HE BROUGHT HIS MISTRESS HOME—THEN LEFT HIS PREGNANT WIFE ON THE STAIRS FOR ELEVEN MINUTES

Paige's statement didn't save me. It wasn't a confession, either. She confirmed that she had seen Alex grab my wrist and that she had urged him to leave after the fall. She admitted she hadn't checked whether anyone called 911.

"I was angry at her," Paige told the detective. "She was still his wife. I thought she was trying to keep him."

I read the statement twice. There was no apology. But there wasn't an excuse that made the facts smaller.

Alex's attorney stopped calling the fall a simple slip. The police told Nia they were reviewing the incident; she warned me not to expect charges or a quick, satisfying outcome. Statements and video mattered, but they did not answer every question.

The strange part was what happened afterward. Paige called me.

"I don't want to fight with you anymore," she said.

"Then stop calling."

"There's something about the baby."

I gripped the edge of the table. "Your baby?"

"Yes."

She had been seeing another man, Mark Bellamy, before she and Alex became exclusive. The dates overlapped. She'd told Alex at the beginning that the baby might be Mark's.

"He said he didn't care," Paige whispered. "He said we could figure it out later. Then he told his whole family it was his. I let him."

"Why are you telling me?"

"Because he keeps saying everything was my idea."

I looked at the ultrasound image she'd left in my hospital room. I'd turned it facedown on a shelf, but hadn't thrown it away.

"You came to hurt me," I said.

"I did. I thought if you hated him enough, you'd go away."

"How's that working?"

She let out one short, unhappy laugh.

We sat in silence on opposite ends of the call. I heard a dog barking near her apartment. She said she'd booked a prenatal appointment for the following day. I told her to go to it.

"That's it?" she asked.

"What do you want?"

"I don't know."

Neither did I.

That evening Nia received an amended proposal from Alex's lawyer. The disputed transfers were now listed as personal expenditures. Alex offered to repay my share in installments and acknowledged that he had left without arranging medical care. The lawyers still disagreed about the house and what the incident meant for future parenting arrangements.

Attached was a separate letter in Alex's handwriting.

I read the first sentence: I knew about the pregnancy test before you fell.

The last sentence was harder.