Chapter 1 - The Grandmother Shower
My name is Nora. Seven days earlier, I had given birth to my daughter, Lily. I was exhausted, still sore, and still moving carefully every time I stood. I hadn’t even wanted to attend the party, because it wasn’t my baby shower. It was Judith’s.
My mother-in-law had actually called it her “grandmother shower.” Forty guests filled her suburban house. There was a custom cake with Judith’s name iced across the top in pink cursive. Gifts covered an entire dining table, boxes wrapped in pastel ribbons. Upstairs, she had even decorated a spare bedroom she proudly introduced to guests as “Lily’s second nursery.”
I had asked Ryan earlier that morning if Lily and I could stay home. I was bleeding, sleep-deprived, and barely adjusting to nursing.
He told me refusing would hurt his mother’s feelings.
So I went. I wore a loose grey dress, kept my dark circles hidden behind sunglasses for as long as I could, and tried to remain invisible in the corner of the crowded living room.
And within an hour, Judith was standing over me.
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“You’re holding her incorrectly,” she announced, her voice ringing out clearly over the chatter of the guests.
Before I could respond, she reached down and hoisted seven-day-old Lily straight out of my arms.
