He would have called her bitter.
Jealous.
Desperate.
He would have accused her of trying to ruin his happiness because she could not accept that he had moved on.
“Steven sent me the records,” he said.
“Then you should speak to Steven about the records.”
“Catherine, wait.”
Her silence made him continue.
“Something happened at the ultrasound.”
“David—”
“She’s eighteen weeks.”
Catherine said nothing.
He almost wished she would gasp.
“She told me twelve,” he said.
“There was someone else.”
Still nothing.
“Did you hear me?”
“I heard you.”
“You don’t have anything to say?”
Catherine looked through the airport glass at the aircraft waiting beyond the gate.
Chloe was asleep against Steven’s coat, which he had sent with the driver because Catherine had forgotten her own in the rush.
Aiden sat beside her hugging his backpack.
“What would you like me to say?”
David opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
He had called expecting Catherine to become his witness, perhaps even his comfort.
He wanted the woman he discarded to confirm that he had now been wronged.
She would not do it.
“I made a mistake,” he said finally.
Catherine’s eyes closed for one second.
Once, those words would have brought her to her knees.
Now they were simply late.
“Several,” she said.
“Don’t go yet.”
That finally made her expression change.
Not because she was tempted.
Because the request was astonishing.
“The settlement gives me primary custody and permits the relocation you agreed to,” she said.
“You signed it.”
“I didn’t understand—”
“You didn’t read it.”
David fell silent.
“You were in a hurry,” Catherine continued.
“You had an ultrasound to attend.”
The words were not sharp.
That was what hurt.
An announcement sounded above Catherine’s gate.
Boarding had begun.
“I need to go,” she said.
“Catherine, I can fix this.”
She looked at Aiden and Chloe.
“You should start by figuring out what ‘this’ means.”
Then she ended the call.
David stood in the clinic hallway with the phone still against his ear.
For the first time, Catherine had hung up before he was finished speaking.
The weeks that followed stripped away every illusion David had carried into the mediation room.
