I placed a hand over my stomach.
“And the babies?”
“Babies are not bargaining chips. If he wants to acknowledge them, he does it the right way.”
For the first time since discovering I was pregnant, I felt that someone had illuminated a path through the darkness.
Three days later, Diego appeared outside my apartment.
He wasn’t shouting.
He wasn’t angry.
He looked exhausted, with several days of beard growth and dark circles beneath his eyes.
“I need to see you.”
I watched him through the peephole.
“Talk to my lawyer.”
“Laura, please. It is me.”
“That was the problem. That it really was you.”
I opened the door but kept the security chain attached.
I wanted him to understand that he no longer had unrestricted access to my life.
“You broke up with Paola,” I said. “Congratulations.”
“Do not be like that.”
“So what? Should I comfort you? I am pregnant with your children and you want consolation?”
