The hallway was empty except for the doctor, who had stepped back to give me space.
A cart rolled past somewhere around the corner.
A phone rang at the nurses’ station and was answered before the second ring.
Everything around me was continuing normally, and I was standing completely still.
I made myself read.
—
*By the time you read this, you’ll have already given someone a part of me.
I need you to know there’s something else I left behind — something I should have told you long before now.*
*Her name is Diane.
We were together for two years before I met you.
We ended things the right way — or I thought we did.
Eight months after we separated, she called to tell me she was pregnant.
She said the baby was mine.*
*I didn’t handle it well.
I was scared.
I told myself she had moved on, that she had people around her, that maybe I was wrong about the timing.
