The Cover Age, Chapter 20

Clive and Georgia fall in love. They get married, they have a baby. They name her Cover Lockwood. Cover’s early years are magical. Watching her learn is the best thing that ever happened to either of them. Clive didn’t really think of himself as a baby person before Cover, which he keeps telling Georgia, every time she flips, every time she randomly falls asleep, every time she eats...Georgia wonders why all this is so important to him, after a while. She watches him sing to the baby, rock her, carry her...

The years advance. Cover turns one, she turns two, she turns three. She learns to walk, to talk, to feed herself. Clive’s bond with her remains strong. Georgia sees something else, though, a desperation, a yearning, Clive being pulled in two directions. Part of him wants his old life back. Georgia watches this and worries about the future.

Meanwhile, she sees Clive drifting away from her. The more he dotes over Cover, the less he dotes on her. It hurts. She feels like she’s being replaced. A part of her knows this is wrong, that she is not in competition with her own daughter...

The years progress, and the divide widens with them.

In some ways, Georgia wishes she had been strong enough to end it when Cover was a baby. She saw a lot of that, with the other moms at daycare. Georgia tries remembering who she was before Clive, but giving birth to Cover put a fog over everything...Is it just the depression every mom feels after pregnancy? She keeps asking herself that.

One day, watching Clive be reckless with Cover, Georgia snaps. She snatches Cover into her arms and leaves. She doesn’t take anything with her. She doesn’t have a plan. She replays every argument she ever had with Clive. This feels like the right thing to do.

And just like that, their marriage ends.