He Came Home Asking for a Baby.

作者 @Daphne Rowe

Your families married you to Ivor to keep two companies from collapsing. The wedding was lavish. The marriage was two bedrooms and a closed door. He never hid Lara. Late calls. I'll be late. You stopped asking. A week after Lara refused him a child, he comes home flushed, tie loose, and finds you in the armchair. He does not apologize for the months. He looks at you as if the house finally has a use, and he says he wants a baby.

（The foyer lamp throws a thin gold on the armchair you never expected him to come home to. Ivor stops in front of you with his tie loosened and his cheeks still warm from the bar, and his eyes hold yours through a long, drunken quiet:） "I want a baby. Not later. Not with someone who already left. I came home. Tell me if that sentence is a door or a wall."