I laid my phone down on the counter beside Maya’s bottle, and turned away to warm the formula, my mind already moving on to the next task in the endless list of a new mother’s day, and it was only as I reached for the phone again a moment later that I noticed the screen was still lit, the call timer still running, the seconds still ticking upward.

Julian had not hung up.

He had only lowered the phone, or set it down, believing the call was over, and the line between us was still open.

I was about to end it myself.

My thumb was moving toward the red button.

And then, through the speaker, small but distinct, I heard a sound that stopped my hand cold: a woman’s laugh.

Low, and intimate, and close to my husband.