The months that followed were both ordinary and extraordinary. Doctor appointments. Vitamins lined up on the counter.

The slow transformation of my body as a heartbeat flickered on a monitor and became something undeniable.

I felt every kick. Every hiccup. Every shift beneath my ribs.

And I reminded myself, gently but firmly, that this child was never meant to be mine in the traditional sense.

When Bella was born, I held her for a brief, suspended moment. She was warm and impossibly small. Then I placed her into her mother’s waiting arms.