We met when I worked as a customer service representative at a private nursing home. She was a lonely person, slightly hunched over but always gentle and spoke with moderation. I was captivated by her deep eyes and the way she tended to each potted plant on the hospital balcony.

Love came gently but surely. She was 26 years older than me, but I never felt “lost”.
We registered our marriage despite strong opposition from my family. They called her “old as his mother”, “taking advantage”. But I ignored them all. I moved in with her in a small house, the two of us watered the plants in the morning, read books in the afternoon, and went for walks at night. Honestly, I have never felt so peaceful.

Three months ago, she started feeling tired, nauseous, and had back pain. I thought she was sick from old age, but one day she trembled and said:

– “Honey… I think… I’m pregnant.”

I laughed, thinking she was joking. But she pulled out a pregnancy test with two bright red lines.

I couldn’t believe it. But because I loved her, I still took her to a big hospital for a checkup.

Waiting for the ultrasound results, I held her hand, half nervous and half worried.
The doctor – a woman about 50 years old – came out, holding the ultrasound film, looked at us and said slowly:

– “My wife cannot get pregnant. Her uterus has almost completely atrophied and she has not been able to get pregnant for at least 10 years.”

I was stunned. She turned pale.
I turned to look at my wife, my heart in turmoil. She stammered:

– “No… it can’t be… Ms. Lan gave me a test strip… she told me to do it for fun…”

I asked again:

– “Which Lan?”

And that’s when the twist came.
Lan  – the new neighbor – often came to visit me. She was in her 40s, still single. I also felt that she had a strange look in her eyes towards me. But I never paid attention, because I only loved my wife.

That night, I went to ask Lan directly.
She did not deny it. She even…  calmly said :

– “I think it’s a waste for you to live with her. I just wanted to see if she thought you were pregnant, would you stay or leave her? Who would have thought she would believe it.”

I was so angry that I trembled, but I did not hit or scold her. I turned back and hugged my wife tightly.
She cried, not because she did not have children, but because she felt guilty for trusting an outsider more than her husband.

I wiped her tears and said softly:

– “I don’t need a child. I just need you. I didn’t choose you because I thought you would give me a child. But because you made me feel like a valuable, kind, and loved man.”

A year later , we adopted a baby girl who was abandoned outside the temple gate. I named her  Anh Duong , because she arrived on the first sunny day after a series of gloomy rainy days.

Me, my wife, and Anh Duong, continue to live a life that many people still gossip about. But I don’t need to explain. Because sometimes,  love doesn’t need to be reasonable, it just needs the right person.