He stared at those two lines on the test for three solid seconds, then swept me off my feet and spun me around twice.
"I'm going to be a dad!"
He shouted it loud enough for the entire building to hear.
Through the whole pregnancy, he woke up early every morning to take my temperature and make breakfast. Never missed a single checkup.
He even bought a parenting book and read it so many times the pages curled at the corners.
On the inside cover, he'd written: For our little Beanie... Mommy and Daddy are waiting for you to come home.
Beanie.
That was the nickname we'd picked for our baby.
Beanie never came home.
I lost so much blood that I was unconscious for three days.
When I came to, David was sitting at the edge of my hospital bed. His eyes were rimmed red.
"Where's the baby?"
He didn't answer.
"David, where's the baby?!"
He pulled me into his arms, his voice trembling.
"Ellie, please don't be upset..."
I lost it. I tried to get out of bed, tried to get to the delivery room.
He held me down by the shoulders, saying sorry over and over.
Then the nurses came. The doctors came. Every single one of them told me the same thing: the baby was gone.
Too small. They couldn't save him.
I didn't believe them.
I begged them to let me see him, just once.
No one would let me.
David said he'd already taken care of everything.
"Don't think about it anymore. It's not good for your recovery."
I spent the next year trapped in postpartum depression.
He stayed by my side every single day. He even handed the company over to a professional manager just to take care of me.
Everyone said he was a wonderful husband.
My phone buzzed.
A message from Shen Yi.
That woman's name is Corinne Henson. Don't do anything yet. Give me three days to dig up the full picture.
I deleted the message and looked up.
David was sitting across from me, watching.
"What's wrong? Doesn't taste good?"
"It's fine."
That evening, a friend request popped up on my phone.
The note read: Mr. Delgado's assistant... Corinne Henson.
The verification message said: Ms. Pruitt, I'm Mr. Delgado's new assistant. I may need to coordinate some work-related matters with you.
I stared at the name for a long time.
I accepted the request, then opened her social media feed.
March 27th. The day I'd had my prenatal checkup. David said he had an important meeting and showed up two hours late.