Paige studied me.

“You used to promise anything when you wanted people to stop asking questions.”

“I know.”

We stood together at the window.

Across the street, a woman struggled to fold a stroller into the trunk of her car while her partner held a sleeping infant.

I watched without speaking.

Somewhere nearby, Hannah was carrying our child, and I had never once heard the baby’s heartbeat.

That was the consequence of choices I had made before knowing the child existed.