Sylvia painted her nails a bright shade of red and blew on the fast-drying liquid as she sat in her office at work. The other auditors had taken over Leland’s case and she’d been in a holding pattern for days.

She hadn’t been able to eat that morning and her stomach still felt queasy. After letting her nails dry, she carefully typed into her keyboard to check her calendar. When she saw the pink P in the corner of the day’s date, she remembered her monthly cycle was due any moment. Maybe that was why she wasn’t feeling well.

She spent most of the rest of the day doing busy work she’d been assigned to fill the time. When it was almost time to go for the day, her boss walked into her office and sat down across from her desk. She raised her eyebrow at him and sat up straight.

“What can I do for you, Mr. Stands?” she asked.

“We’ve reached a conclusion on the Timber Bear Ranch case. And I want to include you before we move forward since you’ve been the company’s liaison.”

“Right,” Sylvia muttered, thinking of what bad news would do to Leland and his family.

“Hank Kincaid and the Timber Bear Ranch owe a combined total of one-point-one million dollars in various back debts. We have a good case for criminal charges. But I want to cut a bargain with these bears,” her boss said. “If we get a lump payment of half the total, we’ll let them go on a payment plan for the rest. That’s my final offer.”

“That’s reasonable,” Sylvia squeaked, knowing that the family didn’t have that kind of cash on hand. Even if they sold the herd and all of Buck and Jessie’s equipment, they’d still probably have to start parceling off land. Selling it fast would come at a loss and the family would suffer even further. “What kind of time frame are we talking about?”

“The end of the quarter,” her boss said.

“Who will inform the Kincaids?”

“I expected you to do it, Sylvia, you have such a personal touch in these cases.”

“Right,” she said again, tapping her nails on the desk. “Anything else?”

“Good work.”

“Thank you, sir,” she said as he turned to go.

She didn’t feel like she’d done a good job. She knew that she would be returning to Fate Mountain with the worst possible news. It would break Leland’s heart and tear apart the already fractured family. They could sell off everything and get by after starting over, but she knew no one wanted that. Gathering her things, she started to the door, feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders. On the way down the hall, she felt a twinge of pain in her belly. She reminded herself she needed to stop at the drugstore on the way home.

Down in the basement parking lot, Sylvia climbed into her car and started down the street toward the drugstore. When she stopped in the lot outside, a thought passed through her mind. Could she be…? Her period hadn’t come yet. She just felt crappy. She thought back through the days since she’d first come to Fate Mountain and realized it had been just about two weeks since she and Leland had that fateful night in her hotel room.

“Oh my God,” Sylvia muttered, realizing her mistake.

She entered the drugstore, greeted by a wall of fragrance and noise, grabbing a blue basket from the stack. She started down the aisle, her nude pumps clicking on the highly-polished linoleum. She passed the makeup aisle and grabbed a new shade of rose blush to match a dress she’d just bought for spring. When she entered the feminine product aisle, she threw her usual things into the basket. At the end of the aisle across from the diapers were the pregnancy tests.

She picked one up and read the label before dropping it into the basket. She strode to the counter nervously, not sure if she wanted to go through with buying the test. She wasn’t even a day late.

The woman at the counter rang her up and made pleasant conversation as thoughts ran through Sylvia’s mind. Did she even want a baby? Of course she did. She’d wanted to settle down and start a family since her father died. But the idea of starting things this way made her heart sink. The checkout lady put her things in a plastic bag and handed them to her with the receipt.

Outside, Sylvia felt the chill evening air blow over her skin. She hadn’t heard from Leland in days. He’d had to travel all the way up the mountain to talk to his brother and then travel all the way back down. In the meantime, he couldn’t be contacted. What would she do if this test came out positive?

When she got home, she picked up Charlie and gave the big orange furball a snuggle, then headed into the kitchen to make dinner. After throwing together some pasta and salad, she sat at the dining room table and ate her meal while reading a book. When she was done, she decided to take a bath and spend the rest of the night watching Netflix in bed.

Soon, she’d head back to Fate Mountain to tell Leland the bad news, and it was going to require every ounce of her strength.

After her bath, she dried her hair and put on her fuzzy flannel PJs before snuggling under her fluffy white comforter. She watched a fun romantic comedy and drifted to sleep soon after turning off the TV.

In the morning, she passed the bundle of things from the drugstore the day before. She picked up the pregnancy test and read the instructions.

She took it into the bathroom and did what it said to do. She capped the test and set it on the side of the bathtub. As she stood across the room, she felt ridiculous for even taking it. She’d get her cycle any moment, she knew it. She’d been like clockwork since she was thirteen.

As the liquid washed across the windows, the pink test line appeared. The liquid moved into the second window and Sylvia fully expected it to remain empty. She stared in disbelief as the faint pink line appeared and quickly darkened as the liquid finished its path.

“No way,” Sylvia said, sinking to her knees to inspect the lines. “This can’t be happening.”

She held the test in her hands and leaned against the side of the tub, her bottom padded by the fluffy bathmat.

“Leland is going to hate me for taking his ranch. He’ll never want to be the father of my baby.”

A tear slipped down her cheek. She took a deep shuddering breath. She couldn’t think so negatively. Leland loved her, didn’t he? He’d shown her nothing but devotion. How could she question his love at a time like this? But it wasn’t his love that she questioned. Not really. She questioned her ability to look him in the eye every day for the rest of his life after doing what she was about to do to him.

She knew the Kincaids could not afford the bill she was bringing them. She’d seen the ranch. She’d assessed their assets. She knew they didn’t have enough.

The tears came on full throttle after that. Sylvia sat on the bathroom floor with the pregnancy test clutched in her hands and her knees tucked against her chest. What was she to do?

The only thing a strong woman like her could do. Get up, get dressed, go to Fate Mountain and tell her man the truth. She let out a deep breath and stood to turn on the shower. After a minute, she peeled out of her PJs and climbed into the warm spray. The shower felt great and by the time she got out, she was feeling a lot more confident. Even if her stomach was giving her rolling nausea.

Was morning sickness supposed to come on so soon? She managed to get dried and dressed without throwing up, and ate some buttered toast and green tea before packing up her things to go back to Fate Mountain.

She had all the documents Leland had to sign tucked in her briefcase. As she packed her things, she considered how she was going to break it to him. She had no idea what to say. But she decided finally that being straightforward was the best way to go about it. On the way out to the car, a text message came in on her phone from Leland.

“Just got back to the house. Will call soon.”

Sylvia threw her things in the car and climbed in the driver’s seat. She didn’t want to talk to him until she got there. There was too much to say and she needed to say it all in person. She texted him back.

“On my way to Fate Mountain now. I’ll call when I’m close.”

“Great!” His text came back.

She let out a sigh and started the car. On her way up the mountain, all she could think was that she had Leland’s baby inside her.

Her heart flipped in her chest as she stopped at a stoplight on her way into Fate Mountain Village. She continued up the highway and turned off onto the road leading to Timber Bear Ranch, dreading that she would have to give Leland the best and worst news of his life on the same day.