Chapter 12: The Check and the Rumor
Margaret tried the baby’s birthday with a package routed through a cousin.
The cousin’s name was on the label; Margaret’s handwriting was on the card. Inside: a monogrammed bib and a check larger than the first. I photographed everything, refused the delivery, and emailed the photos to Helen. Emma held our son and said, “She thinks money is a key.” I said, “Our locks take different hardware.” The cousin called to scold me about bitterness. I invited him to read the clinic note. He declined and called me cold. Cold, I decided, was an acceptable temperature for doors.
Rumors in the Kentucky circle hardened into a story where Emma had staged a fall and I had chosen lust over loyalty. Emma’s sister heard it from a church acquaintance and wanted to post proof. Emma asked her not to. “Our son doesn’t need his birth story to become a thread,” she said. We kept the proof in Helen’s file instead of the internet. Restraint was not weakness. It was choosing the child’s future over the satisfaction of a perfect reply.
