I haul myself up, one arm on the back of the couch. For a second or two I watch Chase folding a shirt. Chase. Of course. I have to get him onside. Even if I’m breaking Alex’s rules and speaking of the past, I can’t let her be in charge any longer. She’s met Eli, and she’s hiding the fact. Chase doesn’t even know.

And then, that’s when I think of it. I walk toward him, as if I’m heading over to help him with his chores.

“Steady,” Chase says. “You shouldn’t be moving too fast.” He doesn’t look at me and won’t.

Carefully, Ruth. Tread carefully. I stop just short of him, straighten the angle of the kitchen stool for him until it’s perfect. “Chase, I wanted to say thanks for everything you’ve been doing. You’re really looking out for me and the baby.”

He pauses, his eyes narrow, the T-shirt in his hands. “You’re welcome. I’m glad you noticed.”

“It won’t be long before you get to meet the little one,” I say, patting my belly. “Do you want to feel it move? It feels a bit weird, but I’ve gotten used to it. I kind of look forward to it now.”

He smiles but guardedly. “I’m okay, thank you. But it’ll be good to have a baby around. A couple of weeks to go, right?”

“If it’s on time. They say with first pregnancies it can lag.”

“I know,” he says. “I’ve read up on it.”

I ease onto a stool that he isn’t using to pile clothes, my belly facing him. “You’d be a good dad, I think. If you ever choose to have children.” I pause, eye him. “I mean that genuinely.”

He softens. “Thanks, that means a lot, Ruth.”

Now’s my moment. “It’s too bad Alex can’t have kids.”

He immediately stops folding.

I pause. “Oh, you do know why, right?” I say, because it’s now or never. “She was so young. It was hard on her then, when it happened, and I guess the impact just never goes away.”

He looks at me, confused. “When what happened?”

“The abortion.” It comes out of me so suddenly, like poison expelled.

“What are you talking about? What abortion?”

“Nothing. My mistake. Forget I said anything.”

There’s a moment of heavy silence.

“I don’t know anything you’re talking about.”

“I’m concerned about Alex.” More silence. “She never told you why she might be infertile?”

His eyes are wide, shocked. He shakes his head.