Everything I Didn't Say

Eight

Rosalie

Telling Leah about our daughter makes me feel like such a proud parent, "well, her name is Millie Amanda Crawford, she was born May 23rd two years ago at 00:02, she weighed 6lb 6oz, her favourite thing to watch is the peter rabbit movie over and over again, she loves fruit, especially strawberries" I tell her.

I watch at the tears form in her eyes and roll down her cheeks. This response from Leah had completely caught me off guard.

"You gave her my mums name as a middle name?" she asks me tearfully.

"Even if you weren't physically present, I always wanted some part of you to be a part of her life. You love your mum so much, it just felt right" I tell her.

"Rosie, one of the things I admire about you so much is your generous and caring heart" she chokes out the words, "you didn't owe me anything after what I did to you, but you gave our little girl my mums name, you've no idea how much that means to me"

"Shhh" I reassure her as I reach to wipe away her tears and give her a comforting hug.

"You're here now, that's all that matters... and anyway all she done for the first few months was sleep, eat and shit on me, so really you had a lucky escape" I laugh attempting to lighten the mood with a joke. She returns the hug and we share a brief moment of laughter.

I take a deep breath and ask, "would you like to meet your daughter Leah?" apprehensive of her rection.

"I thought you'd never ask, its all I've thought about since last night" she says with a glint in her eyes.

I tease her, "pull yourself together Williamson and I'll have Katie bring her down" as I take out my phone to text Katie.