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Excerpt:
Everything
about him was perfection, and Michael wept quietly, thankful for the precious
gift he’d been given in return for the greatest sorrow he’d ever known.
His tiny son, swaddled in a soft
blue baby blanket, cooed at him, searching his face with dark brown almond
shaped eyes just like his mother’s. His hair was jet black and there wasn’t a
single blemish on his ivory skin.
Grief came in phases and there were
times he could barely manage the next breath. It felt as though his heart had
been viciously ripped right out of his chest and he struggled to reason with
why things happened the way they did.
It had gotten marginally easier over
the past three months, but he knew he couldn't have done it without the help of
his best friends and the memories he could draw upon when it all closed in on
him.
Little Kwon Lee Grey was three
months old already and changing every day. When he was born he looked like any
other baby, wrinkled and pink with few distinct features. But now he was
becoming a perfect blend of him and Hana. “Daddy’s little man is gonna be
talking before we know it, isn’t he?” He spoke softly to him cradling him
against his body. How Hana would have loved to hold him like this, he thought,
and another wave of anguish washed over him. God he missed her! She never even
got to see their child.
Wiping his eyes with the back of his
hand he sniffed and all of the sudden his little boy’s face broke into an
innocent grin; the one that leaves parents wondering if might be gas. Up until
this point little Kwon’s smiles had been quickly followed by the cry of an
infant in pain. But this one wasn’t and he was beyond thrilled.
“Are you smiling at Daddy?” He
asked, like parents do, fully aware they’re not going to get a response. “Do
you know that I love you more than life itself?” He said, lifting him to kiss
the softness of his little cheek.
Settling him back in his arms, he
rocked back and forth in the worn old mahogany rocker and the little guy’s
eyelids soon began to get heavy.
Michael watched him, amazed by the
miracle of him, and with a lonely ache he wondered why fate had so cruelly
taken Hana away, leaving his son to grow up without his mother. He would never
have imagined his own son's life was to begin the way his did.
