#Chapter 131: The Bold Woman

Alexander Ella’s funeral was long and exhausting. And yet, somehow, it was all such a blur that it almost seemed to go by too quickly. I vaguely recalled placing flowers on her casket, watching as it got lowered into the ground, listening to the kind words spoken about her… But if anyone were to ask me for specifics, I couldn’t tell them. By the time I got home that night with Lucien still cradled in my arms, fussing now for milk, I felt like I, too, had been lowered into that grave beside Ella. Somehow, I managed to feed and change Lucien, then give him his medicine. He still had to be hooked up to an oxygen machine at night, so I carefully placed the tubes in his nostrils before settling in the rocking chair next to that beautiful crib I had built and rocked him to sleep. Lucien didn’t like to sleep without being held. So I held him all night. The following morning, I had slept on and off, but not more than a few minutes here and there. Lucien was