Chapter 17 - The First Breath
Three weeks early, during a howling winter storm, my water broke. With Elias grounded at an out-of-state conference, Dana drove me to the hospital. At 9:18 a.m., Owen Bennett was born. He weighed five pounds, eleven ounces, possessing a shock of dark hair and a fierce, screaming set of lungs. Nine hours later, my father burst into the recovery room, still wearing his conference suit, holding a cheap stuffed bear from a gas station. The great, terrifying Judge Bennett looked absolutely paralyzed with fear as I placed his grandson into his arms. “Support his head,” I whispered. “I have never held evidence this important,” he choked out, tears spilling down his cheeks. As Owen wrapped a tiny fist around Elias’s finger, the seven years of silence between us officially washed away.
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