Chapter 4
Dr. Morgan’s expression remained serious.
“I need you to pay attention to headaches, vision changes, sudden swelling, or pain beneath your ribs. If anything feels wrong, call immediately.”
“Is the baby okay?”
“Right now, yes.”
Minutes later, the room filled with her son’s rapid heartbeat.
Hannah stared at the ultrasound screen.
A tiny hand moved near his face.
“He looks good,” Dr. Morgan said.
Hannah cried quietly from relief.
Outside the clinic, she sat holding the ultrasound photographs.
Her phone rang.
Grant.
Her heart betrayed her by lifting.
“Hi.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yes. His heartbeat is strong.”
“Good.”
A pause.
Then Grant said, “Do you remember where my passport is?”
Hannah closed her eyes.
“Bedroom safe. Top drawer.”
“Right. Thanks.”
“Grant?”
“Yeah?”
She almost said come home.
Instead she looked at the ultrasound photograph.
“Nothing.”
That evening, Hannah opened her old résumé.
Before marrying Grant, she had been an emergency department nurse. Six years of clinical experience. Trauma training. Patient advocacy.
Grant had once told her she would never need to work again.
At the time, it sounded romantic.
Now it sounded dangerous.
She updated the résumé.
She was not preparing revenge.
She was preparing choices.
“What are you doing?”
Hannah turned.
Margaret stood in the doorway holding homemade soup.
Her eyes shifted to the laptop.
“You’re looking for work.”
“Eventually.”
Margaret sat beside her.
“Please don’t protect my son from me.”
Hannah froze.
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“Is Grant seeing another woman?”
For several seconds Hannah said nothing.
She did not have to.
Margaret looked devastated.
Hannah opened the reservation.
Then Sloan’s messages.
Margaret covered her mouth.
“No.”
“This is where we honeymooned.”
Margaret stared at the screen.
“Maybe it’s business.”
Hannah opened Sloan’s second message.
Maybe this time you’ll have the right woman beside you.
The older woman went pale.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he admit it?”
“I asked whether he was sleeping with her. He couldn’t say no.”
Margaret walked to the window.
After a long silence, she said the thing Hannah had feared.
“You’re having his child. Maybe you shouldn’t make any decisions yet.”
Hannah went still.
Margaret turned quickly.
“I don’t mean tolerate it forever. I mean give him time. Men sometimes do terrible, foolish things and still come home.”
“I gave him time.”
Margaret stopped.
“He used it to book a vacation with another woman.”
Her voice cracked.
“I sat alone yesterday listening to his son’s heartbeat while Grant was with her. Then he finally called.”
Margaret’s eyes filled with hope.
“He called you?”
“To ask where his passport was.”
Margaret’s face collapsed.
Hannah looked down at her stomach.
“I don’t want my son growing up thinking a woman proves she loves her family by accepting whatever hurts her.”
Margaret slowly returned to the chair.
“I’m sorry.”
Hannah looked up.
“I shouldn’t have asked you to carry this so the rest of us could stay comfortable.”
Then Margaret began crying.
The cruelty of betrayal was that Grant had caused the wound, yet the women he hurt were sitting together comforting each other.
“I won’t ask you to choose between us,” Hannah said.
May you like
Margaret wiped her cheeks.
“You aren’t asking.”
