Instead of the support she expected from her husband, Sarah was met with cold resentment. For the final two months of her pregnancy, she decided to move back in with her mother. She desperately wanted to go home, but Mark grew dark and angry every time he looked at her growing bump. Her mother tried to reassure her, insisting that a man’s heart always softens the moment he holds his child for the first time.
It seemed impossible to remain indifferent to your own flesh and blood. Sarah would nod and offer a strained smile, but deep down, she was terrified. Mark’s coldness cut deep, even though she tried to excuse it as his way of dealing with the recent stresses in his life.
Their marriage hadn’t started this way. Right after the wedding, they had moved in with Mark’s mother, Eleanor. Eleanor had been widowed young, and while Mark was away at college, she had lived alone in her large, four-bedroom colonial. The house, which had been in her family for generations, felt far too quiet for just one person.
Eleanor never complained, but Sarah could sense her loneliness. That was why Sarah suggested they take one of the spare rooms—a proposal that left Eleanor overjoyed. The older woman seemed to come alive again at the prospect of having family in the house.
She welcomed them with open arms, telling them to make the place their own and renovate whatever they liked. Her only request was that they leave her master bedroom untouched; it was a sanctuary filled with memories of her late husband, and those walls were sacred to her.
Eleanor turned out to be the perfect housemate and a wise confidante. She never meddled, but she was always there to help with dinner or offer a kind word. Sarah grew incredibly close to her, eventually seeing Eleanor as a second mother.
It was Eleanor, not Mark, whom Sarah told first when she found out she was pregnant. Eleanor beamed with joy, hugging Sarah tightly before suggesting they plan a special surprise for Mark. The two women spent the afternoon in the kitchen, baking his favorite apple pie and setting a festive table.
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