The Secret That Broke Us novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: Four Things

I opened the nursery door so hard it hit the stopper.

Nate turned around with the girl still in his arms.

"June," he said. "Look, I know what I said, but he's her brother. They should know each other."

"Put her down."

"She's right here, she's fine, she's..."

"Nate."

The nurse behind me had stopped breathing, I think.

Two other nurses at the far station looked up, and a mother at the end of the room, rocking a baby in a corner chair, went still.

I walked in on my slippers.

I didn't raise my voice, because I have never needed to.

"In a hallway, you said yes to four things," I said. "You do not come into my room. You do not call my friends. You do not say her name to me."

"I haven't said her..."

"And you never bring her or her baby near my son."

I pointed.

The cart sat flush against Anders's crib, close enough that the girl's knit cap brushed his blanket.

"That's the fourth one," I said. "You've had a son for two days, and you broke it."

Nate's face did something terrible and open.

"I thought, after the video, after what I said to everyone..."

"You thought I'd owe you."

"No."

"You thought I'd see you crying over two babies and forget you made them in two different beds."

Nobody in that room breathed.

I heard Anders make a small wet noise in his sleep.

I went on, because saying the next thing is my job.

"I asked for glass and a nurse. That was all. You couldn't do it for two days. Do you want to know what that tells me?"

"June, please."

"It tells me you will always take the thing you want and call it love."

He opened his mouth, and nothing came out.

His arms had gone tight around the girl.

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