Seven Months Pregnant, I Brought Lunch to Surprise My Husband at His Office — I Walked In on a Moment I Wasn’t Meant to See, and When the Director Arrived, She Revealed Who Truly Owned the Project and Ended Everything He Thought Was Secure

“You’re here for Aaron, right?” she asked, already reaching for the visitor badge.

“Yes,” I said, adjusting my grip on the box, feeling the baby stretch as if responding to my voice,
“I thought I’d bring him lunch and the sketches he left at home.”

She nodded, handing me the badge.

“He’s in the planning wing today. Third floor.”

The elevator hummed softly as it climbed, and my reflection in the steel doors looked older than I remembered, not tired exactly, but stretched thin by responsibility and hope existing at the same time, and I remember thinking, absurdly, that this must be what adulthood actually looks like when the romance wears off and leaves you with logistics and quiet faith.

The third floor was quieter than the rest of the building, the kind of quiet that suggests people are speaking in lowered voices about things that will eventually affect thousands of others, and as I walked down the hallway lined with framed photographs of past community projects, I noticed that Aaron’s office door was open just enough to let a slice of light spill across the carpet.

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