Chapter 14 - The Question Before the Delivery Room
At thirty-nine weeks, Claire returned to the villa full-time.
The railing had been repaired.
She almost had it replaced entirely.
Instead she kept it.
Not as a memorial.
As proof that places did not remain owned by the worst thing that happened inside them.
Ethan came by one afternoon with a box of baby supplies.
He waited outside until Claire opened the door.
Months earlier he would have used his old key.
That small change mattered.
They sat in the foyer.
Neither looked upstairs.
“I don't expect you to take me back,” Ethan said.
“Good.”
A trace of his old smile appeared.
Then vanished.
“I want to be his father.”
Claire rested one hand over her stomach.
“You already are.”
“You know what I mean.”
She did.
Ethan had attended every appointment Claire invited him to.
He had missed none.
He had stopped sending emotional messages at midnight.
He had given complete financial disclosure during their separation.
He had begun individual therapy without announcing it as evidence of improvement.
None of that erased Monica.
None of it erased Tuesday.
But Claire no longer needed every decision to become a verdict on the entire marriage.
“You can come to the hospital,” she said.
Ethan inhaled.
“But whether you're in the delivery room is my decision. Even if I'm already in labor.”
He nodded.
No argument.
Then Claire felt the first unmistakable contraction.
She looked at the clock.
Ethan stood.
“Claire?”
Another contraction followed.
May you like
This time, there was no secret plan for Tuesday.
There was only the next hour.
