st in my own life, a placeholder

sband, Mark, and their two small children, Josh and Emma. My parents, their faces

aid. "She wanted you to care for the

of the devoted wife. But it was all a lie. Mark and I had a platonic arrangement, sharing a roof but not a bed, not a life. He r

o him. He was drunk, a rare occurrence for a man so controlled. That night, the careful boundaries we had built over five years cru

, I was

g. I expected anger, or at least confu

even looking up from his n

tburst would have been. It planted a seed of dread

of consciousness, the beeping of machines and the urgent voices of doctors a muffled, distant sound. In a moment of terrible clarity,

s are severe?" he

d. We may have to

rds that would h

his tone flat, as if discussing a failed bu

t was a betrayal so profound it stole the

he in my belly and a heavier one in my heart. The room was sterile whit

ing out at the city lights. He turned when he h

over and took my hand. His touch felt like ice

father of my child. I was seeing a monster. I remembered his words in the delivery room, a death sentence spoken with chilling indifference. The man holdi