That night, after tucking Emma in and standing in her doorway longer than necessary just watching her sleep, I found myself pulling out our old photo albums. I sat on the living room floor flipping through page after page of Emma’s baby pictures, hunting for some feature, any feature, that screamed unmistakably Jack’s genes.
“What are you doing?” Jack’s voice made me jump so hard I nearly knocked over the lamp.
He stood in the doorway, confusion written plainly across his face.
I snapped the album shut a little too fast. “Nothing. Just… reminiscing.”
“Reminiscing,” he repeated slowly, frowning as his eyes flicked down to the album still sitting in my lap. I could see the questions gathering behind his expression, questions he never quite let himself ask out loud. Just like I never asked him directly about the growing distance that had settled between us in recent weeks, or why he always found a reason to change the subject the second our new neighbors came up in conversation.
Days folded into weeks after that, and my suspicion grew the way weeds take over a garden nobody’s tending — quietly at first, then suddenly everywhere. Every shared laugh between Jack and Lily. Every nervous glance he shot toward the window whenever I so much as mentioned the family next door. All of it fed the same gnawing doubt sitting low in my gut, growing heavier by the day.
One sleepless night, I finally couldn’t hold it in any longer. I rolled over in bed to face him, my heart hammering against my ribs.
“Is Lily your daughter?” I blurted out.
The words hung in the dark bedroom air like smoke — acrid, suffocating, impossible to take back once they were out. Jack’s whole body went rigid beside me.
“What?” He turned slowly, his face a mask of pure shock. “Heather, what are you talking about? Where is this even coming from?”
“Don’t play dumb, Jack. The girls are identical. And you’ve been acting strange ever since Lily and her family moved in next door.” My voice cracked halfway through the sentence. “Just tell me the truth. Did you have an affair?”
