At forty-five, I was finally pregnant for the first time. During the ultrasound, my doctor’s face shifted, and she quietly asked me to come closer before I called my husband. I panicked and asked, “Is the baby okay?” She told me the baby looked healthy, but then she turned the screen toward me and showed me something that shattered my marriage in an instant.

the baby?”

“The baby is fine.”

That should have calmed her. It didn’t.

Dr. Petrova turned the screen and clicked out of Meline’s file. Another chart opened.

Tanya Wells. Twenty-six. High-risk monitoring. Six months pregnant.

Meline frowned. “Why are you showing me this?”

The doctor scrolled down to emergency contact and billing.

Meline stopped breathing.

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