Then Emilia grabbed her finger.
Silvia began to cry.
“She’s so tiny.”
“Yes.”
“Mom…”
I waited.
“I really was afraid.”
I nodded.
“I know.”
“But I was also angry. Because…” She swallowed. “Because I thought that if you had another child, everything you had done for us would become less important.”
Those words surprised me.
“What does that mean?”
“My whole life, I told myself that we were your purpose. Me and Misho. That you sacrificed everything for us. And when Emilia came along, I felt… replaced.”
I sat beside her.
“No one can replace your child, Silvia.”
“I know that in my head. But not in my heart.”
I put my hand on her shoulder.
“You will always be my daughter. And Mikhail will always be my son. Emilia doesn’t take anything away from you.”
“But she’ll inherit.”
There was the truth.
Small.
Uncomfortable.
But still there.
