Chapter 4
Present Day
Afew hours after Amanda’s career crumbled, she had to get serious about the next phase of her life. Squeezing Sam’s hand with her left and Susan’s with her right, she scrunched her face and pushed with all her might until her baby appeared. At the sound of the first cry, Amanda spasmed with relief.
“It’s a girl!” the nurse announced.
Susan cried quietly and kissed Amanda on the cheek. “You did so good, honey.”
Amanda laughed and opened her arms for her daughter. She was the tiniest thing she’d ever seen with jet-black hair and pink skin and fingers like flower petals. This had been the source of her ten months of acid reflux and vomiting and sleepless nights. As a swell of love came over her, she thought, it was worth it. It was all worth it.
Susan left Mom and Dad to enjoy their first moments with their baby alone. For the time being, Amanda forgot all about her suspended legal license. She kissed Sam, kissed her baby’s toes. She mumbled about how exhausted she was and burst into laughter that made her cry again.
“You look so beautiful right now,” Sam said, then snapped a photograph and showed it to her. She looked tired and slightly sweaty and happier than she’d ever been.
Another version of Amanda might have demanded Sam delete it. She might have quickly done her makeup and asked for another. But Amanda was a mom now. She wanted to live in the moment of this first impossible love.
“I thought you were going to faint,” Amanda teased Sam after the initial shock fell away. “You were really pale.”
“I’m not as strong as you. That’s obvious,” Sam said.
“I think she’s probably having the weirdest day of all of us,” Amanda said of her daughter.
“Poor little baby,” Sam agreed. “We’ll protect you. We’ll make you comfy and safe.”
Amanda’s heart swelled. “Do you have that list handy?”
“The name list?”
“The dreaded name list.” Amanda laughed. They’d bickered playfully about baby names for the duration of the pregnancy. Amanda wanted something classic like Sarah or Katherine or Annabelle, while Sam wanted something a bit more modern and unique.
“We’ve deleted almost everything on it,” Sam said, bringing up the list on his phone.
“What’s left?”
“Just one,” Sam said. “Genevieve.”
“Oh!” Amanda remembered now. Genevieve was her pick. The name was taken from the patron saint of Paris from the fifth century. It meant “fair one.”
“It’s a big name for such a little girl,” Sam said.
“She’ll grow into it.”
“I hope I can spell it,” Sam joked.
Genevieve, the baby girl, let out a coo and wrapped her hand around one of Amanda’s fingers.
“Welcome to the world, Genevieve,” Sam said. “It’s better with you in it.”