“Oh, they are so cute,” a woman squealed.

“What are their names again?” another asked, peering at the pictures.

“Amanda and Michael,” Delilah responded, grinning proudly. “Mikey has his dad’s eyes.”

“And Amanda is such an adorable little girl!”

Delilah looked over at Ophelia, who was walking past. “Ms. Foley-Cloud?” she called out. “Hey, you want to see the new pictures of my kids?”

Ophelia smiled politely and quickly shook her head. “Later,” she responded, not stopping or slowing her step. “Have urgent business to attend to.”

The designers watched Ophelia hurry off to her office. After she was out of hearing range, one of them remarked, “She’s been so irritable lately.”

“Seriously,” one of her peers agreed. “If I didn’t know she was… well, y’know… I’d think maybe she was pregnant.”

“PMS, maybe?” another suggested, smirking.

Delilah frowned. “Hey, that’s not cool,” she said, shaking her head. “She’s probably just stressed or has a lot on her mind. It can’t be easy being responsible for so much.”


Ophelia smiled wearily at her younger brother and his girlfriend. “Hey, Nathaniel. Emma, how are things?”

“Things are great,” Emma replied, beaming.

Ophelia sighed and eased herself into her seat. “So, what’s going on?” she asked. “Nathaniel, you said you had big news for me.”


Nathaniel squeezed Emma’s hand and smiled affectionately at her. Emma took a deep breath and announced, “I’m pregnant. About three months along.”

“We wanted to wait until we were sure,” Nathaniel added.

“Mom’s totally peeved at me. She was ticked enough when Tiff got knocked up and had to marry AJ. Guess she didn’t expect her golden child to go this way,” Emma laughed. “Sucks for Mom.”

“Meanwhile, our mom is totally excited to have her first grandchild,” Nathaniel said, grinning.


Ophelia smiled and shifted awkwardly. “Well… congratulations,” she stammered out. She rose and added, “Excuse me a moment.”

“Sure,” Nathaniel responded.

Ophelia hurried out of the office and down the hall to the restroom. She hurried into the nearest available stall and locked the door behind her. She sank down onto the toilet, lowered her head into her hands, and began to sob.