When the Ledger Clears

Autumn and Ethan were high school sweethearts who married after ten years together. On the night of their wedding anniversary, she throws a stack of photographs at his feet and learns he has been keeping Brenda, an older woman who runs a convenience store. Ethan admits it without apology and recites a tally of every sacrifice he claims to have made for her, calling it a ledger she must repay.

Unable to accept it, Autumn tracks Brenda down and offers her a bank card to leave New York. Brenda agrees to go, but days later news arrives that she was in a car crash and lost the baby she carried. Ethan neither mentions the loss nor asks for a divorce, and his coldness turns to violence at home.

When Autumn discovers she is pregnant and tells him, Ethan has her held down and settles the debt himself, leaving her to wake in a silent hospital room with her stomach hollow.