“Charming.”
“I know.”
“But it didn’t look like normal weight gain. Your abdomen seemed… firmer.”
“So you started measuring me in my sleep.”
“I tried asking whether you’d noticed.”
“When?”
“A few times.”
I thought back.
Had he?
Then I remembered.
You’re feeling okay lately?
Sure.
No stomach problems?
No.
You’d tell me if something felt strange?
Daniel, stop worrying.
I had dismissed those conversations without even noticing them.
“That wasn’t asking me.”
“I know that now.”
“No. You knew it then. You were afraid to say the actual words.”
He nodded.
“Because?”
“Because I thought you’d look at me the way Rebecca did.”
“How did she look at you?”
“Like I was turning her illness into my illness.”
That stopped me.
Daniel took a breath.
“Rebecca told me I made her feel watched instead of loved.”
I stared at him.
“And you did the same thing to me.”
“Yes.”
