“Michael,” I said, locking onto his eyes. “Is this your grand solution?”

He couldn’t hold my gaze, but his ego made him talk. “I did this to save our marriage, Sarah. In all these empty years I never once blamed you for your barrenness.

I never left you. Now the universe has handed us a loophole. Stop being so selfish.”

Selfish.

He had never blamed me because he knew, in his bones, that his own body was the problem. And still he let his mother flay me. He let me drink the bitter teas.

He let me carry the shame. I had mutilated my own self-worth to protect his ego.