“How far along are you?”
***
For ten years, I’d believed we had a happy family. I believed it through five years of treatments, failed procedures, injections, and disappointment.
Byron had held my hand through it all. When I finally became pregnant, he’d pressed his face to my stomach.
“Our family,” he’d whispered. “Finally.”
***
Now Duncan was an hour old, and Byron had brought another pregnant woman to meet my newborn son.
“Finally.”
“Our marriage had problems,” Byron said.
“What problems?”
“Everything became about the appointments and injections. Then the pregnancy took over. You stopped being my wife.”
“I was trying to become the mother of your child.”
“You stopped caring about us, Shay. And what did you expect me to do? Be lonely?”
“Our marriage had problems.”
Thomas stared at him. “Do you hear yourself?”
Byron ignored him.
“You let yourself go, Shay. You weren’t the same woman anymore.”
Mary turned toward him.
“You said that you two were just living together because she was pregnant, but that there wasn’t a relationship.”
His jaw tightened. “Mary, enough.”
“You let yourself go, Shay.”
“You told me you and Shay had already separated.”
I looked at her.
She’d known he was married. That much was clear.
But Byron had handed each of us a different version of his life.
He stepped closer to my bed.
“I’m going to be with Mary,” he said. “It’s time she met the family and my son. We’re expecting another addition, as you can see, Shay.”
She’d known he was married.
Duncan shifted against me.
Byron leaned closer and lowered his voice.
“You’ll keep this calm. That’s who you are, Shay,” he said.
He was right about one thing.
I didn’t want a scene.
I just wanted him gone.
I reached for the call button and pressed it.
“You’ll keep this calm.”
“I’m not going to argue with you,” I said. “I’m going to make a decision.”
Nurse Patricia moved back toward my bed.
“Patricia, please remove Byron and Mary from my room. Call security if you need to.”
Byron stared at me.
“You’re throwing me out on the day my son was born?”
“You brought your mistress into my recovery room.”
“I’m Duncan’s father.”
“Call security if you need to.”
“And I’m the woman who gave birth to him.”
Patricia opened the door.
“My patient has asked for privacy. You both need to leave.”
Byron looked toward Thomas, expecting help.
Thomas pointed into the hallway.
“Go. Leave.”
Mary left first. Byron followed, muttering under his breath.
“Go. Leave.”
Thomas went after them.
The door stayed partly open.
“You planned to renew your vows next month while your mistress was pregnant?” Thomas demanded.
“We can still hold the ceremony,” Byron replied. “Canceling it will start gossip.”
“You walked into Shay’s hospital room holding your mistress’s hand.”
“Shay hates people knowing our business.”
“Canceling it will start gossip.”
“You made it everyone’s business, and you made me pay for a ceremony you knew was a lie.”
The door closed.
***
My hands started shaking.
Nurse Patricia pulled a chair beside me.
“I waited five years for today,” I whispered. “Now this is what I’ll remember.”
My hands started shaking.
She adjusted Duncan’s blanket.
“What Byron did was unforgivable,” Nurse Patricia said. “But it doesn’t own this day. All Duncan knows is that you’re his home.”
She checked my line, then gave me space.
***
Thomas returned a minute later with his phone in his hand.
“You’re his home.”
“The vow renewal was my idea,” he said. “I paid most of the deposits, but I won’t decide this for you.”
