All Chapters of Decisions I made : Chapter 311 - Chapter 320

For the next two days, Lela and Jack moved around one another carefully, as though their marriage had become a room filled with fragile glass that neither of them wanted to break. They still kissed goodbye in the mornings, still asked each other how they were feeling, and still took turns getting Lily dressed, making meals, and checking the nursery to see what remained unfinished before Emma and Claire arrived. From the outside, their lives looked almost exactly as they had a week earlier. Jack still reached for Lela's hand when they walked through the grocery store, and Lela still smiled when he came home from work. But the easy familiarity between them had changed. She no longer told him every thought that crossed her mind, and he had begun to notice how often she fell silent when his phone vibrated. Sometimes she looked at him as though she wanted to ask another question, then turned away before the words came. Jack wanted to reassure her, but he had learned that reassurance offere

For the first time in weeks, Lela woke up feeling as though she had slept, but the peace did not last long. She lay beneath the blankets with one hand resting over her stomach, feeling the gentle movements of Emma and Claire while the morning light crept across the bedroom wall. Jack was already awake, sitting on the edge of the bed as he pulled on his socks, preparing for a morning meeting at his stateside assignment. He turned when he felt her move and offered her a small smile, the kind that used to make her feel as though everything in the world could be managed as long as they faced it together. She returned the smile, but something inside her remained guarded. Their counseling appointment had helped them put words to the damage, and she was grateful that Jack had finally acknowledged the way his decisions had affected her. Still, one appointment could not undo months of uncertainty. She needed to see whether the man who had sat beside her in that office would remain honest when

Lela woke the following morning to the quiet sound of Lily talking to herself in the next room and the unmistakable smell of coffee drifting down the hallway. For several seconds, she remained still beneath the blankets, one hand resting over her stomach, feeling the gentle rise and fall of her breathing as she tried to convince herself that the heaviness in her chest was something she could set aside for another day. She had slept badly, waking several times with the same thoughts circling in her mind, each one leading back to the conversation with Megan, then to the conversation with Jack afterward. She kept hearing the words he had finally admitted to her: that he had liked the attention, that he had sometimes initiated conversations, that he had deleted messages because he was ashamed. None of those things proved that he had physically betrayed her, and she still believed him when he said he had never kissed Megan or slept with her. But the problem was no longer simply what he had

By the time Saturday morning arrived, the Sullivan household had officially entered what Jack privately referred to as the stage of preparation that involved spending money on things they had never known existed, rearranging furniture that had already been arranged twice, and attempting to convince a toddler that two unborn babies did not require every stuffed animal in the house. Lela, on the other hand, believed the entire situation could be summarized in three words: Jack had lost control. The man who once insisted he could pack for a week in Korea in a single duffel bag had spent nearly two hours comparing double strollers, measuring the trunk of their vehicle, and reading reviews from parents who apparently considered stroller wheels a matter of national security. When Lela came downstairs that morning, she found him at the kitchen table with his laptop open, a notebook beside him, and three different tabs displaying nearly identical strollers.She stopped in the doorway and star

Lela woke to something crashing downstairs.For one blissful second, she stayed perfectly still beneath the covers, eyes closed, cheek pressed against Jack’s shoulder, convincing herself the noise was just a dream. The house was quiet again, early morning sunlight filtered through the curtains, and Jack’s arm wrapped securely around her waist. She heard his steady breathing and felt his warmth beside her, and she decided whatever had fallen downstairs could stay fallen until at least eight o’clock.Then Lily’s unmistakable little voice came.“Daddy! Oh no!”Jack stirred.Lela felt him take a deep breath, the way he always did when he knew trouble had found their daughter before breakfast. “What did you do, sweetheart?”“Nothing!”Lela pressed her lips together to keep from laughing.Jack lifted his head from the pillow. “That’s usually not a good answer.”“I was helping!”“Helping with what?”There was a pause.“Breakfast.”Jack closed his eyes again. “Oh, boy.”Lela finally burst out