Her body had suddenly begun growing unusually thick hair too.
People in the small community where she lived had whispered about her, frightened her, and convinced her that something terrible was happening to the child she carried.
“What happened to Grandma?” Nia asked.
“She gave birth,” her mother replied. “And afterward, most of it eventually disappeared.”
It should have reassured Nia.
Instead, she noticed that her mother still looked afraid.
Two weeks later, Nia went alone to a routine ultrasound because Marcus couldn’t leave work.
The appointment began normally. The technician chatted with her about baby names while moving the probe across her large stomach, and Nia smiled when she saw the baby moving on the screen.
Then the technician suddenly became quiet.
She kept returning to the same area on the left side of Nia’s abdomen. Her cheerful expression disappeared as she enlarged part of the image and studied it for several seconds.
