In the third, I was in the hospital, holding our baby boy.
Then he showed me a photograph I’d almost completely forgotten.
I was standing in the same backyard where he’d recently taken another picture of me.
I was wearing a pink swimsuit.
“Do you remember this day, Emily?”
I remembered.
It was thirteen years ago.
That day, several relatives had laughed at my body. I’d been so humiliated that I’d decided never to wear a swimsuit again.
Daniel took my hand.
“After that day, you started hiding yourself. You stopped taking pictures, going to the beach, even looking at yourself in the mirror.”
“And that’s why you’ve been photographing me at night?”
“No. That wasn’t the only reason.”
He took a deep breath.
“Do you remember six months ago, when you had
terrible stomach pain in the middle of the night?”
I nodded.
“You told me it had passed. But afterward, I noticed your belly was changing. Every time I asked, you said you were fine. I was afraid you were hiding something again because you didn’t want to worry me.”
He showed me the notes on his phone.
Dates. Measurements. And beside each one, a short observation.
“Emily got tired quickly today.”
“She complained of heaviness again tonight.”
“I need to convince her to see a doctor.”
I stared at the screen in silence.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“At first, I did. But you got upset and asked me to stop talking about your body. I made a terrible decision. I thought that if I at least recorded the changes, we’d have something accurate to show the doctor if you eventually agreed to go.”
His voice trembled.
“But I had
no right to do it secretly. I’m sorry.”
For the first time, I could see that Daniel truly understood how much he’d frightened me.
“Then what were you whispering every night?”
He closed his eyes.
“I was saying, ‘Please, don’t let it be too late this time.’”
“Why?”
“Because my mother used to say she was fine all the time, too. She avoided going to the doctor for so long that by the time she finally went, her illness was already advanced. After she died, I promised myself that if I ever noticed something was wrong with you, I wouldn’t ignore it.”
