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

My entire body was shaking.

“You don’t have to keep telling me.”

“She said next time would be worse.”

Clara stared toward her stomach.

“She said if I told you, she’d say I hurt myself.”

My breathing stopped.

“She said she’d tell everyone I was unstable.”

There had been a panic attack early in pregnancy after we received an abnormal screening result that later proved harmless.