The weeks after Amina’s February visit settled into a strange, quiet kind of peace. The snow had mostly melted, leaving the ground soft and the air damp with the promise of early spring. Elias and I moved through our days with a new kind of steadiness. We no longer woke up with the old knot of anxiety in our chests. The truth was out. Amina knew. Lena and Tyler knew. Even Mrs. Delgado had accepted it with her usual blunt warmth.
But peace did not mean the absence of weight.
Amina had returned to campus and thrown herself into her spring semester. Her texts came regularly, but they were careful. She asked about the house, about Tyler’s latest project, about whether the lilacs were starting to bud yet. She never asked about the future. She never brought up the possibility of a baby. We res
