“Our family,” he’d whispered. “Finally.”
Now Joshua was an hour old, and Jonathan had brought another pregnant woman to meet my newborn son.
“Our marriage had problems,” Jonathan said.
“What problems?”
“Everything became about the appointments and injections. Then the pregnancy took over. You stopped being my wife.”
“You stopped caring about us, Joy. And what did you expect me to do? Be lonely?”
Thomas stared at him. “Do you hear yourself?”
Jonathan ignored him.
“You let yourself go, Joy. You weren’t the same woman anymore.”
“You said that you two were just living together because she was pregnant, but that there wasn’t a relationship.”
His jaw tightened. “Mary, enough.”
“You told me you and Joy had already separated.”
I looked at her.
She’d known he was married. That much was clear.
But Jonathan had handed each of us a different version of his life.
He stepped closer to my bed.
“I’m going to be with Mary,” he said. “It’s time she met the family and my son. We’re expecting another addition, as you can see, Joy.”
Joshua shifted against me.
Jonathan leaned closer and lowered his voice.
“You’ll keep this calm. That’s who you are, Joy,” he said.
He was right about one thing.
I didn’t want a scene.
I just wanted him gone.
I reached for the call button and pressed it.
“I’m not going to argue with you,” I said. “I’m going to make a decision.”
Nurse Patricia moved back toward my bed.
“Patricia, please remove Jonathan and Mary from my room. Call security if you need to.”
“You’re throwing me out on the day my son was born?”
“You brought your mistress into my recovery room.”
“I’m Joshua’s father.”
“And I’m the woman who gave birth to him.”
Patricia opened the door.
Jonathan looked toward Thomas, expecting help.
Thomas pointed into the hallway.
“Go. Leave.”
Mary left first. Jonathan followed, muttering under his breath.
Thomas went after them.
The door stayed partly open.
“You planned to renew your vows next month while your mistress was pregnant?” Thomas demanded.
“We can still hold the ceremony,” Jonathan replied. “Canceling it will start gossip.”
“Joy hates people knowing our business.”
“You made it everyone’s business, and you made me pay for a ceremony you knew was a lie.”
The door closed.
My hands started shaking.
Nurse Patricia pulled a chair beside me.
“I waited five years for today,” I whispered. “Now this is what I’ll remember.”
