Dinosaurs.<\/p>\n
Planets.<\/p>\n
Volcanoes.<\/p>\n
Astronauts.<\/p>\n
There was no luxury.<\/p>\n
But there was love.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys are asleep,\u201d Emma said as soon as he stepped inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t wake them up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nathan nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t ask them questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another nod.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you don\u2019t stand there looking guilty so I\u2019ll feel sorry for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nathan lowered his eyes.<\/p>\n
Emma stood between him and the hallway like a wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long have you been investigating me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t insult me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked for basic information.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBasic?\u201d she snapped. \u201cMy address? My school? My debts? My children\u2019s schedules?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma\u2019s eyes turned cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word hit harder than a slap.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
She folded her arms.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t get to disappear for five years, throw money around like some billionaire savior, and then show up calling yourself a father.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Nathan. You don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice cracked for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re trying to understand five years in five days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nathan sat on the edge of the couch.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t feel worthy of touching anything else.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I was helping.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were controlling.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room fell silent.<\/p>\n
He glanced at a drawing on the refrigerator.<\/p>\n
Three stick figures held hands.<\/p>\n
Mom.<\/p>\n
Ethan.<\/p>\n
Noah.<\/p>\n
No dad.<\/p>\n
Not even an empty space where one should have been.<\/p>\n
Just three.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Even before the words left his mouth, he knew they were unfair.<\/p>\n
Emma laughed bitterly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out I was pregnant three weeks after I left.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nathan closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, I thought maybe life was giving us another chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
She paused.<\/p>\n
Then continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I remembered what you said the night we ended things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nathan felt sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said, \u2018I never want children.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He lowered his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t say you were scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t say you needed time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said never.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was an idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma looked directly at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told him everything.<\/p>\n
The high-risk pregnancy.<\/p>\n
The twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.<\/p>\n
The surgery before birth.<\/p>\n
The months in neonatal intensive care.<\/p>\n
The fear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dinosaurs. Planets. Volcanoes. Astronauts. There was no luxury. But there was love. \u201cThe boys are asleep,\u201d Emma said as soon as he stepped inside. \u201cYou don\u2019t wake them up.\u201d Nathan … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13118,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13115\/revisions\/13118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}