Page 86 of By the Letter

Clara stuck her head in my room. “Are you ready for lunch, or do you need to rest?”

I hopped up from my bed, pressing my hands together. “Lunch. These days, I’m never too tired to eat.”

“Then let’s go get you and that baby fed.”

After a huge lunch, we headed over for our first round of spa treatments at the Sky View Resort. Pedicures came first, though it was hard to call the extensive massaging, masks, and scrubsthe same as what we got at the little salon we regularly went to back home.

Once our feet were baby soft, we parted for facials.

My skin was brand new by the time I made it back to the locker room to get redressed. Bea and Clara were spending time in the sauna, so I planned to go sit in the resort’s lobby next to the massive, crackling fireplace.

I was pulling on my leggings when someone gasped nearby. I turned and found myself face to face with Francesca in a robe matching the one I’d just discarded. She wasn’t looking at me, though. At least, not my face. Her focus was on my belly, which was bare since I hadn’t yet put on my shirt.

“You’re pregnant.”

My hand went to my bump instinctively. “Hi, Francesca.”

“You’rereallypregnant,” she repeated, then lowered herself to the bench behind her. Once she did, I grabbed my shirt, yanked it over my head, then sat down on the bench a few feet away.

“How are you?” I asked.

Finally, she tore her eyes from my belly to look at my face. “I’m…shocked. Are you remarried?”

“No. This was a surprise. A happy one, though.”

“I expect so.” She blinked a few times, bringing her hand to her chest. “My father didn’t want more children.”

“No.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “No, he didn’t, and I was okay with that. Life changes, though.”

She rubbed her lips together. “Is the father involved?”

“Yes. He’s excited to have a child.”

I’d let Francesca walk all over me, for Frank’s sake. He had loved his daughter very much and made it his mission to shield her from strife and the world’s capacity for ugliness. He did this out of guilt for putting her through her parents’ volatile marriage and subsequent divorce but also because he simply felt it was his job to give her an easy-breezy life.

The days of doing that were over now. Francesca and I had no more reasons to exist in the same sphere. She didn’t get to know about Roman and Beanie. They were mine, and I was keeping them to myself.

“Good. That’s good.” She waved her hand near her face and pushed out a humorless laugh. “Pardon me. I’m flustered. I didn’t expect to see you here, let alone hugely pregnant.”

I pretended to flinch. “No one wants to be called huge.”

“Oh, right. I just meant you’re really big.”

I barked out a laugh. “That isn’t better.”

She gestured to my belly with both hands. “Well, you are. I mean, you’re normally so tiny. It’s disconcerting to see you with big boobs and round cheeks and that belly. It’s not a bad thing, just…”

“Disconcerting.” I laughed. “I understand. Sometimes I shock myself when I look in the mirror.”

Huffing, she rolled her eyes. “My god, Shira. How can you be so nice?”

“I’m not being—”

She cut me off. “I always assumed it was fake, but since leaving GoldMed, I’ve had far too much time to think and came to realize I convinced myself of that because it made disliking you easier.”

This wasn’t what I expected to hear from her.

“Why did you need to dislike me?” I asked, out of curiosity more than anything.

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