There were certain things in life that were difficult to accept.
This was one of them.
Staring at the baby named Lorenz, Julius couldn't utter a single word. The shock was plainly on his face.
"It's… really not a girl?"
Sabine looked at him as if he had just asked whether the sky was green.
"Julius," she said, "unless something has gone terribly wrong with basic biology, no. He is very much a boy."
She adjusted the child in her arms, Lorenz letting out a soft sound, blissfully unaware of his uncle's existential crisis.
Julius swallowed hard.
His mind kept reaching for a name that wasn't there. A future that no longer existed. A child who had been real once, enough to hurt even now.
"I see…"
The words came out flat, but inside, something was quietly collapsing.
Sabine regarded him for a moment longer.
"Why?" she asked. "Did you want a niece? I didn't take you for someone who'd let something like this mean so much to you."
"It's not that."
