Later, while clearing the table, I cornered her.
“What’s new in your love life, Nat? Are you seeing someone?”
But she didn’t hold my gaze. She looked at the stacks of dirty plates instead.
Now, I’m no detective, but I know when my sister is lying.
Then came the big Sunday roast when everything came out into the open.
The table was crowded with mashed potatoes, green beans, and Dad carving meat like it was a sacred ceremony.
It was supposed to be a big family meal, but Natalie showed up alone.
“Where’s Emma?” I asked when she walked into the dining room.
“She’s with her father.” She frowned as she took her seat.
“I told you all she’d be spending a few months with him after graduation…”
“I don’t remember that,” Mom said.
I leaned back in my seat. It was all coming together now: with Emma away from home, my sister had started dating some guy she was trying to hide from us. But why?
Natalie barely touched her plate.
Mom was the first to remark on it.
“You’re hardly eating, and you’re pale, sweetheart. Coming down with the flu?”
“I’m fine,” Natalie said, though she looked gray around the edges.
Dad started pouring the wine. When he got to Natalie, she covered her glass with her hand.
Dad raised an eyebrow. “Are you on medication? You’ve been acting like a nun lately.”
Natalie stood abruptly.
“Actually, there’s something I need to tell all of you.”
We all waited. Natalie took a deep breath. She pressed both hands to her stomach, flattening her bulky sweater.
The fabric pulled tight, revealing a very clear, round baby bump.
“I’m six months pregnant,” she announced.
My jaw dropped.
“Oh my Lord,” Mom whispered. Her face crumpled, and the waterworks began.
Dad stared at Natalie like she had grown a second head. “Six months?”
Natalie nodded.
“I didn’t tell anyone earlier because I wanted to be sure. At my age, I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”
Dad looked like he’d won the lottery. “We’re opening the good champagne!”
He practically ran to the basement.
Mom circled the table and pulled Natalie into a massive hug. “This is a miracle.”
Natalie hugged her back, but over Mom’s shoulder, I saw her face.
She didn’t look like a woman basking in a miracle.
She looked absolutely haunted.
Dad came back holding the dusty bottle. “Another grandchild! After all these years.”
Mom was already planning the nursery.
Natalie sank back into her chair, looking exhausted. She gripped her cloth napkin so hard her knuckles turned the color of chalk.
I had a thousand questions. Who was the father?
Why the secrecy? But the hollow look in her eyes stopped me from pressing her for answers right then.
When Dad poured the champagne, Natalie lifted her water instead.
“For the baby,” she said softly.
As we toasted, I noticed a small detail.
Her hand wasn’t resting gently on her stomach like a woman cradling new life.
She was pressing down on it. Like she was holding something in place that wanted to slip.
Minutes later, she excused herself. “My back’s killing me.
I need to lie down.”
We watched her go.
Mom and Dad chattered excitedly about who they would call first with the news, but I felt a dull throb behind my eyes.
Natalie’s story confirmed my suspicion that she’d been seeing someone, but why was she hiding him from her family?
Why announce that she was pregnant when she hadn’t even introduced her new man?
It didn’t add up, and I was giving myself a headache trying to figure it out.
“I’m going to grab some aspirin,” I told my parents.
I headed upstairs.
I wasn’t intending to snoop, I swear, but as I passed Natalie’s old bedroom, the door was cracked open an inch.
I peeked in to check on her.
In the mirror, I saw her reflection.
She wasn’t lying down. She was standing by the bed, and she wasn’t cradling her belly.
She was unzipping it.
I stood there, rooted to the floorboards, watching my sister peel off a silicone baby bump.
She dropped it onto the bed like a piece of heavy luggage.
Underneath, she was as flat-stomached as she had been at Christmas.
What in the world? I pushed the door open. “What are you doing?”
She spun around, and her face lost every drop of color.
Downstairs, I heard Mom on the phone with my aunt, telling her Nat was pregnant.
“Natalie, you…” I pointed to the fake pregnancy belly, “… you lied to Mom and Dad, and me. You—”
She rushed to the door and clicked the lock.
“Please keep it down!”
“Why? Why would you fake this?”
Her eyes widened in pure terror.
“I’m not doing this for me,” she said, grabbing my wrists. “If they find out the truth, it won’t just ruin me.
It will destroy this family.”
“By not being pregnant?” I asked, pulling free.
She shook her head hard. “By letting them know what really happened.”
I folded my arms. “Then tell me.
Right now.”
She stared at the silicone bump lying on the bed. “I’m not pregnant, but Emma is.”
“Emma?” I repeated. “Our Emma?
She’s 18!”
Natalie nodded. “She’s supposed to start at State in August. She’s got the scholarship, the dorm, everything.
She and her boyfriend were being careful, but things happen. Emma wants to keep the baby. And she still wants college.”
“So you decided to strap on a silicone belly and lie?
Why would you do that?”
She made a small, broken sound. “You know how Mom and Dad are. I don’t want anyone to look at Emma differently.
If I have a ‘surprise’ late-in-life baby, people will just shrug. Emma stays clean. She gets her life.”
“Until she gives birth.
She’d stay close for the first semester to ‘help’ me. No one would question it.”
“And ten years from now?” I asked.
Her chin trembled. “We’d figure it out.”
I stared at her.
I saw the desperation of a mother who would set herself on fire to keep her child warm. But love shouldn’t look like this.
“I can if the lie protects her.
My daughter has her whole life ahead of her. So does the baby. This is the only way.”
“Natalie,” I said carefully.
“If we hide this, we’re telling her she is something to hide. Is that what you want for Emma?”
Her face was wet with tears. “I just want to make this easier for her.”
“Maybe easier isn’t the same as better.
Let’s tell them.”
She jerked her head up. “Now?”
She looked at the fake bump, then back at me. “I can’t do it alone.”
“You don’t have to.”
We walked down the stairs together and found our parents in the kitchen.
“Natalie! I just got off the phone with your cousin…” Mom trailed off. “What’s wrong?
You look awful.”
Natalie’s voice came out thin. “We need to talk. I’m not pregnant.
I lied because… because Emma is the one who’s expecting.”
Dad went pale. Mom sat down hard in her chair.
“Not our Emma?” Dad said slowly.
Natalie nodded.
“She’ll still go to college, but she wants to keep the baby. This was the solution I came up with. To prevent anyone from seeing her differently.”
Mom and Dad exchanged a glance.
“We raised you better than this,” Dad said.
Natalie flinched, bowing her head. “She and her boyfriend—”
“I’m still talking!” Dad cut her off. “How could you think for even a second that our love is conditional?”
Natalie looked up, shocked.
“We wish this had happened differently,” Dad said.
“But she’s our granddaughter. We don’t discard family because the timing is off.”
“And that baby will be ours too,” Mom added, reaching out. “A blessing, Natalie.
No matter how it arrives.”
Natalie buried her face in her hands. “I really thought I was protecting her.”
Dad nodded. “No more pretending.
If people ask, we tell the truth. She graduated, she’s starting college, and she’s having a baby. That’s the story.”
“I’ll have to call everyone back.” Mom sighed.
Mom took Natalie’s hand.
“You were doing what you thought was best for your child. You were misguided, but your heart was in the right place.”
Natalie and I left a short while later. As the front door shut behind us, she let out a heavy sigh.
“Thank you for being there for me tonight.”
Nat shook her head.
“She’ll see that no one is hiding her. She shouldn’t have to keep secrets from family.”
That night, we stopped worrying about what people would say and put Emma first.
And that made all the difference.
If you could give one piece of advice to anyone in this story, what would it be?
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