As she sat back down in her rocking chair to process what had just happened, Tilley felt as if something exploded inside her, like light and glass and gasoline colliding in a blazing ball of fire. It took her breath away. What was this, this thing she was feeling? At first, Tilley thought that maybe she was dying. But, no, this feeling was quite the opposite. For the first time in decades, Tilley was free.
DAISYSemantics
I hadn’t slept in two days. I’d worked two straight twelve-hour shifts and, while Maisy was only waking up once per night, instead of putting her back down, I just rocked her and held her. I knew our time together was coming to an end, and I couldn’t bear it. So I had decided to savor every second. Tonight, I had picked her up at day care at seven, given her a long bath because she loved it so much—who didn’t love a bath?—and rocked her for longer than usual after her bottle, holding her close, smelling her head, feeling like I was about to lose everything that mattered. I was so devastated over Maisy that I’d hardly had time to feel sad about Mason, although, believe me, the thoughts about how I’d good and ruined that did creep in.
It was almost nine at night when I heard a soft knock at my door. I was about to pop a bag of popcorn for dinner because I was way too tired to cook. I peered out the peephole and saw something unexpected. Cheryl—plus Drew, still in his baseball uniform, and Sarah. I sighed. I had talked to Allison, and I knew they couldn’t just come take Maisy from me. But, as long as they claimed her within sixty days, she was theirs. There was nothing I could do. I opened the door.
I hadn’t seen Cheryl since her outburst in my driveway. I couldn’t text Mason to come save me again. We hadn’t spoken in days. And I knew Amelia would be busy getting Greer and George down. I could text Tilley; she would come. But wasn’t she still at play practice? I didn’t know Elizabeth well enough to ask for her help, and I presumed Olivia wasn’t exactly thrilled with me. Laura was working tonight. Okay. Enough. I was on my own.
I positioned myself squarely at the front door as I said “May I help you?” directly to Cheryl.
“We just want to talk,” Sarah said.
Drew nodded. I trusted them. It was his mother I was afraid of.
Cheryl put her hands up. “I’m here to apologize.” She looked at Sarah. “And, well, we want to talk to you.”
I was way too intrigued to deny her the chance to explain.
I gestured toward the small sitting area, saying, “Maisy is asleep, so let’s keep our voices down.”
Whatever was coming next, no mother would wake a sleeping baby.
Sarah and Drew sat side by side on the couch. Cheryl took the chair to the left of them, so I took the chair to the right, my stomach in knots.
Drew took Sarah’s hand, and, to my surprise, he talked first. “Sarah and I have been doing a lot of thinking and talking.”
I knew what was coming; nausea washed over me.
Cheryl interjected, “Sarah has been staying with us, so we have had a lot of time to hash everything out.”
Poor Sarah. I couldn’t imagine her parents kicking her out. Although my mother had left me, so I guessedmaybeI could understand.
“I know that my actions proved I’m not fit to be a single mother,” Sarah said, looking down at her feet.
I mean, I couldn’t argue with that. She’d left her daughter in adumpster.
“But once I held my baby,” Sarah said, her voice quavering, “I just couldn’t imagine living in a world where I don’t know her.”
I knew the smile I had pinned to my face looked as awkward and fake as it felt. But how could I smile? Maisy had beenmybaby. My pulse thrummed as I thought,I have been the one taking care of her. I have been the one loving her. She ismine.
Cheryl leaned forward. “Look, Daisy, this isn’t an easy thing to say. And when Mason came to talk to me, and planted the seed that had we known about all of this, we would have urged the kids to put Maisy up for adoption, he really almost changed my mind…”
I raised my eyebrows. It wasn’t the right time, but my mind stuck onMason came to talk to me. Mason talked to her? Masonfoughtfor me?
“Daisy, we can’t ever thank you enough,” Drew said. “You not only protected Maisy. You also protected Sarah and me. And we know you could have gotten in trouble for that. We know what a sacrifice that was.”
I nodded, my throat thick with tears, my whole body tingling with that fight-or-flight instinct to grab Maisy, run away, and never look back. I didn’t want to cry. And I appreciated what Cheryl, Drew, and Sarah were saying. But the idea of saying goodbye to Maisy was too devastating to comprehend.
“I think you know where we’re going with this,” Sarah said nervously. “But Cheryl and Andy are going to help us; we are going to all raise Maisy together.”
Something hit me: “Maisy?”
Sarah nodded. Her chin quivered as she said, “You and Mason saved her. She should be named for you.”
My eyes filled, but I nodded bravely, a heat rising through my chest like I might explode with sorrow. “What about baseball?” I asked quietly, trying to control a sob.
“Sarah is going to go to Chapel Hill as planned this fall and will come home on weekends to see Maisy. And Drew will join her the next year, as planned,” Cheryl jumped in. “Andy and I will visit them as much as possible, but we’ll have our granddaughter.”
