lage slept, but inside the small house, Mama Sarafina sat wide awake at the edge of her bed, clutching her faded shawl close to he

hbor named Beatrice had stop

er shoulder. "That you're taking in too many children. That you're doing it for

ight deepened and silence grew louder, those words echoed in her chest. She neve

two weeks to speak. Now, he never stopped talking. Or Thandi, who once flinched at every movement but now giggled freely,

of them all, crying in her sleep. Sarafina moved to

he whispered, brushing back Joy's

thinking of the gossip or the sacrifices. She thought only of the way this child's breat

osed h

ame tomorrow, sh

e-was louder than the