Months After My 4-Year-Old Daughter Died, I Saw a Man in a Chicken Costume – When He Turned, My Blood Went Cold

I closed my eyes, wrapped my arms around her tiny body, and felt her heartbeat against mine.

She held on tighter, her small fists gripping my coat. The pink balloon drifted above us, catching the last rays of the afternoon sun.

There would be questions, I knew.

Hospital investigations, police reports, and DNA tests to prove what I already knew in every cell of my body.

There would be trauma for Addie to work through, confusion about who she was and where she belonged. There would be long nights and difficult conversations.

I wasn’t sure she’d ever feel like mine, or worse — if I’d get her mixed up with my Maddie.

But right now, in this moment, she was here.

Alive.

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