A Reckoning in Flames

town, to the grand but decay

nuckles white on t

lk to him, to

know me. I would n

. He just stared

rayal, it was a living

r, my labor star

holding him, so small, so per

ridge this chasm b

during the birth

oah, his face

ed over Noah, her eyes lingering on

n the hallway. I couldn't hear the w

ever a week after

aid to monitor him, to br

ened. R

to rush him t

said, his voice strangely calm. "Olivia s

, Ethan! He can

lways there now, a

remedy, something h

rsh hospital drugs," she s

seemed to hang

aded, but Ethan bl

st, Sarah. Olivia know

rew shallower. His

n to do something,

lented, but i

in my arms on the w

aggressive infection. They said

ief. Just a grim s

nging to Ethan, saying how it bro

me the

eral I barely remember through my haze

d from secondary infertility, a complication fro

Sarah," Ethan said

od ran

hispered, her eyes gleaming.

e to carry a

Ol

s sperm and

" Ethan stated. "Fo

Noah too. For not trus

f it was a p

I screame

ms, his fingers dig

his town knows what kind of mother you really are. The ki

e town. Their influ

t little I had left.

. The thought of carrying another child,

is cold certainty, bro

d. Utterly a