Chapter 6 - SOPHIE FINDS THE SECOND LIE
Two weeks passed.
Natalie stopped checking Ben’s messages.
She started therapy.
She went back to the hospital once for follow-up and cried in the parking garage before making herself go inside.
Grief came in ambushes.
The grocery aisle with prenatal vitamins.
A stroller in the park.
A woman complaining about morning sickness.
Some mornings, Natalie woke and forgot for three seconds.
Those were the cruelest three seconds.
Then Sophie called.
Natalie almost ignored it.
Something made her answer.
Sophie said:
“I found something.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
“I don’t want another affair detail.”
“It’s not that.”
“What is it?”
“Ben told me he had a vasectomy scheduled.”
Natalie sat up.
“What?”
“He said he never wanted children.”
Natalie’s breath shortened.
“That’s not true.”
“I know that now.”
“When did he say this?”
“Before we slept together.”
Natalie felt sick.
Sophie continued.
“He said the pregnancy happened because you stopped birth control without telling him.”
Natalie stood so quickly her chair scraped backward.
“He said what?”
Sophie began crying.
“He told me you trapped him.”
Natalie gripped the counter.
For months, Ben had not only betrayed her.
He had rewritten her pregnancy into an act of manipulation.
She remembered the night they decided to try.
Ben standing in the kitchen, smiling.
Ben saying:
Maybe we stop waiting for life to be perfect.
Ben buying a tiny pair of socks before Natalie even tested positive.
The pregnancy had been planned.
Together.
Sophie said:
“I’m sending you the messages.”
Natalie did not want them.
Then she realized something.
“Why are you looking through old messages now?”
Silence.
Then Sophie answered:
“Because he came to my apartment last night.”
Natalie went cold.
“What did he want?”
“To get back together.”
Of course.
“Did you?”
“No.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
Sophie continued.
“I asked him if everything he told me was a lie.”
“What did he say?”
“He said everyone tells the version that gets them through the day.”
Natalie almost laughed.
That sounded like Ben.
A philosophy built to excuse cowardice.
May you like
Then Sophie said:
“I recorded the conversation.”
