I Called My Mom After Giving Birth and She Said She Was Too Busy With My Sister’s Party Until the Next Day They Came Begging

hours had passed since she called me selfish for going into labor on her birthday. I did not answer.

My mother held up the gift bag. “We brought something for the baby.”

“Put it on the chair,” I said.

She obeyed. Quickly. That was the first thing that unsettled me, that she obeyed without argument, without the small performance of offense she usually continue reading …