“Then another lady came in with another baby.”
He looked directly into my eyes.
“They changed the name bracelets.”
The words hit me like freezing water.
Children imagined impossible things all the time.
Didn’t they?
I forced myself to smile.
“Honey, hospitals have to check babies all the time. Maybe you misunderstood.”
He shook his head so hard that his blond hair bounced.
“No.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because one baby had a pink rabbit.”
My smile disappeared.
Lily’s pink rabbit blanket.
The tiny embroidered rabbit Max himself had chosen months earlier.
No one else on the maternity floor had that blanket.
“I know because I picked it,” Max said. “The lady took our rabbit off one baby and put it on the other baby.”
I felt the room tilt.
It couldn’t be true.
There had to be another explanation.
“Did you tell Daddy?”
His expression changed.
“I tried.”
“What did Daddy say?”
“He said I watched too many superhero cartoons and babies all look the same.”
That sounded exactly like Ethan.
Practical.
Logical.
Certain.
I kissed Max’s forehead.
“You stay here for a minute.”
He caught my sleeve.
