Proud.
Opinionated.
Accustomed to having her son show up.
But she had never asked him to abandon his laboring wife.
He had made that decision on his own.
And then he had used her birthday to justify it.
Ethan turned another page in the folder.
A folded envelope slipped onto the table.
My name was written across the front in my own handwriting, but there was nothing else for him to read until he opened it.
He stared at Patricia.
“What is this?”
“Madison asked me to leave it here.”
His fingers stopped moving.
“She was here?”
“No.”
“Then where is she?”
“Safe.”
“Mom.”
Patricia’s voice sharpened.
“You don’t get to demand information from me after disappearing for two days.”
“I didn’t disappear.”
“The hospital called you.”
“My phone was off.”
“Exactly.”
He looked down again.
Then he opened my letter.
I had written it the morning after surgery while the baby slept beside me.
My hands were still shaky, so some of the letters leaned into one another.
Ethan,
You left after I told you something was wrong.
You declined my calls while I was bleeding.
I was taken into emergency surgery without knowing whether our baby would survive, and you were not there because you decided I was being dramatic.
I cannot make that decision disappear simply because we survived it.
I will not come home and pretend this was an argument.
It was a choice.
You made yours at the front door.
I am making mine now.
Do not come to the hospital without permission.
Any conversation about the baby will happen calmly and with other people present until I decide what comes next.
Madison.
Ethan read it twice.
Then he looked at his mother.
“She’s leaving me?”
Patricia did not answer for me.
“She almost died,” she said instead.
“And you’re still asking what this costs you.”
Ethan shoved the chair backward and stood.
“I need to see her.”
“No.”
“She’s my wife.”
“She told you not to come.”
“That’s my baby.”
“And two nights ago that baby needed you.”
The sentence stopped him more effectively than shouting could have.
His eyes dropped to the folder again.
For the first time, the consequences were no longer theoretical.
