LILY
I can't sleep.
It's 2 AM, and I'm lying in bed listening to James breathe beside me, my mind spinning with questions I'm afraid to ask. The documents I found keep flashing through my memory like a slideshow of secrets. Fifty thousand dollars. New Life Fertility Clinic. Chicago.
What was he buying?
At 10 weeks pregnant, insomnia is supposed to be normal. The books say it's hormones, anxiety about becoming a mother, and the body's way of preparing for all those sleepless nights ahead. But this isn't pregnancy insomnia. This is the kind of sleeplessness that comes from living with secrets.
I slip out of bed as quietly as possible and pad to the kitchen for some water. The baby is still too small for me to feel movement, but I find myself rubbing my barely-there bump anyway, a gestur
