Husband Gave the Nanny My Private Delivery Room; I Calmly Divorced

1.

Getting a room at the best maternity hospital in the city was almost impossible. It had taken everything I had to finally reach the top of the waitlist for a suite.

On the day I was admitted, my husband, Preston Barrett, brought along Millicent Finch, our pregnant nanny.

Millicent's due soon too, and her husband's away and can't get back. She might as well share the room with us.

I froze. Cradling my belly, I looked around the private suite I'd only managed to get by burning through every connection I had, and asked.

"A private suite can't take an extra bed. Where do you expect Millicent to sleep?"

Millicent kept her head down and spoke timidly.

"Mrs. Barrett, I'm sorry to put you in a hard spot, but I'm doing this for my baby. I can just sleep out in the hall. I promise I won't disturb your rest."

Preston hurried to steady her and cut in.

"What do you mean, sleep in the hall? You'll sleep in the room, where it's comfortable and quiet."

I couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Preston, if Millicent gets the room, what about me? I'm eight months pregnant. Am I supposed to go sleep in the hall?"

Preston started getting impatient.

"Enough. This is a good deed we're doing. Listen to me. Millicent takes the bed, you make a spot on the floor next to her, and I'll manage a few nights sitting out in the hall."

"You're about to be a mother, and you're still this petty. Millicent's carrying a boy. Show a little generosity."

"If you keep being this small-minded every single day, this family's going to fall apart sooner or later."

To protect an outsider, he was willing to curse his own marriage.

I didn't say another word. I went straight to the hospital and had them change the emergency contact.

This VIP room was one I'd only landed by pulling strings through my own family.

Without my signature, no one was taking my bed. Every last one of them could get out of this hospital.

...

Seeing me go quiet, Preston assumed I'd caved. He patted my shoulder.

"That's more like it. I always have to lecture you before you'll listen."

"Oh, right. Where's that jar of premium nutritional supplements your friend brought back from overseas? Millicent hasn't had much of an appetite these past couple of days. Go get it for her."

I glared at him, furious.

"My friend went to a lot of trouble to track that down for my pregnancy. I'm drinking it myself."

Preston let out a scornful laugh.

"It's because it's hard to find that I want you to hand it over to Millicent. You do fine at home with a little creamy dessert soup, don't you? Do you really have to nickel-and-dime the nanny over something like this?"

He paused, then added.

"Go look in a mirror when you get the chance. You've gotten as fat as a pig, and you're still thinking about food."

I'd put on weight naturally from the pregnancy, and he was calling me a pig.

When he saw my face go pale with anger, his tone softened a fraction.

"I just say things straight, that's all. Don't take it to heart. Millicent had a miscarriage before. It wasn't easy for her to get pregnant again, so she needs some good food to build her strength."

"Can't you spare a thought for the baby in her belly? If you want the supplements, I'll buy some for you when I have time."

Because getting pregnant hadn't been easy for Millicent, she came first.

And because this was my first pregnancy, I was just supposed to make do with her leftovers.

Why should I?

"There's no need for 'later.' If Millicent wants the supplements, you go to the pharmacy and buy them for her right now. This bed is registered under my name. Who stays in this room is my call."

Preston's face darkened all at once.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I looked at him. "You tell me what it means."

He gave a snort.

"Keep this up and..."

"You can't keep going like this, is that it? Then let's not."

2.

Preston froze, staring at me for several seconds.

"You want to end the marriage over one jar of nutritional supplements?"

I threw it back at him. "Aren't you always saying this marriage can't go on? Then stop forcing it."

Off to the side, Millicent's eyes went red.

"Mr. Barrett, don't fight with your wife because of me. She's far along, she can't get upset. I should just go!"

She braced her belly and started for the door, and Preston rushed to block her.

He gathered her in carefully.

"Where do you think you're going? Your rental doesn't even have air conditioning. It's the middle of summer, how is a pregnant woman supposed to survive that? No. Absolutely not."

When he turned back to me, his tone had already changed.

"Georgette, over one thing to eat, you're really going to drive Millicent to her death? Her man's out of town and can't come back. She's renting an old dump with no elevator, all alone, climbing six flights every day. She had bleeding not long ago."

"She has no man to lean on, no savings to fall back on. You throw her out now and it's the same as taking her life."

The baby kicked me hard, and the pain bent me over.

I looked at this man I'd been married to for five years, and my chest went tight, wave after wave.

