Yeah, I didn’t want them to have another child, but that didn’t mean that I wanted my mother to lose her baby. I didn’t want my baby brother to die. I would never want that. But I couldn’t stop myself from hissing the words, “It’s a goddamn relief, is what it is,” down the line—and I meant it, but not for the reasons he thought. The baby would be spared the pain of ever being carried through the threshold of hell that was our home. The baby would never feel the sting of our father’s slap or the pain of our mother’s lack of emotion. There would be one less sibling to protect, to worry about, to
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