The Camera I Installed for Our Baby Became His Love Letter to Her

As he spoke, he lowered his head and went looking for my lips.

The movement dragged me straight back to what I'd seen in the stairwell that afternoon.

I tilted my head a fraction and slipped away from Donald's kiss.

"I'm a little tired today."

Donald froze.

I was the one who'd sent him back to his own room to sleep yesterday, and now I was the one turning him away.

But I no longer had the energy to manage his feelings. I picked up my pajamas and walked into the bathroom.

Once I'd cleaned myself up, I came out to find Donald sitting on the couch, working through the day's business.

I went over to him.

"Tomorrow's Friday. Let's go to your parents' place for dinner in the afternoon."

"Mom and Dad probably miss the baby by now."

Donald was busy and didn't even look up. "It is about time we went by. Wait for me at home tomorrow. I'll knock off early and come pick you both up."

"Rowena, you're the one carrying all of this. I'm lucky to have you."

I didn't answer him. I turned and walked toward the master bedroom.

In the second before I shut the door, I looked at Donald one last time, long and deep.

At the man I'd loved for ten years.

Donald.

The last day.

The next afternoon, before five o'clock, Donald and I had already arrived at his parents' house.

Donald must have called ahead.

The moment we stepped through the door, the smell of cooking was already drifting out from the kitchen.

Mrs. Abbott took her granddaughter from me, beaming.

"You haven't been by in half a month. I've missed Teresa so much."

"If you hadn't come this week, your father and I were about ready to drive over to your place ourselves."

Smiling, I walked into the living room with Donald just as Mr. Butler Sr. poked his head out of the kitchen.

"Sit down, Rowena, the food's almost ready."

"I made your favorite today, the sour-fish stew. You'd better eat plenty of it later."

Looking at the two of them, I nearly let my tears fall.

Donald and I had met at the freshman mixer our first year of college.

He fell for me at first sight and threw himself into chasing me.

The day he confessed, under a basketball court bathed in the setting sun, I bared my scars to another person for the first time.

"I'm an orphan. I have no mother or father. I grew up in a children's home, and I'm only in college because of student loans."

"Don't fall for me. A girl like me, plenty of people would hold it against her."

Poverty and being an orphan were the secret weights on my eighteen-year-old heart.

I'd thought it would scare Donald off, but instead he looked at me with his whole face aching for me, his words even stumbling a little.

"It's you I like. What does any of that have to do with your family?"

"And you don't have to worry about my parents not accepting you. My mom and dad love having a daughter most of all. They're truly, truly good people. Don't put that pressure on yourself."

"Rowena, right now I just need you to answer me one thing. Do you like me or not?"

The eighteen-year-old boy's cheeks were flushed, hopeful and bashful all at once.

As if something had taken hold of me, I nodded.

And Donald hadn't lied to me.

His parents really were the best kind of people.

In all these years, they'd never looked down on me for being an orphan, never used the fact that I had no family of my own to push me around.

They'd treated me like their own daughter, and they'd held their granddaughter in the palms of their hands.

Only now.

This family was about to fall apart.

Mrs. Abbott was the first to notice something off in my expression.

Jiggling her granddaughter in her arms, she spoke up, feigning casualness.

"Are you two still sleeping in separate rooms?"

I hadn't expected that question, and for a moment I just froze where I stood.

Donald hemmed and hawed and didn't answer either.

Our reaction had already answered Mrs. Abbott's question.

She didn't look up at us, still pretending to make small talk.

“Sleeping apart like this isn't right. Teresa's just turned one now, and Donald ought to move back in. Young couples shouldn't be apart for so long. The feelings between them fade.”

“It's hard on Rowena, raising the baby by herself. Donald, if you move back you can help her. A child this age is a handful at night.”

“Donald, the baby isn't Rowena's alone. You need to be more considerate of her.”

What even Mrs. Abbott could see, Donald somehow couldn't.

Or maybe it was simply that he'd never given my situation a second thought.

I said nothing, but something like guilt flickered across his eyes.

“All right, I'll do whatever Mom says. I've been swamped with work this year, and I really have neglected Rowena and Teresa.”

“I'll move back into the master bedroom tonight.”

A few months ago, Donald had been pledging his loyalty to another woman, right there on the home-security camera that watched the master bedroom where I slept alone.

Yesterday he'd been standing helpless in the company stairwell over another woman's tears.

Today he was agreeing with his mother to move back into the master bedroom.

I didn't know what was going through his head.

But right now, I didn't want to know anymore.

“There's no need.”

“Donald, let's get a divorce.”