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.
But one question remained.
Why did six people watch?
Why did nobody stop his mother?
Emma closed her eyes.
“Because they weren’t all just watching,” she said.
“Your brother Caleb took my phone
