My name is Lena Carter.
For a long time, I believed love lived in words—in promises, in soft reassurances, in vows spoken easily. It took me far too long to understand that real love isn’t what people say… it’s what remains when things fall apart.
My daughter was born on a morning that should have been the happiest day of my life.
Instead, it became the beginning of something I never expected to endure.
I still remember the operating room—bright lights, urgent voices, the sense that everything was moving too fast. Someone said we had to act immediately. I tried to ask what was happening… but everything went dark.
When I woke up, the silence felt heavy.
My body ached in a way I couldn’t fully describe—not just pain, but a deep, hollow feeling, like I had been taken apart and left to put myself back together alone.
A nurse approached and told me my baby was fine.
A girl.
My daughter.
Ava.
The name echoed inside me like something sacred. I wanted to smile, but I couldn’t. My body refused, my mind still drifting somewhere between fear and reality.
Then I saw Daniel, my husband.
He stood beside me, holding my hand briefly, telling me everything would be okay.
I wanted to believe him. In that moment, belief was all I had.
But when we got home, everything changed.
Ava cried constantly—day and night without pause. There was no rhythm, no rest. And I could barely stand. Every movement pulled at my stitches. Even holding my own baby felt like more than I could handle.
Still, I did it.
Because I was her mother.
And someone had to.
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