Our friends and family were always so proud of the way we managed ourselves. We never got caught up in the whirlwind romance, like so many others. We’d stayed firm on our individual paths, and somehow done the impossible—stayed together.

But had we?

As my mind went over and over each detail of the conversation, I continued to slowly roam around the darkened hallways until I heard the faint sound of singing.

The gentle lullaby called to me, and I found myself instantly gravitating toward it.

At the end of the long hall, I could see a soft light seeping out from underneath the door. Noticing it wasn’t fully closed, I quietly knocked, seeing Lailah’s silhouette in the open space.

“Do you mind if I join you?” I asked, sticking my head in.

Rocking back and forth in a comfortable chair with Meara in her arms, she motioned me forward and nodded. “It gets a bit lonely in here sometimes. I wouldn’t mind the company.”

I crawled onto the daybed across from her, making a spot between a giant panda bear and a plush pink elephant. The bedding was soft and warm, and I instantly felt at home in this space.

“We brought in that bed a few weeks after she was born,” Lailah said, fondly pointing to the bed with a look of nostalgia in her tired expression. She was just a few years older than me, maybe mid- to late-twenties, but she held herself with the grace of someone with more years. “She was so small, you see. I just couldn’t stand the idea of leaving her alone.”

Her hands smoothed out the wisps of hair that curled around her baby’s cherub face.

“Was she a preemie?” I asked.

She nodded. “She spent quite a long time in the NICU. And even when they swore she was ready to come home, I was scared to death. I don’t know that any parents, especially those who have spent days and weeks in the NICU, are fully prepared to bring their child home for the first time. I just kept watching her, waiting on every breath.

“We used the bassinet for several weeks until we realized that it resulted in neither of us getting any rest, and that didn’t work at all. So, that’s when the idea of the bed came to be. The pediatrician swore she’d be okay on her own, told us to just rely on a baby monitor, like normal parents. But I couldn’t do it—at least, not at first. We’d been through so much.”

“So, you slept in here? For how long?” I asked, enthralled with her story.

I’d always been fascinated by children, especially babies. Growing up, I’d done my fair share of babysitting, but it had mostly been for our neighbors who had toddlers and young grade-school kids.