Then drinks with clients. I had kept waiting for the perfect moment to tell him, to share this incredible, terrifying, wonderful secret. Now I realized there was no perfect moment with a man who found my very existence unbearable.

He left without a goodbye kiss. The front door closed with a sound like a coffin lid settling into place. I sat at our kitchen table, surrounded by a mountain of unopened baby shower gifts, tiny monuments to a future that now felt like a fantasy.