“You wanted to keep her. She’s your responsibility and your problem.”
Those were the words my ex-husband, Eric, used when I called him about our newborn daughter.
Our baby was struggling to breathe.
I was recovering from an emergency C-section.
Our savings were gone.
And the man who was supposed to be her father had decided that none of it was his concern.
But I had no idea that the person who would finally stand up for my daughter would be the last person I expected.
Eric’s mother.
Barbara.
For weeks before Chloe was born, my marriage had been falling apart.
Eric had left me for another woman.
He packed two suitcases, drained our joint savings and walked out of our kitchen without looking back.
He told me the pregnancy had become a burden.
He said he deserved another chance at happiness.
Then he left.
I was still trying to process what had happened when the pregnancy became even more difficult.
The stress, fear and complications took a serious toll on me.
Doctors eventually decided that they could not safely wait any longer.
At 34 weeks, I was rushed into an emergency C-section.
Our daughter, Chloe, entered the world earlier than expected.
Instead of holding her in my arms and taking her home, I watched her spend her first days beneath the bright lights of the neonatal intensive care unit.