“What is this?” she asked.
I pulled the blanket higher around my son.
Evan stood beside my bed in rumpled scrubs, still wearing the gloves he had used to deliver the child he had never known existed.
Marlene took another step forward.
Dana moved between her and the bed.
She reminded Marlene that I had just given birth and that this was not her moment.
Marlene ignored her and studied the baby’s chin, mouth, and eyes with growing disbelief.
She looked at Evan as though she expected him to deny the resemblance.
Instead, Evan asked how she had known where to find him.
Something flickered across her face.
She had not arrived because she knew about the baby.
She had come looking for her son and had walked directly into the consequence of everything she had said about me.
Evan removed his gloves and dropped them into the medical bin.
Then he told his mother she needed to leave.
Marlene stared at him before turning her attention back to me.
“How long have you known?” she asked.
I tightened my arms around my newborn son.
The way she asked made me realize she might not have been talking only about the pregnancy.
She might have been asking how long I had known that the story she built our divorce around had never been true.
