She was afraid I would take Carmen back.

Not for a bad reason, or not only.

She said: “You were thirty-five and you were miserable and you were working yourself into the ground.

And I thought, if he finds out about this baby, he’ll go straight back to her in a week, out of duty, not because it’s right.

And it’ll fall apart again in two years and he’ll lose everything twice.”

I said, “That was not your decision to make.”

“No.”

“Mom.

That was not a hard question.”

“No. It wasn’t.”