She was still a child herself.
Yet suddenly, she was expected to care for one.
There were no simple instructions for the life waiting ahead of her. No reassuring promise that everything would eventually become easy. No way to return to the innocent days when her greatest worries involved school examinations, birthday parties, and whether her friends would invite her to spend the weekend with them.
Instead, her days became filled with hospital appointments, sleepless nights, difficult conversations, and the overwhelming realization that another human being depended on her.
Her daughter, Sophie, entered the world surrounded by uncertainty.
Emma remembered the first time a nurse placed the tiny newborn in her arms. Sophie was wrapped in a soft blanket, her face barely visible beneath the folds of fabric. Her fingers were so small that Emma could hardly believe they belonged to a real person.
For several seconds, Emma simply stared.
