“When I Broke My Leg, My Husband Left Me Home Alone With Our Three Babies and Said, ‘I’M NOT YOUR SERVANT! YOU’RE THEIR MOTHER, SO DEAL WITH IT!’ But the Next Evening, When He Came Home and Saw Who Was Sitting Beside Me, He Turned Pale and Screamed, ‘WHO BROUGHT HER HERE?!’”

I stared at the photograph.

“Where was his father?”

Patricia’s eyes filled with tears.

“He had abandoned us two weeks earlier.”

My heart skipped a beat.

Michael had always told me his father died when he was young.

“Why did you tell me he was dead?” I whispered.

Michael looked away.

Patricia continued.

“When I begged his father for help, do you know what he said?”

Nobody answered.

“He told me, ‘You’re the one who wanted a child. You take care of him.’”

I covered my mouth.

Those were almost exactly Michael’s words.

“I promised myself my son would never treat his wife that way,” Patricia said.

Michael lowered his head.

“Mom, enough.”

“No, Michael. Your wife has a broken leg and three babies. She needed you, and you turned your back on her.”

Then Patricia revealed why they had stopped speaking.

Two years earlier, when she learned we wanted children, she had warned Michael that fatherhood meant more than earning money.