*Olivia*
“What do you mean he’s gone? Who is?”
Shame curled around my throat like a hand around my windpipe, and every ragged breath through my mouth felt like swallowing a hundred razor blades. I could hear Gio’s fear, the way it mirrored my own, and I choked on my spit, unable to say the next words that I didn’t even want to admit to myself.
I was his mother. How could something like this happen on my watch? He was right here in my arms only a few hours ago and now….
A hand on my back rubbed slow, deliberate circles, a low voice trying to coach me to breathe in and out, but I felt like I was waiting for a breath that would never come. How could I breathe without my baby here with me?
They could’ve torn me limb from limb and it would still hurt less than this.
“E-Elio,” I managed to choke out through my sobs. “They took our baby!”
