His wife, Claire, sat beside him, her posture slumped with a fatigue that had long since gone beyond physical, her arms trembling slightly as she tried once more to rock their daughter, Sophie, whose tiny face had turned red from hours of relentless crying that neither of them could soothe despite weeks of trying everything they had read, watched, or been advised to do.
“She won’t stop,” Claire whispered, her voice thin, fraying at the edges. “Aaron, I don’t know what else to try.”
Aaron didn’t answer immediately, not because he didn’t hear her, but because he was afraid that if he spoke, the strain in his voice would reveal just how close he was to unraveling, and instead he adjusted Sophie against his shoulder, patting her back in a rhythm that had long since lost its confidence, feeling more like a desperate habit than a solution.Continue reading…