Beloved Wife Of A Contract Marriage
"Mama? Why don't I have a brother?"
The question came so suddenly that Elise nearly choked on her own breath. She coughed lightly into her hand, biting back a laugh even as something more tender caught in her throat. She had always known her daughter to be curious, endlessly so, but nothing ever quite prepared her for the things Evie chose to voice aloud, or the moments she chose to voice them in.
"Not everyone has a brother or sister," Elise said gently, searching for the simplest way to explain something that felt, in that moment, anything but simple. "Some people are only children – like you. Or like mama."