Gareth put it on immediately and posed beside my stomach.
“Three babies don’t scare me,” he announced. “I’ll handle the night feedings.”
Everyone laughed and applauded.
I saved the picture because I thought our children would enjoy seeing it one day.
I did not know it would later become evidence of a promise he had no intention of keeping.
Our babies arrived seven weeks early.
Nell came first, tiny and angry, with a cry much stronger than her body. Amos followed two minutes later. Vera was last and needed help breathing.
I barely saw them before the nurses carried them away.
The emergency C-section left me weak and frightened. For days, standing felt like my body was being pulled apart. Even after we brought the babies home, the area around my incision burned whenever I bent down or lifted anything heavier than a bottle.
The first night, all three babies began crying at once.
