Part 1
Eight days after I gave birth, I was bl:eeding in the baby’s room while my husband zipped up his suitcase and said, “Stop ruining my birthday.” He came back sunburned, only to find the dried truth on the carpet and lose his family forever in front of everyone at court.
“If you’re bl:eeding that badly, put a towel on it and stop ruining my birthday.”
That was the last thing Tyler said to me before zipping up his suitcase.
I was sitting on the floor of our baby’s room, one hand gripping the edge of the crib and the other pressed against my stomach, still swollen from childbirth. Parker had been born eight days earlier. Eight days without sleep. Eight days of pain, milk stains soaking through my robe, and fear every time I breathed a little too fast.
But that afternoon it wasn’t exhaustion.
It was bl00d.
Too much bl:ood.
The cream-colored carpet my mother-in-law had chosen “to make the nursery look elegant” already had a dark red stain spreading beneath my legs. I stared at it in disbelief, unable to understand how something so serious could happen inside a house that felt so quiet.
“Tyler, please,” I said, trying to raise my voice. “I need to go to the hospital. I feel really weak.”
He walked out of the closet wearing sunglasses pushed up on his head and a brand-new white shirt, looking as if he were heading to a photo shoot.
“Here we go again,” he muttered. “My mom told me all women bleed after giving birth. You’re not the first woman in the world to have a baby.”
“This isn’t normal,” I insisted. “I’m getting dizzy.”
Tyler didn’t even come closer. He stayed by the door, staring down at his phone.
“Look, Olivia, I paid a fortune for this weekend in Blue Ridge Mountains. Cabin with a jacuzzi, private dinner, my friends are already on the way. I’m not canceling because you want attention.”
The word “attention” hurt more than the cramping tearing through my back.
Parker began crying in his bassinet. A tiny, desperate cry, as if he understood something was terribly wrong too. I tried turning toward him to pick him up, but my arms wouldn’t respond. The room tilted.
“Call my mom,” I begged. “Call an ambulance. Anything.”
Tyler laughed bitterly.
“An ambulance? So everyone can say I’m the bad guy because I left to celebrate? No thanks. Drink some tea. My mom will come tomorrow.”
“I won’t make it until tomorrow,” I whispered.
For the first time, he looked at the floor. He saw the bl00d. Really saw it. His face changed for half a second, but then his jaw tightened, as though admitting fear would somehow humiliate him.
“You always exaggerate,” he said. “You’ve been dramatic about everything since the pregnancy.”
He walked past me. His shoe nearly touched the stain.
May you like
I reached out and grabbed the bottom of his pant leg.
“Tyler, look at me. Please.”
He yanked himself free.
“Stop trying to manipulate me. It’s my thirtieth birthday and I deserve some peace.”
From the front door he shouted:
“I’m putting my phone on airplane mode. I don’t want any crying messages.”
Then the door slammed shut.
I heard his truck engine fading down the private street in Franklin. Outside, life continued as usual. Dogs barked. A neighbor watered plants. Someone played music in the distance.
Inside, my son was crying and I could no longer move.
I tried reaching for my phone on the dresser. My fingertips brushed the case, but the phone slipped and fell onto the floor, lighting up in front of my face.
A notification appeared.
Tyler posted a story: “On the way to Blue Ridge. Meat, whiskey, friends, and zero drama.”
The photo showed his hand on the steering wheel, his new watch shining, the highway stretched open before him as though he were escaping from a prison.
Meanwhile, I was lying on the floor beside his son’s crib.
