At 34 Weeks Pregnant, I Found My Husband Kissing Her in Our Baby's Nursery novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Shower
Becky catches Russell kissing Kelsey in her son's nursery, plays the video for thirty-eight shower guests and walks out; on the porch Kelsey carries Maisie's blanket in her bag.
At my baby shower, thirty-eight guests were eating lemon cake downstairs when I found my husband kissing our photographer in my son's nursery.
I was thirty-four weeks pregnant.
Twenty minutes earlier, Russell had knelt in front of my rocking chair and laid his cheek against my belly.
Kelsey Amsden, the photographer, crouched on the rug with her camera.
"Hold that," she said. "Russell, kiss her belly. Right there. Perfect."
Russell kissed me and whispered to the baby, "Hi, buddy. Almost time."
I cried a little, and Kelsey got that too.
My white robe hung on the closet door, because Kelsey wanted it in the frame for the getting-ready shots.
Then she looked at my ankles.
"Becky, these are so swollen. Go put your feet up, and I'll set up the group shot. I'll bring you a plate."
"She's right," Russell said. He squeezed my shoulder. "Go sit. I'll help her move the furniture."
"Nothing is going to upset you today," he added. "I promise. I've got you."
Kelsey reached behind the door and turned on the lamp without looking for the switch.
I went downstairs.
His mother, Virginia, pressed a plate into my hands and told me I was glowing.
My sister Tamara dropped onto the couch beside me and lifted my feet into her lap.
The group photo was supposed to start at two.
At twenty past, nobody had come down, and I realized Kelsey hadn't drunk anything all day.
I filled a glass of water and carried it up the stairs myself.
The nursery door stood open a hand's width.
Kelsey was sitting in my rocking chair.
She was wearing my white robe, belted over her jeans.
Russell was on his knees in front of her, his cheek against her stomach, in exactly the pose he had held for me.
Then he looked up, and she bent down and kissed him.
He kissed her back, and his hand went into her hair.
Neither of them hurried.
"Not yet," Russell said against her mouth. "She's still downstairs."
I did not drop the glass.
I set it down on the hall table, took out my phone and filmed them until I had what I needed.
Kelsey laughed softly at something he said, and she did not look at the door.
I stopped recording.
I thought about walking in and screaming, and I knew what would come after.
Russell would say the hormones were talking.
Virginia would say I was tired.
Kelsey would cry and call me her friend.
And I would be a pregnant woman in a doorway with a story nobody had seen.
So I went downstairs and showed everyone.
The living room television was already on, looping the slideshow of my bump that Virginia had made.
Tamara had hooked up the cable that morning, and my phone connected to the screen in a few taps.
"Becky?" Tamara said. "What are you doing?"
"Playing something," I said.
I pressed play.
The footage of my husband's cheek against another woman's stomach filled the screen, forty inches wide, with the sound up.
Somebody's fork hit a plate.
A woman from Russell's office said, "Oh my God," and then said nothing more.
"Turn that off," Virginia said.
"No," I said.
I looked at the thirty-eight faces around the room, and I looked at the stairs.
Russell was coming down them with his tie loose.
Behind him came Kelsey, still in my robe.
He saw the screen and stopped on the fourth step from the bottom.
"Becky, it isn't what it looks like."
"You're on the screen, Russell. It looks like exactly what it is."
Kelsey put her hand to her chest.
"Becky, honey, you've misunderstood. You're so tired, and I was only helping him with his back."
Nobody in the room moved.
"Take off my robe," I said.
She untied it, and she handed it to a guest, and she stood there in her jeans.
Russell came down the last steps and reached for my elbow.
"Let's go upstairs and talk about this alone. Please. You can't be upset in your condition. Think about the baby."
I stepped back.
"I am thinking about the baby," I said. "That's why I'm not coming home with you tonight."
I took my hospital bag out of the hall closet, where it had sat packed for a week.
Tamara had her keys in her hand before I turned around.
"Becky, don't you walk out on me," Virginia said. "A child needs a home."
"He has one," I said. "It just isn't this one."
We went out the front door, and thirty-eight people watched us go.
On the porch I heard heels behind me.
Kelsey had followed us out with her camera bag over one shoulder and her tote bag over the other.
She was crying now, with perfect, quiet tears.
"Please let me explain."
I wasn't looking at her face.
I was looking at the yellow fleece hanging out of her tote bag, one corner trailing against her hip.
I knew every thread of it.
It was Maisie's blanket, the one that went into the cedar chest the week we buried her.
That chest had been locked for four years, and Russell kept the only key.
Every March 9th, he took the day alone at his office with his phone switched off, and every year I had packed him soup and told him to take all the time he needed.
"Where did you get that?" I said.
Kelsey followed my eyes down to her bag.
She did not look surprised.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend