Chapter 3 - THE NURSERY AT ESTHER'S HOUSE
Esther had created a nursery four months earlier.
Alexander knew about it.
Sort of.
He had seen:
a crib,
a rocking chair,
a changing table.
He thought it was for visits.
Valeria had thought the same.
Then Esther started calling it:
the baby’s room.
Not:
a guest nursery.
Not:
where the baby can nap.
The baby’s room.
She bought:
a sterilizer,
a bassinet,
newborn bottles,
a breast-pump storage kit,
a baby monitor,
and enough diapers for months.
Valeria joked once:
“Are you opening a daycare?”
Esther did not laugh.
“She’ll need somewhere stable.”
“She?”
Esther had already decided the baby was a girl before the anatomy scan confirmed it.
When Valeria later announced they planned to name the baby Sofia, Esther looked disappointed.
Alexander’s late sister had been named Isabel.
Esther said:
“Isabel would mean something.”
Valeria answered:
“So does Sofia.”
That was the first visible fracture.
Esther did not scream.
She simply said:
“You don’t understand what this baby means to us.”
Valeria replied:
“She means something to me too.”
Esther looked at her with a strange expression.
May you like
As if Valeria had claimed ownership over something communal.
Weeks later, the hospital forms appeared.
