“You remember when you came back from rehab?” Mom asked. “Right after the second surgery?”
“Of course I do.”
“Jess came to me not long after,” she said, twisting her hands. “She was overwhelmed. You were still angry at the world, and you were in unimaginable pain. She didn’t know how to help you.”
I said nothing.
“You remember when you came back from rehab?”
“She told me she’d slept with someone before you got home,” my mother continued, eyes dropping. “A one-night stand. A mistake. She found out she was pregnant a day before your wedding.”
My chest tightened.
“She didn’t know for sure if Evie was yours,” my mother said. “After rehab, you two were able to be together. But she wasn’t sure, and she couldn’t bear to tell you after everything you’d already lost.”
I stared at her, the room suddenly too bright.
“She found out she was pregnant a day before your wedding.”
