Part 2: The Date That Didn’t Add Up
Dr. Anderson didn’t answer immediately.
Her eyes stayed locked on the monitor, where the tiny heartbeat flickered steadily like nothing in the room had just collapsed into chaos.
Then she gently adjusted the image again.
“This is not what I expected,” she said quietly.
Daniel scoffed. “Of course it isn’t. Because it’s not mine.”
Vanessa shifted uncomfortably beside him, suddenly less certain than before.
The doctor turned slightly toward us.
“I need to measure something again,” she said.
The room filled with the soft beeping of the machine as she worked in silence.
Then she spoke.
“When was the first day of your last menstrual cycle, Lauren?”
I told her.
She nodded, recalculating.
Then she pulled up another screen—one I couldn’t see clearly, but her expression changed as she compared dates.
Finally, she exhaled.
“Mr. Mitchell…” she said carefully, “your wife conceived this baby at a time when you were still fully living together as a married couple.”
Daniel froze.
“That’s impossible,” he snapped. “I had the vasectomy two months ago.”
“Yes,” the doctor replied calmly. “And vasectomies are not immediately effective. It takes time—and follow-up testing—to confirm sterility.”
A silence dropped so heavy it felt physical.
Then she added one more thing.
“And based on the scan… this isn’t just one baby.”
My breath caught.
“What?”
She smiled softly at me now, not him.
“You’re having twins.”
The world tilted.
Daniel took a step forward. “No. No, that’s not—”
But Dr. Anderson continued.
“And both fetuses measure consistently with conception timing that aligns with when you were still together full-time.”
She looked him straight in the eye.
“There is no medical evidence here supporting infidelity.”
Vanessa’s face drained of color.
Daniel turned toward me, stunned, like the ground beneath him had disappeared.
May you like
For the first time since this nightmare began… he had nothing to say.
