PART 2 — THE BABY IN THE ROOM
I sat down because my legs suddenly didn’t feel strong enough to hold me.
James remained standing in front of me.
His hands were shaking.
“James, you’re scaring me. Whose baby is that?”
He looked toward the nursery window.
Then back at me.
“She’s ours.”
For several seconds, I couldn’t understand the words.
“What?”
“Our daughter.”
I stared at him.
“That isn’t possible.”
“I know.”
“James, the doctor said—”
“I know what she said.”
“Then how can that baby be ours?”
James sat beside me and took both my hands.
“Because I didn’t make you pregnant.”
I looked at him in confusion.
“What are you talking about?”
He swallowed.
“Four years ago, after we learned another pregnancy could kill you, I started looking into another way.”
My heart began pounding.
“Adoption?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“Surrogacy?”
He nodded.
I couldn’t speak.
James continued quietly.
“I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d say no.”
I pulled my hands away.
“You kept a secret like that from me?”
“I was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“That you’d think I was trying to replace you.”
I stared at him.
“You could never replace me.”
“I know that now.”
He wiped his eyes.
“But back then, I couldn’t stop thinking about that box in the garage. Every time I saw those tiny clothes, I thought about the daughter we’d never have.”
He explained that he had spent years researching gestational surrogacy.
He had spoken with an attorney.
He had arranged for embryos created from our genetic material to be preserved.
But there was one problem.
The process required my consent.
And James knew I would never agree while I was still struggling with the fear of leaving our boys without a mother.
“So what did you do?” I whispered.
“I stopped.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“I stopped everything.”
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small folder.
“I never implanted anything. I never hired anyone. I never went through with it.”
My confusion deepened.
“Then whose baby is she?”
James looked at the floor.
“That is what I need you to understand.”
PART 3 — THE WOMAN IN ROOM 214
James took me into the hospital room.
A young woman was lying in the bed.
She looked exhausted.
Beside her was the tiny baby I’d seen through the glass.
