Chapter 14: Whose Baby

Amber laid the white envelope on the table in front of Cory.

"Open it," she said.

Her voice shook, but she didn't look away from him.

Heath stood up.

"Amber, sit down. You're upset, and it isn't good for the baby."

"Don't say that word to me."

Cory took the envelope without looking at it.

"Amber, what is this?"

"It's the ultrasound Heath told me to bring so you could hold it." She wiped her cheek. "I'm not going to let you hold it for him."

Heath's wife walked around the table and stood behind the empty chair next to her husband.

She took a small white pharmacy bag out of her purse and set it beside the roast platter.

The bottle of vitamins rolled once and stopped against the gravy boat.

"He bought these on a Tuesday night in September," she said. "With his own card. I have the receipt."

"Honey," Heath said. "You're not well."

"I'm very well." She turned to the whole table. "Amber is twelve weeks. The baby is my husband's."

Nobody made a sound.

Cory was looking at Amber, and I watched him not understand.

"It's Heath's," Amber said to him, very quietly. "It was never yours, Cory. I'm sorry. He told me to say it was."

"That's not funny."

"I'm not joking."

"But you cried. In the parking lot. You said..."

"He gave me the words." Her chin shook. "I said them."

Cory turned his head slowly toward the man who had been his roommate for four years.

Heath had stopped smiling.

"She's confused," he said. "She's a mess, Cory. Everybody here can see that."