Margaret immediately looked offended.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I did something.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
A small sound escaped her.
A sound Daniel had never heard from her before.
Not sadness.
Not anger.
Psychology
Fear.
“Rachel,” he said softly, turning back toward her. “Tell me.”
She shook her head.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Her fingers tightened around the blue quilt.
“Because she told me you would hate me.”
Daniel froze.
“Who?”
Rachel looked toward Margaret.
“Your mother.”
Pregnancy& Maternity
The room became completely silent.
Margaret stepped forward.
“That is ridiculous.”
Rachel flinched.
Daniel noticed.
And that was when the last piece of doubt inside him disappeared.
Because Rachel was not reacting like someone caught in a lie.
She was reacting like someone trapped.
“Mom,” Daniel said, his voice lower now. “What did you tell her?”
Margaret crossed her arms.
“I told her the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That pregnancy does not make someone helpless.”
Daniel stared at her.
“That is not an answer.”
Margaret sighed dramatically.
“She was always too sensitive. You know that.”
“No.”
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“Tell me what happened.”
Margaret looked away.
And Rachel finally spoke.
Quietly.
“I fell.”
Daniel turned back to her.
“What?”
“I fell in the kitchen.”
“When?”
Rachel swallowed.
“Almost three weeks ago.”
His face changed.
“Three weeks?”
She nodded.
“I slipped near the sink. I landed badly.”
Daniel moved closer.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Because your mother was here.”
Pregnancy& Maternity
Daniel looked confused.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Rachel gave a broken laugh.
“You really don’t know.”
Three weeks earlier, Daniel had been at work late.
A shipment had arrived at the hardware store, and he had stayed to help unload everything.
That evening, Margaret had visited Rachel.
She had not come with dinner.
She had not come to help.
She had come with accusations.
“You’re making my son into your servant,” Margaret had said.
Rachel had been sitting at the kitchen table, organizing baby clothes.
Kitchen& Dining
“I never asked Daniel to do anything.”
“You don’t have to ask. Women like you know how to make men feel guilty.”
Rachel remembered trying to stay calm.
She remembered telling herself that Margaret was simply difficult.
Then Margaret had noticed the ultrasound photos on the refrigerator.
