Having The Soldier's Baby (Parent Portal 1)
“Your appetite is normal.”
“Yep.”
“Good.”
Reaching out a hand to cover his, she said, “I promise, Winston, from now on I’ll tell you everything as it happens.”
He was scared. Of losing her. Or the baby. He’d lost so much. Watched his comrades be brutally murdered in front of him, and who knew what else he’d seen during those two years he’d spent living with the enemy. With clarity came a rush of love. And enough strength to move mountains.
He’d made it back to her. Their connection was that strong.
“We’ll get through this, Win,” she said softly.
Pulling his hand from hers, he nodded and asked for their check.
* * *
“So let me get this straight. You and Emily have been living together, in the home you purchased together, sleeping in the same bed for over two months. You’re having a baby! You’re reaching understandings. And you still plan to divorce her.”
“Yes.” Sitting on that blue tweed couch, Winston held Dr. Adamson’s gaze and nodded. As strict as she looked in those dark-rimmed reading glasses, with her dress whites and big desk, she just didn’t faze him. He was there because he had to be.
Following orders.
He’d made a mistake in telling her about the baby. But with hearing the heartbeat two days before, and then dinner with Emily, he’d figured he should report in, lest she think he was trying to hide things. Or be duplicitous.
“Why?”
It took him a second to get back to their conversation, to know she was referring to the divorce.
“I’m not the man she married.”
“So?” Elbows on her desk, she removed her glasses. “She’s not likely the woman you married, either. People change.”
“I broke our marriage vows.”
Dr. Adamson knew the whole story. She’d had a report from his superiors, he was sure, and he’d told her, too.
“So Emily wants the divorce? Because you were unfaithful to her?”
“She doesn’t know.”
“Oh, so you’re just deciding for her that she’d want a divorce because of it?”
If he never heard the woman say “so” again, he’d be quite fine with that.
“I’m saying that I want the divorce.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not who I thought I was. And knowing what I know now, I know I shouldn’t be married.”
Which made it sound all about him and it wasn’t like that.
“I know Emily,” he said, sitting forward, his hands clasped together. “I know what she brings to a relationship. And I know what she looks for in one, too. I know what she needs to be happy. I can’t give her that. This isn’t just a phase I’m going through here, Doctor. This is a well-thought-out, clear choice based on facts.