Chapter 2 - The Miracle in the Frost
The first baby entered the freezing world not with a cry, but with a sharp, gasp-like breath that crystallized instantly in the negative fifty-degree air. Grace, shaking so violently that her teeth clicked together like shattering glass, caught the tiny boy in her numbed hands. He was slick, fragile, and dangerously blue.
"Noah," she sobbed, her voice a ragged whisper. She didn't have a blanket. She didn't have sterilized tools. She only had her instinct. Stripping off her light maternity dress despite the biting wind of the industrial cooling fans, she pressed Noah directly against her bare chest, wrapping her arms around him to trap her fading body heat.
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But her body wasn't done. Another wave of agonizing contractions ripped through her abdomen. She collapsed onto her side on the freezing floor, desperately cradling Noah with one arm while pushing with the last remnants of her strength. Moments later, Emma arrived into the darkness.
Grace gathered both infants to her chest, curling her body into a tight ball around them. She used her own skin, her own breath, and her own life force to shield them from the frost. The digital thermostat mocked her: Negative fifty. She began to sing a faint, trembling lullaby, fighting the overwhelming urge to close her eyes and sleep. She knew that if she slept, none of them would ever wake up.
