I slept uneasy that night. And the day after that, and the next. The doctor had scheduled another visit in a week’s time, but that wasn’t what was causing me sleepless nights.

A part of me was thrilled by how easily Jacob protected the baby, by how nothing the doctor said mattered to him. A part of me was warmed by how he already loved this child so much.

But another part of me was devastated. I had realized, in that office, something that I had been pushing ...