“The Three Words Behind the Wall”

But all of that changed the night their son was born.

Maria never came home from the hospital.

Complications during childbirth had taken her life, leaving Daniel alone with a newborn baby and a grief that seemed too heavy for one person to carry.

For months afterward, Daniel moved through life like someone underwater.

He worked.
He fed the baby.
He changed diapers.
He slept when he could.

But joy had become something distant.