CHAPTER 42

Mandy and Elliot sat in horrified silence as the birthing video came to its conclusion. Mandy had read about having a baby, she knew the particulars. Her book had gone into detail about the hormones that caused the muscular walls of the uterus to contract. She understood that the mother’s body would naturally know how to expel the fetus.

But none of that had prepared Mandy for what childbirth actually looked like. To make matters worse, Elliot hadn’t said a word, not one during...