What he hadn't anticipated? Garrison Blackwood, his silent neighbor across the street, had witnessed the whole scene.
This former sheriff, known to the people of Cedar Hollow for his life in seclusion on an old farm with his trusty old dog, joined her shortly after Julian left. Not to sympathize. To take concrete action. He left three things on his table: a key to his home, the contact information of a family law lawyer, and a sealed envelope from a Boston-based fertility expert.
He then copied a medical report to her. Julian's name was at the top of the page. The verdict was unequivocal: extremely low probability of natural conception.
She had never been aware of this document.
What his body had been forced to tell
The Boston specialist was blunt in her conclusions: there was no medical evidence that she suffered from infertility. Some of the treatments she had gone through could even have been avoided. Julian had selected the practitioners, guided the diagnoses, signed forms on his behalf during his most fragile moments.
