When I pulled into the driveway that evening, the first thing I noticed was the stroller. It was sitting on the lawn, wrapped in a beautiful bow with my favorite flowers. Yellow lilies. The sight stopped me in my tracks, my keys slipping from my fingers as I stared at the unexpected gift.

A stroller?

My mind raced, trying to piece together why it would be there. Arthur and I had never talked about this. At least, not seriously. He had always said that he wasn’t interested in having children, and I never pushed the issue.

“I don’t know, Vic,” he said one day when we were talking about it over brunch. “I just think that I want to travel the world and go on all types of adventures. I don’t think kids fit into that equation. Maybe it’s just something that I need to get out of my system, you know?”

Of course, I knew. And that’s why I didn’t want to question him any further. I had my own reasons for staying silent, reasons that ate away at me every time I saw a mom with their baby. But still, I had convinced myself that it was okay because we were on the same page.

Or so I thought.

But now… this stroller told me that everything had changed.

I approached it slowly, as if it might disappear if I moved too quickly. The closer I got, the more I realized how much care had gone into this presentation. The flowers were arranged perfectly and there, tucked into the folds of a white blanket inside, was a note.

“Oh, Arthur,” I muttered under my breath as I took a closer

I pulled the note, instantly recognizing my husband’s handwriting

I’m ready, Vic. Let’s start trying for a baby. I love you.

The words blurred as tears welled up in my eyes. This was what I had always dreamed of:

To be married to a man who loved me. A man who wanted to start a family with me.

This is what I had secretly yearned for, despite all the lies I’d told myself in the past. But now, standing here with this note in my hand, all I felt was dread. A deep, suffocating dread that choked the breath from my lungs.

“Dammit, Arthur,” I said to myself as I held the note tightly. “What are we going to do now?”

This was supposed to be a moment of joy, a moment where I would run into the house, throw my arms around my husband, and cry. But instead, I was collapsing under the weight of a secret that I had buried so deep, I almost convinced myself that it didn’t exist.

“But it’s real, Vic,” I said, trying to gather my nerves. “You have to tell him everything.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket, jolting me right back to the present. Of course, it was Arthur, probably calling to see if I’d found his surprise. I fumbled with the phone, my hands shaking so much that I could barely swipe to answer the call.

“Hello?”

“Hey, darling,” Arthur said. “Did you see it?”

I could hear the excitement in his voice. But I couldn’t speak. The lump in my throat was too big. And I knew that the moment I opened my mouth, I’d cry.

But I had to tell my husband the truth. It was time, especially now, because he had clearly changed his mind about having children.

Before I could say anything else, my tears came out hot and heavy.

“I’m so sorry, Arthur. I’m so sorry,” I managed to say.

The silence on the other end of the line was deafening. I could hear my husband’s breath getting uneven.

“What’s wrong? Vic? Why are you sorry? What’s going on?” he asked.

“I…” I trailed off, the words not coming. How could I tell him? How could I crush his newfound dream?

“Baby, talk to me,” he urged gently.

I could hear his office phone ringing loudly in the background, but he ignored it.

“I’m coming home, Vic. Just hold on, okay? I’ll be there soon, I promise.”

I barely heard him hang up. My mind was spinning. I sank to the ground beside the stroller, staring at it with tears running down my face, wondering how everything could go wrong so quickly.

This was supposed to be a happy surprise. My husband only wanted to make me happy, but now it felt like I was going to lose him.

“Once you tell him everything, Vic,” I told myself. “Everything changes.”

The minutes passed like hours, and I decided to get into the kitchen to make dinner. I wanted to do anything but this, but I also knew that I needed to stay busy.

“It’s the only way you’ll stay present until he gets home,” I warned myself.

I moved around the kitchen with urgency. I roasted tomatoes, I cut thick pieces of fish, I made a sauce. I did everything methodically, allowing muscle memory to take over completely and suppressing my feelings.

And then I heard Arthur’s car on the driveway, and his feet running across the pavement and into our home.

“Victoria,” he said, cupping my tear-streaked face. “What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

I couldn’t meet my husband’s eyes. I felt like such a coward.

“Please,” he said finally.

And then the seal broke.

“Arthur, I can’t give you children. I can’t have them. I’ve known for years. And I didn’t tell you because… well, because you said that you didn’t want kids. So I thought that I dodged a bullet with a difficult conversation. I thought it didn’t matter, and that it was better this way. Now you’ve changed your mind, and I don’t know what to do.”

I finally looked at him, my heart aching as I saw the shock on his face. His eyes searched mine, trying to process what I had just told him.

For a moment, he didn’t say anything, and I braced myself for the worst.

But then, to my surprise, he pulled me into his arms, holding me so tightly I could barely breathe.

“You’ve been carrying this alone all this time?” he asked. “Victoria, you’re supposed to let me carry these things with you. Having a baby the conventional way isn’t going to change the way I feel about you.”

“But… you said you wanted a baby. You changed your mind. How can I be enough?”

“You’re more than enough. Yes, I’ve thought about it more recently, and I thought that maybe we could give it a try, but that doesn’t change how I feel about you. We can still have a family, Vic. There are other ways,” my husband said.

“We can explore adoption? Even fostering? See if it’s for us?” I asked, hope and relief flooding through me.

“Yes, my darling,” Arthur said. “But we can also just be us. That’s more than okay, too.”

“You’re really okay with that?” I asked.

“I am,” he said softly, wiping away the last of my tears. “And adoption is a beautiful option, Vic. There are so many children out there who need loving parents. We could be that for them. We could be everything to them.”

I nodded.

“I never thought… I didn’t let myself think that this was possible, Art,” I said.

After a while, the oven timer went off, signaling that dinner was ready. My husband let go of me and smiled.

“I’ll sort dinner out,” I said.

As I was busy in the kitchen, Arthur went outside to get the stroller.

“Shall we leave it in the living room for now?” he asked, placing the flowers in a vase.

I nodded.

“Yes, let it be a reminder of what’s to come. Every time we see it, we’ll know what’s at stake here. And we’ll fight to create our little family,” I said.

Arthur moved the stroller into the living room and came back to the kitchen with a serious look on his face.

“And this is the last time you’ll ever have to carry this by yourself again, Vic. From here on out, you need to share everything with me,” he said.

“I promise,” I said, pulling him into an embrace.

What would you have done?