When I was eight months pregnant, my sister-in-law attempted to take the $150,000 my husband had set aside for our unborn twins… and when I refused, she struck me directly in the stomach.

was a deep, settled pain in her abdomen. The third was the particular quiet of a room where everyone speaks in lowered voices, as though the wrong word might shatter something.

“The babies,” she said.

Diego’s eyes were red.

“They are alive.”

She tried to sit up, but a nurse stopped her.

“Mariana needed oxygen,” Diego said, holding back tears. “Mateo was continue reading …