Nanny

‘Not your fault.’ Cara patted my arm. ‘Anyway, I’d just gotten an offer from a hospital in Dochester at that time. I hadn’t made up my mind to go. But after that…So I decided to leave, to get away from it all. I’d already tendered my resignation when I found out I was pregnant, so I just hopped on the next available flight and got the hell out of Dodge. And you know the rest.’ ‘You still could have told me after you settled in at Dochester.’ ‘I could have. But why should I upset you with something neither of us could change? Besides, I was busy with the hospital and the baby. Jamie’s cute, mostly an angel, but he could be quite a handful at times.’ We both drank, then listened to Jamie’s shallow breathing from the baby monitor on the nightstand. I thought about his chubby, pink-cheeked face, and wondered how something so beautiful could come from something so ugly. We polished off the entire bottle of Merlot. I waited for Cara to drop into a deep, alcohol-induced slumber, then I tiptoe