Chapter 3 - The Woman in Room 512
I barely remember the drive.
Dr. Vance was waiting for me outside the maternity wing. Early fifties, calm, the kind of person who doesn't waste words.
"Before you go in to see Ms. Hale, I need you to understand something."
I nodded.
"She has gone through almost this entire pregnancy without a partner in the room. Whatever went wrong between the two of you stays out here. Are we clear?"
Her tone stung more than I expected.
"I didn't know she was pregnant," I said.
She studied my face for a long moment. Then she told me something I'd carry for years.
"Marin says she tried very hard to tell you."
That was the first crack in the story I'd been telling myself.
I walked into room 512.
Marin looked smaller than I remembered. Her dark hair was pulled back loose. No earrings, no makeup, none of the sharp confidence she usually carried into a room like a briefcase. She looked like someone who hadn't really slept in a month.
Then her eyes opened and found me, and something moved across her face.
"You came."
I stepped closer. "The hospital called me."
She nodded slowly.
My throat felt like it was closing. "You put my name down. As his father."
Her eyes filled. "Because you are his father, Nathan."
I sat down in the chair beside the bed. There were a hundred questions lined up in my chest. Only one made it out.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
May you like
She looked at me for a long time. Then, barely above a whisper:
"I tried."
