My husband was constantly visiting our surrogate mother to make sure she was okay. I hid a tape recorder, and what I heard ended our marriage.

Then I took the recorder out of his jacket pocket, went to the bathroom, locked the door, and sat down on the cold tiled floor.

I pressed play.

At first, there was only the sound of a door opening, followed by Claire’s warm and familiar voice.

“Great! You did it!”

Then Ethan spoke.

“I brought the vitamins you wanted.”

I exhaled slowly.

Maybe I’d been imagining things. Maybe I was just paranoid. Maybe I was going crazy.

Then Claire said something that made me stiff.

“Are you sure your wife agrees with all of this?”

Ethan’s answer left me speechless.

I stayed there, on the bathroom floor, with one hand covering my mouth, listening to the rest of the recording.

By the time it was over, I understood exactly what Ethan was doing every time he said he was “watching the baby,” why he had been collecting all those folders, and what he planned to do after the baby was born.

I thought I’d never see it coming.