It was the first time I'd learned how attentive he could be.

He knew Millicent lived in a rental and it was hard climbing six flights. He knew she'd had bleeding with no one to look after her. He knew she had no savings and her days were hard.

But he'd never cared how I got through my own pregnancy.

At seven months I was still working overtime to hit a project deadline, and he never asked me a single thing.

I threw up until my stomach bled and got hospitalized, and he came for ten minutes, then said the company needed him and left.

Every prenatal checkup I took a cab there and back on my own. Twice my blood sugar dropped so low I nearly passed out, and when I called him, he hung up and sent a text.

"In a meeting. Handle it yourself."

I'd told him I was tired, that I couldn't hold on, and every time he'd frown.

"What woman doesn't get pregnant? You're the only one making a drama of it."

His heart ached for Millicent climbing six flights alone. But when I was cramming onto the morning rush-hour train with my huge belly, did he ever frown even once?

It wasn't that he couldn't feel for another person. It was that the person he felt for had never been me.

I looked down at the mass of needle marks on the back of my hand.

Five months of injections to hold on to this baby, more than I could count.

I'd gritted through all of it, just to bring this child safely into the world.

My parents had emptied their retirement savings and called in favors to squeeze me into this room, so I could rest a little better through the last two months.

"This room came from my parents' savings and the favors they called in. This pregnancy, I got through on my own."

I lifted my head and looked at Preston.

"The rental Millicent lives in, she rented it herself. She didn't think it through. Why should it fall to me to take care of her?"

Before Preston could get a word out, Millicent suddenly cried out, her face draining white.

"It's all my fault. I'm useless and I still went and had a baby!"

Then she yanked the door open and ran.

Preston chased after her without a thought, his elbow jabbing into me. I stumbled a couple of steps and nearly fell.

I sat down on the bed and let myself settle, then picked up my phone and called my dad.

"Dad, help me find a divorce lawyer. And the hospital's emergency contact, change it to you."

3.

When the call connected and my father heard me say I wanted a divorce, he went quiet for a moment.

About half a minute passed before he ventured, carefully.

"Sweetheart, what happened? Is it that Preston boy"

"Dad, I've thought it through."

I didn't let him finish the question, keeping my voice as steady as I could.

"He brought the nanny into my hospital room. I think she's carrying his child. He told me to give up the room, and he even wanted the premium supplements my best friend brought me handed over for her to drink."

His breathing turned heavy, and then he said,

"You wait right there. I'll take the earliest train out tomorrow."

"You don't need to come. Just find me a lawyer, and change the hospital's emergency contact to you."

My father said only one thing.

"All right. I'll take care of it."

After I hung up, I sat with it a while, and the tightness in my chest eased a little.

I went downstairs, thinking I'd buy some fruit at the supermarket outside the hospital.

I'd just reached the door of the fruit shop when I saw Preston.

He was standing in the baby-goods store next door, Millicent beside him.

The two of them stood very close, and he was holding up a little baby outfit, pushing it toward her face.

"Look how cute. Our baby would look adorable in this."

Millicent gave him a light push, her voice all coy.

"That's too expensive, over eight hundred for one piece. Babies grow so fast, they can't wear it more than a few days."

Preston laughed and tucked the outfit against his chest.

"Expensive, nothing. My son's worth whatever he wears. Only a brand like this is good enough for my boy."

Millicent flushed, ducked her head with a pressed-lip smile, then tilted her face up and asked,

"So did you ever buy anything for your wife's baby?"

The smile on Preston's face faded for a beat, then he curled his lip, indifferent.

"Her? She's got a girl in there. What's the point of buying anything?"

Millicent let out a soft little cry and leaned into his shoulder.

"Then I really am lucky, a big healthy boy first try."

I was standing behind the fruit shop's sign, and rage darkened my vision.

Three months ago, I'd passed this same baby store and seen the very same outfit in the window. I'd taken a photo and sent it to him, asking if we could buy one once the baby was born.

He sent back a voice message, his tone impatient.

"Over eight hundred? A baby just needs some cotton thing for twenty, thirty bucks. Look at what you make. Stop wasting your head on pointless stuff all day."

Back then I thought money was tight at home, and I even blamed myself for days, feeling like I didn't know how to run a household.

So it turned out it was never about the price. He just thought I wasn't worth it.

