Chapter 3

On Ivy's forty-seventh day, colic made her cry for an entire afternoon.

I massaged her stomach the way the pediatrician had shown me and paced with her for six hours. By the time Grant walked in, I could barely lift my shoulders. His first words were, "Why is she still crying?"

Sloan came in behind him. She reached for the baby, but I tightened my hold on Ivy. "She doesn't feel well. Please don't touch her right now."

Sloan immediately looked at Grant.

"She's only trying to help." He took the baby from my trembling arms and handed her straight to Sloan.

I said no twice. It made no difference. When my arms were suddenly empty, they stayed curved as if I were still holding my child.

Exhausted from crying, Ivy soon fell asleep against Sloan's shoulder. Sloan pressed her cheek to the baby's and smiled. "This is my little girl."

Grant took pictures of them.

As the camera clicked, Sloan looked over his shoulder at me, triumph in her eyes. Her lips formed two silent words.

"See that?"

That night, Sloan posted a photo online with the caption, "My girl is finally back in her godmother's arms." Someone commented that anyone who did not know them would think they were the parents. Sloan replied, "We already are a family."

I told Grant to make her delete it.

"It's one picture."

"She has never changed a diaper. She held Ivy for five minutes because you were watching. She isn't helping me. She's using my child to prove you'll choose her."

Grant did not ask how long I had carried our screaming baby alone. All he heard was that I wanted Sloan to delete a photograph, and he decided Sloan was the one being mistreated.

"You're jealous of our daughter's godmother now?" His face turned cold. "Ivy is my daughter too. You don't get to decide by yourself who can be close to her."

That was when I finally understood that choosing Sloan as godmother had not been a single thoughtless mistake. Grant had never believed that I, as Ivy's mother, had the right to keep Sloan out of her life.

The photograph stayed online.

That afternoon, I carried Ivy into a family law office.

After reviewing everything, the attorney asked only one question. "Do you want to warn your husband, or do you want to end the marriage?"

"I want to end it."