When my divorced, 45-year-old sister announced at Sunday dinner that she was six months pregnant, my mother sobbed, and my father ran for the \u201cgood champagne.\u201d Ten minutes later, I stood frozen in the hallway, watching her unzip her stomach and peel off a fake baby bump.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always been the observant one in our family. Some call it being nosy, but I prefer to think of it as having a highly tuned internal radar.<\/p>\n
So, when my sister started acting strangely, I noticed it almost immediately.<\/p>\n
Natalie is 45, divorced, has an amazing daughter, and is the steadiest, most consistent person I know.<\/p>\n
Or, at least, she was until about six months ago.<\/p>\n
It started with small things.<\/p>\n
We were at Mom\u2019s for dinner when Natalie pushed her wineglass away.<\/p>\n
Mom blinked, holding the bottle of merlot. \u201cSince when do you refuse wine?<\/p>\n
You said work was killing you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust trying to sleep better.\u201d Natalie flashed a smile that vanished as quickly as it appeared.<\/p>\n
I looked at her over my salad. Natalie loves her evening glass of red. Seeing her turn it down was like watching a fish decide it was tired of water.<\/p>\n
I tucked it away in my mental \u201cSomething is Weird\u201d file.<\/p>\n
A few weeks later, the file got thicker.<\/p>\n
I stopped by her house unannounced. I knocked, expecting a quick \u201cCome in!\u201d Instead, I heard frantic thumping.<\/p>\n
When she finally opened the door, her chest was heaving. Her hair looked like she\u2019d been caught in a gale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWere you napping?\u201d I asked, trying to peer past her.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d She stepped out onto the porch and pulled the door nearly shut. \u201cJust cleaning.<\/p>\n
Deep cleaning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind her, a heavy drawer slammed shut.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing. Want coffee?\u201d she offered, steering me back toward my car. \u201cLet\u2019s go out.<\/p>\n
My treat.\u201d<\/p>\n
My sister never suggests going out for coffee when her own kitchen is 20 feet away. I let her lead me away, but my brain was spinning. Was she hiding a guy?<\/p>\n
The mystery deepened at another Sunday dinner, where Natalie showed up in a bulky sweater.<\/p>\n
\u201cNatalie, honey, you look\u2026 different,\u201d Mom said.<\/p>\n
Dad peered through his bifocals.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou lose weight? Or gain it? Something is off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Natalie laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably just the lighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
She sat down with painstaking care, like her joints were made of glass. As she settled, I saw her hand instinctively brush her stomach.<\/p>\n
It was a fleeting gesture, but it was enough to cement my theory about her odd behavior.<\/p>\n
The story doesn\u2019t end here \u2014 it continues on the next page<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When my divorced, 45-year-old sister announced at Sunday dinner that she was six months pregnant, my mother sobbed, and my father ran for the \u201cgood champagne.\u201d Ten… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36273,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36271\/revisions\/36273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}