I was holding the oranges I'd just picked out, about to turn and leave, when Millicent suddenly came around from the side and planted herself right in front of me.

There wasn't a trace of the fragile act left on her face.

"You saw all that just now, didn't you? He bought me an eight-hundred-dollar outfit without blinking."

She glanced at my belly, her smile deepening.

"By the way, just so you know, every shopping card and maternity bonus his company handed out these past few months went straight onto my card. He said your workplace has good benefits, so you don't need the little bit."

Then she looked at the oranges in my hand and tossed off a line, airy.

"I only eat imported oranges. The domestic ones are sour. They make me nauseous."

Then she turned and walked away.

My legs went a little weak, and I had to steady myself against a nearby power pole for a while before it passed.

Six months ago I'd told Preston my workplace had given me a three-thousand-dollar maternity bonus, and that I wanted to buy some good prenatal supplements.

He said money was tight at home, that I should just save it for now and not touch it, and we'd talk after the baby came.

I believed him, and handed the bonus card over to him.

So all that money had gone straight into someone else's pocket.

I looked down at the domestic oranges in my hand, put them back on the shelf, and dialed my best friend.

4.

Wanda Randall showed up fast.

She grabbed me by the arm without a word and steered me toward the door.

"Come on, we're getting food. You can tell me everything slowly."

She picked a little place near the hospital.

"Talk. What's actually going on? You were so vague on the phone, you had me worried sick."

I told her everything from the last two days, start to finish. Halfway through, she put down her chopsticks.

"Damn it. Did Preston get kicked in the head by a mule? You're waiting for him to come back? When he does, I swear I'll"

"No need."

I said it flatly.

"I've made up my mind. I'm divorcing him."

Wanda looked at me for a long moment, then sighed and took my hand.

"Fine. If that's what you've decided, I'm on your side. You should've left him ages ago. You're too soft, putting up with him all these years."

We sat there from noon until past two, talking about a lot of things, and when she cursed Preston I laughed right along with her.

Before she left, she tucked a card into my bag.

"PIN's my birthday. Use it if you're in a bind. Don't be shy with me."

On the way back to the hospital, my steps were lighter than when I'd left.

The moment I pushed open the door to my room, I froze in the doorway.

My pillow had been thrown on the floor, a brown tea stain soaked into it.

The insulated cup my mother had brought was gone from the nightstand.

The sheet on the bed was rumpled into a heap, and the pillow there clearly had marks where someone had leaned on it.

I opened the cabinet. My folded change of clothes had been balled up and shoved to the very bottom, weighed down by a few silk nightgowns I'd never seen before.

Millicent's clothes already filled half the wardrobe.

I was bending down to pick up the pillow off the floor when I heard the door open behind me.

Preston and Millicent came in, chatting and laughing.

When Preston saw me, his smile stalled, then his brow creased.

"Where did you run off to? You didn't answer your phone either. Millicent wanted the soup you make, and she waited all through lunch and you never came back. Do you have any idea she sat here hungry until past one?"

I stared at him, and for a moment I didn't know what to say.

I'd been gone one lunch, and he hadn't asked whether I'd eaten, or who I'd been with. His first words were to blame me for not coming back to cook soup for the nanny.

I didn't answer him. I raised my hand and pointed at the floor.

"What happened to my things? Who threw them there?"

Millicent's hand flew to her belly at once, her face a picture of panic.

"Ma'am, I'm so sorry. At lunch I was looking for a towel, and when I went through the cabinet I didn't know where your things should go, so I asked Mr. Barrett."

"He said to just leave them on the floor. I wanted to fold them up for you, but Mr. Barrett said not to bother."

Her voice was small and wounded, but as her eyes went past Preston's shoulder and landed on my face, the corner of her mouth ticked up for a split second.

Preston spoke without a trace of concern.

"It's just a few clothes. Pick them up and it's done. Was it worth snapping at her over something this small? Millicent's in a delicate condition right now. Show a little consideration."

He added another line.

"Right, since you're back, go buy a fish. Millicent wants fish soup, and the hospital cafeteria's isn't fresh."

I looked at his face, that expression that took it all for granted, and looked again at the mess all over the floor, and felt that one more word would be a waste.

I took the papers I'd prepared out of my pocket and set them on the nightstand.

"The divorce agreement. I've already signed it. And I've changed the contact information for this room to my parents' names."

I laid the pen down beside it and said, perfectly calm: "Both of you, get out. Now."