Chapter 213 - Two Hundred and thirteen
Chapter Two Hundred and thirteen
Malachi’s POV
But she carried the weight of this, the constant demands and needs and crying, while I got to escape to my office or to meetings or to anywhere that wasn’t filled with the sound of an unhappy infant.
When Alicia finally came home two hours later, she found me on the couch with Lia finally, finally asleep on my chest, both of us looking shell-shocked and exhausted.
"How did it go?" she whispered, carefully sitting beside me without jostling the baby.
"She cried for two hours straight and I have no idea why," I admitted, my voice rough from the tension of the afternoon. "I tried everything. Fed her, changed her, rocked her, walked with her, put on music, turned off music, gave her toys, took away toys. Nothing worked. She just cried until she literally exhausted herself into sleeping."
"Welcome to parenting," Alicia said with a sympathy that told me she’d been through this many times while I was working. "Sometimes they just cry and there’s nothing you can do except survive it and wait for it to end."
"How do you do this every day?"
"Because I have to. Because she needs me and I love her and there’s no other option." She leaned her head on my shoulder, careful not to disturb Lia. "But it’s hard. God, it’s so hard sometimes. People act like motherhood is all joy and fulfillment, but they don’t talk about the hours of crying or the days when nothing you do is right or the way you feel like you’re failing constantly because you can’t figure out what they need."
"You’re not failing," I said immediately. "You’re amazing with her."