The announcement struck me harder than I expected.

I stared at a knot in the wooden table, struggling not to ask questions that would have sounded like an interrogation.

“That’s your life,” I said after a moment.

“I’m glad you told me so we can think about what the children need.”

She studied me, perhaps expecting jealousy.

I felt it, certainly.

But it was not her job to soothe the consequences of my choices.

Afterward I told Miriam privately that I had imagined one day Hannah and I might become a family again.