Chapter 2 - THE AMBULANCE
I heard the announcement while standing in the lobby.
"Medical assistance needed on level four."
Mrs. Jenkins suddenly ran past me.
Something inside me knew.
I followed.
When I reached the stairwell, Clara was sitting against the wall.
One housekeeper held her shoulders.
Another was crying.
Clara had both hands around her stomach.
"Clara!"
She looked at me.
Fear had finally replaced the numbness.
"Something's wrong."
I dropped beside her.
"What hurts?"
"My stomach."
A contraction tightened across her face.
She gasped.
Mrs. Jenkins checked the time.
"That's the second one in six minutes."
My blood went cold.
"The baby's not due for another five weeks."
Clara shut her eyes.
"I know."
The paramedics arrived minutes later.
I tried to climb into the ambulance.
Clara stopped me.
"No."
"Clara, I'm your husband."
She looked directly at me.
"That didn't seem to matter upstairs."
The paramedic glanced between us.
"Ma'am, do you want him with you?"
Clara shook her head.
"No."
That single word left me standing on the sidewalk while the ambulance carried my wife and unborn daughter away.
Emily appeared behind me.
Her face was pale.
"Daniel."
I turned.
She removed the diamond bracelet.
She placed it in my hand.
"I didn't know she was pregnant."
I stared at the bracelet.
"I told you."
"You told me you and Clara had been separated for almost a year."
She shook her head.
"You said the baby wasn't yours."
I had forgotten that lie.
There had been so many.
Emily's eyes filled with disgust.
"Stay away from me."
She walked toward the entrance.
"Emily."
She turned.
"Don't."
There was nothing romantic left between us.
No excitement.
No secret thrill.
Only wreckage.
I drove to the hospital.
Clara had already been taken into maternity triage.
The nurse wouldn't let me inside.
"Your wife requested that you remain in the waiting room."
"I'm the baby's father."
"And she is the patient."
So I waited.
Forty-three minutes.
Then an hour.
Then two.
Eventually, Dr. Harris came through the doors.
I stood immediately.
"How is she?"
"The contractions have slowed."
I exhaled.
"And the baby?"
"Stable."
My knees nearly gave out.
"But your wife is severely exhausted and mildly dehydrated."
He studied me.
"She also shouldn't be doing physically demanding work this late in pregnancy."
I looked away.
"I didn't know."
His expression said more than words could have.
"She needs rest."
"Can I see her?"
"That's Clara's decision."
It wasn't until midnight that she agreed.
I entered the room slowly.
Clara lay beneath a white blanket.
The fetal monitor beside her produced a steady rhythm.
Our daughter's heartbeat.
Clara stared at the ceiling.
I sat in the chair.
"I'm sorry."
She didn't respond.
"I know that doesn't mean anything."
Still nothing.
"I ended it with Emily."
That finally made her look at me.
"You think Emily is the problem?"
I swallowed.
"No."
"You are."
The words were quiet.
Precise.
"I lied to you."
"For seven months."
"I know."
"No, Daniel."
She turned toward me.
"You don't know."
Her voice shook.
"You don't know what those seven months looked like from my side."
She pulled the blanket tighter.
"Do you remember when I asked you to come to the twenty-week ultrasound?"
I remembered.
"I said I had a seminar."
"You were with her?"
I couldn't lie anymore.
"Yes."
Clara closed her eyes.
A tear finally escaped.
"Do you remember when the doctor thought something might be wrong with the baby's heart?"
I nodded.
"You told me not to panic."
Her voice cracked.
"You didn't even come home that night."
I remembered that too.
Emily and I had been at a lake resort.
"I sat in our kitchen until three in the morning waiting for you."
"Clara—"
"And when you finally walked in, you smelled like perfume."
I lowered my head.
"I convinced myself it came from someone sitting beside you on the airplane."
She laughed bitterly.
"There wasn't even an airplane, was there?"
"No."
Silence filled the room.
Then Clara reached toward the bedside table.
She handed me a folded piece of paper.
It was a receipt.
A pawnshop receipt.
I stared at the item description.
Diamond engagement ring.
My heart stopped.
"You sold your ring?"
"I needed the deposit for the crib."
I couldn't speak.
"You told me we couldn't afford the one we picked."
She wiped her cheek.
"So I sold the ring."
The engagement ring I had given her nine years earlier.
The ring she had treasured.
The ring she once said she would someday give our daughter.
I looked down at my watch.
Twelve thousand dollars.
Then at the suit I was wearing.
Three thousand.
Then at the receipt in my hand.
Clara had received eleven hundred dollars for her ring.
"I'll buy it back."
"No."
"I can fix that."
"No, Daniel."
She stared directly into my eyes.
"That is exactly what you don't understand."
Her hand moved protectively across her stomach.
"You think money fixes everything."
She paused.
"But money isn't what you stole from me."
"What did I steal?"
"Reality."
That word stayed between us.
"You made me live inside a marriage that didn't exist."
I couldn't answer.
Clara turned away.
"I'm going to my sister's tomorrow."
"Please don't."
"I already called her."
"What about us?"
She looked at me one last time.
"There hasn't been an us for seven months."
Then she pressed the nurse call button.
May you like
And I understood that she wasn't asking me to leave the room.
She was asking me to leave her life.
