Curiosity and dread guided him to it. He opened it carefully. The handwriting inside trembled across the pages, but the words were unmistakably heartfelt. It revealed a woman who had been trying desperately to survive childbirth in isolation. She had begged forgiveness in her notes. She had told her daughter she was proud of her. She had reminded her to bring the babies to the hospital if things grew worse.
Morales closed the notebook, his throat tight. He stepped outside to the open air. A fellow officer approached tentatively.
“What did you find?”
Morales gazed down the road that Alina had walked alone. “That child pushed a wheelbarrow for miles,” he said softly. “With two newborns. Under the heat. Without shoes.”
The officer’s eyes widened. “And the mother?”
“Severe postpartum complications,” Morales answered. “She had no help. No supplies. No one to call.”
They both stood in silence. The kind one never forgets.
. . .
Back at Northbridge General, the medical team fought hard to stabilize the mother. Her name was Delfina Cresswell. She had lost a significant amount of blood. She hovered on the edge of consciousness for hours. Yet something in her refused to surrender. By dawn she stirred faintly. By midmorning she opened her eyes fully.
Her voice was barely a whisper. “My children,” she asked. “Where are they?”
The nurse beside her smiled gently. “All three are safe.”
Tears slid down Delfina’s cheeks. She covered her eyes with shaking fingers. “And Alina?”
“She has not left the waiting room,” the nurse replied. “She fell asleep against a chair.”
When Delfina later saw her daughter enter the room, her whole body trembled. Alina paused near the bed. She looked unsure, as if afraid her presence might somehow cause harm.
“I am so sorry,” Delfina murmured. “I am sorry you had to do what you did. You were far too young for that.”
Alina quietly crawled into the space beside her mother. She placed her head gently against her shoulder. She held tight as the tears she had held back finally poured from her. She cried for the long walk. She cried for the hunger. She cried for the fear of losing everything she loved. Delfina wrapped her arms as best as she could around her daughter, whispering soothing words that drifted through the room like a warm breeze.
. . .