I gave money to a poor woman with a baby – The next morning, I was shocked to see that she was doing something on my husband's grave

But she wasn't there.

I then took the road to his house. I remember she told me that she lived in an apartment above the local supermarket. There was only one in the city, which perfectly reduced the scope of action.

I parked outside and looked at the cracked windows, the peeled paint, and my stomach turned around. How could she raise a baby here?

How could James have let her live in these conditions? Was he not more concerned her? This idea made me sick. I was already struggling against his infidelity, but it only made things worse.

Even before I realized it, I would enter the supermarket, buying a cart of provisions and a teddy bear on one of the display racks. Then I climbed the shabby staircase of the alley between two buildings.

She opened the door, her face being a shock mask when she saw me.

"I don't want anything," I said quickly. "But I thought... you might need help. For him. ”

Her eyes were overflowing with tears, but she strayed to let me in. The baby was lying on a blanket on the ground, gnawing a toothed ring. He looked at me with James's eyes.

As we started shopping, something in me gotten out. Maybe James had betrayed me, yes. And perhaps he had lived in a lie. But the baby was not a lie.

That child was real, and he was there.

And somehow, in a way that I couldn't yet explain, it seemed like a second chance.

"My name is Rhiannon," I said softly, with my voice trembling. "What's his name?" What about yours? ”

She hesitated before replying.

"Elliot, and my name is Pearl," she said.

I smiled, tears pricking my eyes.

"Hello, Elliot," I said.