Chapter 3

The next morning, I met Nolan and Paige at a coffee shop two blocks from Tessa’s apartment.

Tessa waited next door with my laptop bag.

Nolan had ordered me warm milk because coffee had been making me sick lately. When I worked late, he used to leave oat cookies in the passenger seat and come pick me up.

The cup was waiting when I sat down.

“You didn’t come home last night,” he said.

“It isn’t a place I can feel safe going back to.”

Paige sat across from him. She wasn’t wearing my cardigan anymore.

I put a folded sheet of paper on the table.

“I’m not here to argue about who is hurting more,” I said. “I have three things to say.”

“First, Paige is not moving into our house. Nolan can help you find another place, but you are not moving into my marriage.”

Paige’s hands tightened in her lap.

“Second, decisions about my pregnancy, the birth, and the baby belong to Nolan and me. You are the baby’s aunt. You can love her, and help when we ask. You cannot be her primary caregiver or a second mother.”

“I never said I wanted to be her mother,” Paige said.

I pointed to the schedule between us.

“Third, our joint account will not pay your rent, your move, your car, or your living expenses. I’ll sort out what has already happened. There will be no new payments after today.”

Nolan finally spoke. “You’re being harsh.”

“Because what you did crossed a line.”

“Paige has nowhere to go.”

“She has options. Work. A roommate. A short-term rental. Family. She isn’t helpless.”

“You think I haven’t tried?” Paige asked.

“Every place asks why I’m divorced, why I’ve been out of work, why I can’t show a steady lease. Nolan didn’t force this on me. I was drowning.”

I believed she had been drowning.

That still didn’t give her a place in my child’s life that she had chosen for herself.

Paige turned to Nolan. “Four years ago, when your dad was in surgery, you spent months going from work to the hospital. Then you fell apart. Bills sat on the table. You wouldn’t answer the phone. I took time off, went to appointments, bought your medication, talked to Mom.”

Nolan’s face hardened. “Paige.”

“You said every day that you didn’t know what you would do without me.”

She was reminding Nolan what he owed her.

Every time he fixed something for Paige, he told himself he was repaying that debt.

“Nolan,” I said, “her helping you doesn’t give you the right to hand over our child.”

“No one is handing over the baby.” His voice sharpened. “You’re scared. Paige has time and experience. She understands newborns better than you do. Don’t turn her into an enemy because you’re anxious about what having a baby will do to your career.”

The warm milk tasted sour.

I had trained my assistant editor and reorganized two projects for my leave.

I wasn’t afraid of my job. I had been making room for my baby.

But Nolan saw my competence as proof that I would make room again.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Paige said quietly.

“You don’t want a guest room,” I said. “You want a place in this family that no one can ask you to leave.”

Her face went white.

Nolan reached for her hand. She let him take it.

I put the schedule back in my bag and stood.

“You can be this baby’s father,” I told Nolan. “You do not get to decide where I stand in her life.”

He looked up. “Maya, don’t make this something we can’t come back from.”

I crossed the street to the bookstore. Tessa handed me my laptop bag.

I opened a short-term rental site and scheduled a viewing for that afternoon.

When the confirmation email appeared, I tucked the schedule into the deepest pocket of my bag.