His mother shoved Emma against the corner of a dresser.
Then she told Emma the pain was proof she was too emotional to become a good mother.
Emma had almost called him.
But his mother convinced her that nobody would believe her.
She told Emma everyone already thought pregnancy had made her unstable.
“She said they would all believe her,” Emma explained. “She said you’d have to choose between your wife and everyone who raised you.”
He reached for her hand.
Emma pulled it under the blanket.
Not because she hated him.
Because she did not want him to see how badly she was shaking.
“I wasn’t protecting you,” she whispered. “I was trying to make it to the delivery without losing our home, our family, or you.”
He promised the locks would be changed before they returned home. He promised nobody would enter her hospital room without permission.
