My Wife Was Seven Months Pregnant When She Stopped Leaving Bed—Then I Lifted the Blue Blanket and Realized My Mother Already Knew What Was Underneath

For the first year:

Monster.

Easy.

Then therapy complicated it.

Brenda had been my mother before she became Clara’s abuser.

She taught me to ride a bicycle.

Stayed up beside me when I had pneumonia.

Worked two jobs after Dad was laid off.