“Your chart is marked private, Mrs. Walker. Your approved support person is Clare Benton?”
Clare raised one hand.
“That’s me.”
The nurse looked at Madison.
“Still correct?”
“Yes.”
“Approved contacts are Clare Benton, Robert Miller, and Elaine Miller?”
“My parents,” Madison said.
“No one else?”
Madison felt Ethan’s name in the silence.
Then she felt the baby turn inside her.
“No one else.”
Labor was not graceful.
It was sweat, monitors, cold water, shaking knees, and Clare’s steady hand rubbing the base of Madison’s spine.
It was nurses speaking gently while doing necessary things.
It was the sound of her son’s heartbeat filling the room, steady and stubborn.
Around midnight, Ethan texted.
Landed. Hotel is nice. Try not to stress.
Madison was six centimeters dilated.
She stared at the words until a contraction rose so hard she forgot the phone existed.
By the time it passed, Ethan had become background noise.
