They Called Me Barren. They Picked the Wrong Wife novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: In Pieces

Neil looked ten years older than he had at Christmas.

He had not shaved, and the navy coat was the same one, with a stain on the cuff.

"I won't come in," he said. "I know I'm not allowed."

"Say what you came to say."

He stood up from the steps, and the manila envelope slid in his hands.

"I slept in the car two nights. Mom put me out of the house on Monday." He laughed without sound. "She said I let her down in front of the whole town."

"You did."

"I know."

"You let her down by being found out," I said. "That's the only thing she's angry about."

He flinched.

I stayed where I was, on the bottom step, with my arms folded against the cold.

"I need you to hear something," Neil said. "I know it doesn't help. I was nineteen when the doctor told me, and I cried in the parking lot, and she said she'd handle it."

"Neil."

"And she did. She handled all of it, for fourteen years. I never had to decide anything." His voice shook. "When she said, here's a girl, I said okay. When she said, tell her you found out together, I said okay. I told myself that's what a good son does."

"And me?"

"You were so kind to me." He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand. "You made dinner every night. You never asked for anything. I thought, this is easy, this is the life I'm supposed to have, and I let you carry it."

"I carried it for five years."

"I know."

"Every Sunday your mother touched my arm and said she was praying for my womb. And you sat there and ate her pot roast."

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