Part 5 — Living Beside Someone I No Longer Trusted
The final weeks of my pregnancy were some of the strangest of my life.
Daniel moved into the guest room.
He became almost painfully attentive.
Breakfast appeared every morning.
Laundry was folded.
Appointments were never missed.
He deleted the other woman’s number in front of me.
He volunteered access to his phone.
None of it impressed me.
It felt like watching someone desperately trying to repair a window after burning down the house.
Sometimes he would stand in the nursery doorway while I folded baby clothes.
“Can I help?”
“No.”
Other nights, I woke and heard him crying quietly in the guest room.
I never went to him.
There had been a time when the sound of Daniel hurting would have pulled me out of bed immediately.
Now I simply stared at the ceiling.
Dad called often.
Our conversations became awkward.
