Isabella woke to her daughter singing nursery rhymes.
A soft smile was on her face before she was even opening her eyes.
Tiny hands gently touched her stomach.
Isabella's eyes widened in a moment of panic but a soft squeeze of her hand stopped her.
She turned her head and saw her husband sitting beside the bed on a chair.
»Its okay,« he mouthed and a soft smile danced across his face.
Isabella felt as if someone tried to pull the carpet out from under her feet and she was glad to be lying down.
She cocked her head to the side to ask ›Really?‹ and Jonathan's brilliant smile and hearty nod told her all she needed to know.
Even if the doctors hadn't talked to her yet her husband wouldn't tell her something like this.
Jonathan could be an asshole if the occasion called for it but he wasn't deliberately cruel.
Noemi looked at her mom with a huge smile on her little face. She held out a hand-sewn teddy bear who seemed to be made out of a multitude of different scraps of cloth.
»I named him Rip … he's for my … sib … sibling«
She stumbled over the last word but never stopped smiling.
Isabella took the teddy bear and inspected him. He came from the hospital shop and was sewn by someone who was doing art therapy here. The information was written on a tiny card that was lovingly tied to the bears neck.
»He's beautiful,« Isabella told her, »thank you, Noemi.«
Noemi nodded and started to sing again, her whole attention on her mom's tummy.