“Stop that,” he chided, as he wrapped her tightly in his arms. “Don’t say that. You have never failed me. Not once. You are everything I ever wanted. The only thing. It doesn’t matter about children. I’m sure we’ll have them eventually. Just don’t ever say that you failed me, Colette. You couldn’t, even if you tried.”

“You don’t understand how I feel,” she wept as she looked into his eyes. “Every day I feel incomplete. It feels as if something is missing. I want a child.”

She tried to extricate herself from her husband’s grasp, but Ed wouldn’t let her go. He held her tight as she cried out her pain and disappointment.

She cried until tears no longer came.

Finally she stilled, too tired to move. She stared unseeingly at the curtains. The light of the sun was beginning to show behind them. It was Wednesday. She had to get ready for work but she didn’t want to go in today.

Ed stroked her hair. “There you go,” he whispered soothingly. “Better now.”

Colette was embarrassed. She’d never behaved like that before. She’d never allowed him to know how much pain she was in over her failure to conceive.

“I’m sorry,” she began, looking at him.

“Don’t.” Ed pulled her against his chest gently. “Don’t apologize for hurting. But maybe...maybe it’s a good idea to just let all this go for a while.”

His words gave her pause. “Let it go?”

“You know what I mean. That maybe we both stop trying so hard, and more importantly you stop beating yourself up about this. It hurts you to see the negative result, but it hurts me even more to see how much pain it causes you.” He turned her face toward him. “Do you have any idea what it does to me?”

Tears stung her eyes again. “I just want us to have a family.”

“We are a family. You and me. I don’t need a child, Colette. Quite frankly, if trying for one is going to do this to you, then I don’t want it at all.” He hugged her tightly. “All I want is you. I’d do anything for you.”

She couldn’t believe what he was saying. What about all the talk about family? A big family, with lots of children? Is he really willing to give that up?

“What about everything we talked about?” she said, still stunned by what her husband had said. It didn’t make sense in her mind.

“You’re the one who always wanted a family, really. You wanted one, so I wanted one. But if we can’t have one, it’s fine, too. We don’t need it. We have each other, don’t we?”