I huff and go back to my seat and try to continue pretending to read my magazine. “Mom, I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Well, I don’t really care.”

“It’s my private life, and I want to keep it private.”

“Come on, you know I have cancer.”

I look up at her. “Really? The cancer card?”

She gives me an exaggerated shrug and says, “Tell me what happened.”

I sigh “It’s a long story.”

She gestures around her. “Do I look like I have anywhere else to be at the moment?”

I laugh then launch into the story. “He has a son and didn’t tell me.”

“Really? He hid a child from you?” Mom looks horrified. “That doesn’t sound like him.”

“Well, to be fair he had only found out about the child a week or two before I did.”

Mom shakes her head. “Wait, I don’t understand.”

“His ex-wife was pregnant when they got divorced and didn’t tell him then showed up out of the blue with the child.”

“So he didn’t actually hide the child from you?”

“Well, not really, but I only found out about his son because his ex-wife turned up with him. He knew for a while before that. He could’ve told me at any moment, but he didn’t. He swears he was going to tell me, but I’m not sure how much of that I believe.”

“Honey, I think you’re making a bigger deal out of this than it needs to be...”

“How can you say that? Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?”

“I am on your side that’s why I’m going to tell you thetruth. It’s understandable that he would need a week or two to digest this news before breaking it to you, and honestly, do you think he never would have told you about it?”

That does make sense.

“You’re probably right, but I also don’t like the way he handled it. While he was dealing with all this, he pulled back from me, lied to me, and said some horrible things to me. The whole thing just showed me how he deals with conflict, and I’m not sure that I like what I saw.”

“Listen, it’s not like the two of you are married. It’ll be easy enough to go your separate ways if that’s what you decide to do, but it may be worth it to give him another chance. He made a mistake, but as I’m sure you know, good men like him don’t grow on trees.”

“Well, it actually won’t be easy to disentangle myself from him…” I look down and I wring my fingers in my lap.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m pregnant.”

Mom gasps and I peek at her. Her hands go to her mouth and I can see a huge smile behind her fingers. “Come over here and give me a hug.”

I do just that. Then she takes my hands. “Congratulations. You’re going to be an incredible mother,” she says with tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Thank you.” My voice catches.

“But I don’t understand, you’re pregnant with Travis’ child and you ended things with him? I understand why you two fought, but it’s not something you can’t work through. Especially when you have a baby on the way.”

“Mom, when I told him I was pregnant he just sat there like a log. If you had seen the look on his face, you would understand exactly why I did what I did. He was terrified. He doesn’twant this baby.”

“Did he actually say that?”