He kept opening his mouth to speak, but the words seemed to die in his throat every time he looked at my stomach. “Elise… I…” he finally choked out, his voice a pathetic, raspy whisper. “I didn’t know you worked at this hospital.” “It’s Dr. Jensen tonight, sir,” I corrected him without breaking eye contact with Lily’s arm.

“Lily, does it hurt more when I press here, or here?” “There,” she whimpered, tears spilling over her eyelashes.

I smiled gently and brushed a damp strand of hair from her forehead. “You’re doing so great, sweetie. We’re going to take a quick picture of your bones with an x-ray, and then we’ll get you a really cool cast.

What’s your favorite color?” “Purple,” she sniffled. Then, she looked up at Mason, back at me, and frowned in profound confusion. She reached out with her good hand and tugged on Mason’s wet sleeve. The room was dead quiet, save for the hum of the fluorescent lights, when she asked the question.

“Daddy?” she whispered softly, pointing a tiny finger at me. “You told me she moved away because she didn’t want to be my mommy anymore. Why is she here?” The silence that followed was deafening. I stopped moving. I slowly stood up straight and looked at Mason.

Every single drop of blood drained from his face, leaving him a ghastly, translucent white. His eyes widened in absolute terror as he realized what his seven-year-old daughter had just exposed. He hadn’t just abandoned me. He had lied to his child to cover up his own cowardice.

He had spent the last seven months letting this sweet little girl believe that I had chosen to walk away from her, that I hadn’t loved her enough to stay. He made me the villain so he wouldn’t have to admit to his daughter that he was terrified of a new baby.

A heavy, suffocating weight settled in the room. Mason stammered, holding his hands up defensively. “Lily, honey, that’s… that’s a grown-up conversation, we don’t need to…” “Is that true, Mason?” I asked, my voice dropping an octave.

It wasn’t a yell. It was dangerously quiet, sharp enough to cut glass.

“Is that what you told her?” “Elise, please,” he begged, glancing nervously at the doorway as if hoping someone would interrupt us. “It was complicated. I didn’t know how to explain it to her. I panicked. I panicked then, and I…” He looked helplessly at my belly.

“You kept it.” “Of course I kept him,” I said fiercely, my hand instinctively resting on my stomach. “And for the record, Lily,” I knelt back down to be perfectly eye-level with the little girl, ignoring Mason entirely. “I never, ever wanted to leave you.

I loved being your bonus mom. But sometimes, grown-ups make choices that mean we can’t live together anymore. But I never stopped caring about you.