I Brought Home a Baby from My Firehouse Shift a Decade Ago – Last Week, a Woman Showed up with a Confession That Chilled My Blood

Amy crouched to Betty’s eye level and brought out a small teddy bear, cream-colored with a blue ribbon around its neck. “I brought this for you, sweetheart.”

“She’s a friend.”

Betty took it and pressed it to her chest. “Thank you. What’s his name?”

Amy blinked hard. “You tell me.”

Betty thought for exactly one second. “Waffles!”

That got a real laugh out of Sarah, the first since Amy arrived. Then Amy looked at Sarah, silently asking something she couldn’t say out loud. Sarah looked at me, and I nodded once.

Amy took Betty’s hands gently in both of hers. Our daughter allowed this with total curiosity.

“You tell me.”

Betty tilted her head. “Have we met before?”

“No, sweetie, but I’ve wanted to for a very long time,” Amy replied.

All three of us were trying to hold ourselves together for completely different reasons.

After Betty went upstairs to show Waffles her room, Amy just looked down.

Sarah handed her a tissue. “You loved her enough to leave her somewhere safe. That is not a small thing.”

Amy looked up. “I’ve spent 10 years wondering if it was the worst thing I ever did.”

“Have we met before?”

Sarah shook her head. “It was the hardest thing you’ve ever done. That’s not the same.”

“I watched you once at the park when Betty was little,” Amy admitted. “She fell and scraped her knee. You picked her up before she had even decided whether to cry.”

Sarah let out a shaky laugh. “That sounds like her.”