I sat in a cafe, playing with a coffee spoon. < img src = "https://zycie.news/crrops/c8a75/620x0/1/0/2025/03/19/nkbhzvbfhlrvl2n1vef4ptlojisczertdmavbmtwnp.jpg" alt = "woman @pexels" styles = "background-color: rgba (51.51,45.1)" > < p > It's been two years since we divorced. Summer since I had to accept that I would never become a mother. Two years since he said:

< p > — I'm not ready. I don't know if I will ever.

< p > then I believed.

< p > but now I knew it was a lie.

< p > I met him by accident. I walked down the street, thoughtful when I suddenly heard his voice. He was different than it used to be & ndash; calmer, more mature.

< P >And then I saw her.

< p > held her hand. She was pregnant. I stopped as paralyzed. It was like a blow to the heart.

< p > He didn't notice me. But I could not look at the eye.

< p > I looked at his hands gently stroking her stomach. For a flash of pride in his eyes. For the joy that he never had for me.

< p > I don't know how much I stood.

< p > but finally my legs moved forward.

< p > I passed them.

< p > He didn't look at me. He didn't know I was there. And maybe it's better.

< p > because I couldn't let him see tears in my eyes.

< p > in the evening I looked at the ceiling

< p > I remembered all conversations in which & oacute; m & oacute; I had a child.

< p > about how much I wanted to be a mother.

< p > How much I felt that I was missing something.

< p > A on ?

< p > he always had the same answers.

< p > — This is not a good time.

< p > — I'm not ready.

< p > — I don't know if I will ever.

< p > but it was not true. Was ready.

< p > Only not with me.

< p > and suddenly something else came to me.

< p > It was not about the child. It was not about time, responsibility.

< p > Simply & hellip;

< p > I was not the one from which & oacute; dum wanted to have them.

< p > tears ran down my cheeks.

< p > not because I loved him. Not because I envied him.

< p > but because I finally understood the truth from which I was running away for years.

< p > I was only a stage. Stop before his real life.

< p > and now it really started.

< p > Only without me.

Natasha Kumar

By Natasha Kumar

Natasha Kumar has been a reporter on the news desk since 2018. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining The Times Hub, Natasha Kumar worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my natasha@thetimeshub.in 1-800-268-7116