I should feel relieved. But I feel heavy and betrayed.

Emily is in my arms again, sobbing into my chest, clinging to me like she's afraid I'll disappear. Her voice is muffled against my shirt, but I can hear her words.

"I'm sorry, Henry. I didn't want to believe it, but I just... I didn't know what to think."

And I can't blame her.

Because when you see something like that, something bold, cruel, and impossible to ignore, it plants a seed of doubt. And doubt is like rot.

It spreads, warping everything until you can't tell what's real anymore.

I hold my wife tighter.

"It's okay. It's not your fault. None of this is your fault, Emily."

But someone is to blame.

And she's standing right in front of us.

Claire shifts uncomfortably under Emily's teary, piercing gaze. Her arms are crossed, her expression is unreadable, but I can see it in her eyes.

She regrets this.

Maybe not entirely, maybe not in the way she should, but she knows she has crossed a line.

"Tell her," I say, my voice firm.

Claire sighs like this is an inconvenience to her, like she's doing me a favor. Then, finally, she confesses.

She tells Emily everything.

About how she wrote the message on my car. How she wanted to drive Emily away. How she thought she was doing me a favor. Because I once said, months ago, that I was scared about becoming a father.

"I'm just scared... we didn't have the best example growing up," I said. "I wonder if I'm going to be like him, you know?"

I didn't think that Claire was going to take my words and twist them into her own reality.

Emily listens, silent.

Her face shifts from confusion to shock to something that makes my stomach twist.

Hurt.

Then, finally, she turns to me, tears pooling in her eyes.

"You really didn't cheat, Henry?" Her voice is barely above a whisper.

"Never," I say immediately. "Not once, not ever. I love you, Emily. I love our baby. I love our life together. Claire blindsided me with this just like she did you."

The weight of it all crashes over her, and she hugs her belly tightly. Emily almost walked away from me. She almost believed it.

That Claire, my own sister, tried to break us apart.

Earlier

The last thing I expected when leaving the doctor's office was to see my life falling apart in real time.

Emily and I had just heard our baby's heartbeat for the first time. I was still riding that high, unable to believe that we had created this little human being.

We were floating as we walked hand in hand to the parking lot, my mind already racing ahead to baby names, nursery colors, and what life would be like when our little one finally arrived.

Then I saw my car, and my entire world crashed.