Aaron had long since delegated communication about most everything to his fiancée. That most everything was always Travis, since that was now all Aaron and I had to talk about.

This was mean. It was also awful. And last, it was very much Aaron.

I hated it.

It wasn’t nice, but I also hated her. She stole my husband. She got to spend every week with him and every other one living my dream, being a family with my baby. She drove a sporty Mercedes Aaron bought for her and was regularly in ads in the paper for local department stores or on TV commercials for local furniture stores, sitting in loungers and on couches, her long, thin legs always bare and stretched out.

She was beautiful. She had glossy dark brown hair that I suspected was glossy without product, which was irritating. She was taller than me by probably five inches. She had a natural grace. And even though I was not even close to over the hill, heck, I couldn’t even see the hill, she was almost four years younger than me in a way that made me feel fifty years older than her.

Obviously, for these reasons and about a thousand others besides, I didn’t want to take her call.

But she had my son.

So I had to take it.

“Excuse me,” I mumbled, knowing probably no one was paying any attention to me. I took a step away, turned my side to the others, and put the phone to my ear. “Tory.”

“Uh, hello, Carissa.”

She didn’t sound right.

My skin started tingling.

“Is everything all right?” I asked.

“Okay, don’t freak. It’s all good now. It’s gonna be okay. Aaron didn’t want me to call you because it’s normal, it happens, the doctors say…”

My back shot straight and my heart clenched even as my hand gripped the phone so hard, if I had any attention left to pay to it, it would hurt.

“The doctors?” I whispered.

“Yes, they say he’s gonna be okay. But we had to take Travis to the hospital last night.”

“Hospital?” I screeched, and again, if I had any attention left to pay to it, I would have noticed the feel of the room had gone alert.

“He’s fine. Fine,” she said hurriedly. “It was just croup. So little, working so hard to cough, it was scary but it’s totally okay. The doctors took care of him. Sent him home. Aaron didn’t want me to say anything, but I thought you should know.”

My head was buzzing, my skin still tingling, my heart beating so hard I could feel it thudding in my chest as I said, “I’m coming to your house.”

“No!” she cried. “No, Carissa, don’t do that.”