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She coos at the baby then turns to leave, but Mark stops her by taking hold of her arm.
“I’m glad you’re here, Mom.”
She coos again, then gives him the biggest hug I’ve ever seen.
“I’ll walk you out,” he offers afterwards, but is only gone for about three minutes.
“We don’t have to call her Sofia if you don’t want,” he says as he enters the room again. But I can see it in his face that he wants to. And so do I.
Which I tell him in no uncertain terms. And get the best kiss I’ve ever gotten in return, which is interrupting by Sofia waking up with her sweet little cry.
And that’s just perfect too. Because everything is exactly as it needs to be now.
* * *
MARK
At first, every time I looked at our daughter I couldn’t believe she was real. But that’s fading now as evening falls outside and both mother and daughter are sleeping. I should go home to change and get some rest, several of the nurses have told me so, but I’m not ready to leave their side yet. Maybe in another couple of hours. Maybe not.
Sofia.
Leave it to my mother to come out of nowhere and find the perfect name for my child. It’ll be nice hearing that name around the house again. And mom’s right, gran would get a kick out of it.
Mom’s divorced now. It was messy, because her eighty-year-old husband traded her in for a younger model. And that’s all she said, warning me not to tell her,I told you so, which I almost did. I never liked her husband and only met the guy three times. I’m glad he’s out of our lives. She’s also said that she’s staying in Slovenia indefinitely, which was nice to hear. It felt like the pieces of my life are finally starting to fall into place in the right way.
My freshly charged phone pings with a text from Sojer, asking me if I want to come in and interview the suspects. It’s the last thing I want to do.
I get up and leave the room quietly to call him.
“Well, congratulations,” is the first thing he says to me. I thank him.
“I assume you’re busy but thought I should ask if you want to be present for the questioning,” he says.
“They’re all yours,” I say.
“She,” he corrects me. “They took the Anica woman to the closed ward and won’t let anyone in to talk to her.”
“Just as well, it’s probably where she belongs,” I say.
Eva has told me everything that happened yesterday, though not in great detail for which I was grateful. It sounded like she just wanted to forget it too and she hasn’t mentioned writing a book about it either, which I’m pretty excited about.
“I’ll get what we need from Hana,” he says.
We. That sounds wrong to me already.
“I’m sure you will,” I say. “I’ll be taking an extended leave of absence now and I already talked to Simon. The job’s yours until I get back, if you want it.”
I very likely won’t be coming back.
He gasps and it’s followed by a silence.
“I…” he finally says then clears his throat. “Yes, I mean, yes, I want it.”
I tell him I’ll set up a meeting between him and Simon so they can go over the details, then let him go.
Sofia’s awake, I can hear her crying. I’d know her cry anywhere. It’s like I knew it before I even heard it for the first time.
Eva is already holding her when I come back into the room, her long platinum hair cascading down her shoulders and her bright blue eyes wide and loving as she gazes into our daughter’s brown ones.
I stop just inside the door and just take it in, because this is an image that I want to burn into my mind so I can remember it for the rest of my life. Which I’m certain I will.
