Viola sat there, processing the news of her pregnancy with such difficulty that she began to feel like an imposter for not clapping and beaming with joy, the way it seemed she was expected to feel, knowing she would be a mother. Surely every woman would be overjoyed, right? So why was she so terrified, stuck in this unreal state of mind, as though this moment were nothing but a dream she would soon wake up from?
Doctor Gilbert had given her a moment to process the news and gone back to his desk, and Viola was grateful to be alone in her corner for the time being. She slowly looked down at her flat belly without blinking, unable to believe there was a child growing inside her.
It was shocking, because she had once been a woman who didn't care so much about children, and had made very elaborate plans that if she ever had a child, she wouldn't raise it herself at all, she would hand it off to a nanny for all the trouble and chaos she believed came with having one.
