My father’s jaw tightened.
‘That is exactly why you did nothing wrong.
Anyone who offers kindness only when power is watching was never kind to begin with.’
Thomas arrived at the hospital carrying flowers around one in the morning.
His first question was not whether the baby was safe.
It was whether Jonathan Mercer had left before my father came into the house.
I stared at him from the bed, exhausted and hooked to monitors, and something final closed inside me.
He tried to backtrack.
He said he was upset.
He said Margaret was old-fashioned.
He said I should have told him who my father was before marrying him because he would have handled things differently.
That was the most revealing sentence he ever spoke.
Handled things differently.
Not loved me differently.
Not respected me because I was his wife and the mother of his child.
Just handled the optics better.
