After he left, I sat on the nursery floor and cried from exhaustion. My mother brought tea and sat beside me without speaking. Healing was not a single victorious moment. It was a series of choices I had to keep making.
CHAPTER 23: THE ANNIVERSARY
A year after the candlelit dinner that went cold, I made scallops again. This time Leah, my mother, and two friends crowded around the table while Nora and Elise slept upstairs. I burned the first batch and laughed instead of apologizing.
The divorce was final. My finances were no longer tied to secret transfers. The house was noisy, imperfect, and full of people who came because they wanted to be there.
I thought about the ultrasound room where I had lain alone, waiting for a doctor to explain the technician’s sudden silence. I had believed the screen might show the end of my hope. Instead, it showed two heartbeats and the beginning of a life I had not planned.
