“What if he thinks I planned it?

What if Margaret says I did this to keep the houses?”

Nora took my hand.

“A child isn’t an argument in their family dispute.

And you have a right to protect yourself while you decide what happens next.”

I laughed once, shakily.

I was holding evidence of the life I had wanted for years, and my first instinct had been to imagine how the Hales would use it against me.

Before we left, the doctor reviewed the importance of regular prenatal appointments and told me that early pregnancy would require monitoring, especially given my history.

I listened, asked questions, and wrote the next appointment in the small notebook I carried for everything important.

That notebook eventually became the beginning of a record I would keep for seven years.

Nora drove me home.

At a traffic light she said, “You’re going to tell him?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“But not because I want him back.”