Two months after divorcing my wife, I found her sitting alone in a hospital hallway wearing a patient gown

answer.

Then she whispered, “After the last miscarriage, they ran more tests than usual.”

I stayed very still.

“One doctor thought there might have been a vanishing twin,” she continued. “Another thought the levels were from the tumor. Nothing was clear. Everything was confusing, and then the tumor became the urgent thing.”

I frowned.

“I don’t understand.”

She opened her eyes, and tears slid silently into her hairline.

“Before the divorce,” she said, “I went to a fertility specialist. Just once. I wanted to know if we still had options someday. Even if we weren’t okay yet. Even if I was sick.”

My chest tightened.

“And?”

She looked at me then.

Really looked at me.

“The clinic called while I was in the middle of the divorce paperwork. They said there was a problem with the consent forms. They said something had been preserved from one of the procedures after