I showed up at the hospital to surprise my husband during his shift. But the second one of his coworkers saw me, all the color left his face. Then his eyes filled with tears. “He hasn’t said a word to you, has he?” Ben and I had been married eleven years, and for every one of those years, I had shared him with the hospital. He was a remarkably gifted surgeon.

I made a pot of black coffee, and we sat facing each other at the kitchen table in the still morning light.

“Before we talk about anything else, Mrs.

Carter, I need you to understand that there’s never been anything improper between Brian and me.”

“I saw you two holding each other at the grave yesterday, Carmen.”

“Brian visits Lucas every Tuesday morning, because Tuesday was the day of the week my little boy was born.”

She gazed down into the steam curling up from her untouched mug.

“Some weeks the cemetery weighs on me so much that my knees buckle, and your husband catches me so I don’t fall onto the grass.”