My son and his wife asked me to watch their two-month-old baby while they went shopping. But no matter how much I held him or tried to calm him down, he wouldn’t stop crying inconsolably

By evening, Noah’s crying had softened. He lay in the hospital crib, finally sleeping, his tiny chest rising and falling in fragile peace.

I sat beside him, my hand resting gently near his.

Daniel and Megan stood on the other side, both of them changed in a way that only parents understand when something almost breaks their world.

“I should have known,” Megan whispered. “I should have listened to that feeling.”

Daniel placed a hand on her shoulder, but his eyes were distant. “We both should have.”

I looked at them, not with anger, but with something quieter.

A knowing.