnancy. I know when something is wrong!" she argued back to him.

She grabbed her stomach in pain as she got another contraction. I quickly grabbed a towel and dabbed her face. She was drenched in her sweat because she was burning up.

"It's time," she told Papa. "Call the doctor!"

She grabbed my hands tightly. "Camilla, you have to promise me that if anything happens, you will take care of your baby brother with your life."

I shook my head. "No, no, no. I can't. You have to do it. You're just being dramatic right now because