The Baby Clause
Bonnie Jayi only came for the cakei only came for the cake songthe particular sadness of lemon cakesweet memories cake
And then the photo.
She let out a slow breath, and her voice came low. Warm. Sure.
“Hey,” she said. “Don’t do this alone.”
I shook my head.
It wasn’t defiance. Just defeat. I didn’t have the energy for anything else.
The words, if I had them, were somewhere buried under the flood of everything else; fear, exhaustion, guilt, grief, confusion. Pride, maybe, clinging like mold to whatever scraps of dignity I had left.
But Rosa didn’t wait for words.