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From the New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, loss and redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chakrabardi.

Every relationship is new and unblemished at some point,

but inevitable challenges that couples face change all that.

Sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse.

Or maybe those challenges result in something in between.

Cassie Underwood's experience is firmly planted in that in-between territory.

Betty Gilpin, star of the Netflix series Glow, reads Cassie's essay,

a lost child, but not mine.

On the third anniversary of my abortion,

I found out via my space that my ex-boyfriend was having a baby with another woman.

It was none of my business, except I somehow convinced myself that his new baby was a replica of ours.

And as such, I felt a sense of ownership, of responsibility for the child's well-being.

My college roommate in Vermont had introduced us.

He was road weary that first night,

having just driven up from a concert in Kentucky, my home state.

He was 20, a ski lift operator, a community college student.

I was a blonde, episcopal bread, 19-year-old studying literature and costume design.

Early on, he told me he was on probation for drug-related offenses,

which was forcing him to remain clean and sober.

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