James arrived unexpectedly at his pregnant daughter’s apartment carrying a baby gift and a small pink teddy bear.
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Chapter 15 / 17
Chapter 15
The baby came six weeks later.
A girl.
Ryan had spent months believing the child was a boy because Linda insisted the early scan was conclusive.
It was not.
Emily laughed when the doctor told her.
Not because the sex mattered.
Because so many adults had built ambitions around an unborn son who never existed.
She named her Grace.
Just Grace.
No patriarch’s name.
No strategic meaning.
I brought the same pink teddy bear I had carried the day I found Emily.
The one Linda threw at my chest.
I had cleaned it.
Repaired the ribbon.
Emily took it and cried.
“Dad…”
“What?”
“You kept it.”
“Of course.”
May you like
She placed it beside Grace.
For once, an object from that apartment meant something gentle.
