I hung up the phone, and I got down on my knees beside Rosalie’s bed, and I took both her cold, trembling hands in mine and pressed my forehead against the edge of the mattress, and for a moment I couldn’t speak at all.

“I didn’t know,” I finally managed, and it came out broken.

“Rosalie, I swear to you before God, I didn’t know.

Not the calls, not the baby, none of it.

And I never stopped loving you — not for one hour of these six months.

It has been the worst half a year of my life, and I told myself the whole time it was what you wanted.”

Her fingers uncurled slowly inside mine.