Daniel had signed paperwork relinquishing parental rights months later.
Tyler had adopted Mason shortly after our wedding.
That was our history.
That was the truth.
Wasn’t it?
I gripped the table.
“What are you saying?”
Tyler’s voice became almost inaudible.
“Your pregnancy records were altered.”
The room went silent again.
I stared at him.
Then I laughed.
I couldn’t help it.
It was one small, breathless sound.
Because sometimes reality becomes so impossible that your body chooses the wrong reaction.
“I was pregnant.”Track Pregnancy
“I know.”
“I felt him move.”
“I know.”
“I gave birth to him.”
“I know.”
“So don’t sit there and tell me hospital records were altered like that explains anything.”
“It doesn’t.”
“What happened to the baby I delivered?”
Tyler looked at the floor.
Vanessa slowly sat again.
For the first time, fear entered
her face.
Not anger.
Fear.
“Tyler,” she whispered. “What happened?”
He took a long breath.
“Claire’s baby was born very sick.”Track Pregnancy
My knees weakened.
I sat down.
The hospital room returned to me.
The harsh lights.
Nurses moving quickly.
Someone telling me there was a problem.
Then anesthesia.
Then waking hours later with Tyler beside me.
Except—
No.
Not Tyler.
I had known Tyler socially by then, but we had only begun dating months after Mason’s birth.
Hadn’t we?
My memories suddenly seemed covered in fog.
A nurse had brought Mason to me later that morning.
I remembered asking why he looked different.
Did I?
My chest tightened.
I remembered a nurse telling me newborn swelling changed quickly.
Or had my mother told me that years later?Track Pregnancy
Memory is strange.
When you trust your life, you don’t interrogate every detail.
You simply live inside it.
“What happened to my baby?”
I asked again.
Tyler looked at me.
“He didn’t survive.”
The words passed through me without meaning.
A distant ringing filled my ears.
I looked through the glass.
Mason sat outside drinking water.
His shoes didn’t quite reach the floor.
He was turning his toy airplane between his fingers.
