“What does it say?”

Two blue lines. It says two blue lines.

“I’m pregnant.”

Claire stared at the two blue lines on the white stick in her hand. The two lines that were known to change your life were changing hers. It was so odd; why should she be seeing them now? She’d wanted to see them so desperately when Yongguk was here. What did it mean now? It was his baby, there was no doubt about that. But he’d died a month ago. She was a pregnant widow on her own.

She looked up at Tasha. Her face was stern and her raging eyes burnt into Claire’s skull.

“You’re pregnant?” She hissed angrily. Claire was taken aback by her fury.

“Yes. Why are you angry with me?”

“You moved on quick, didn’t you?” Tasha was getting angrier and angrier by the second. “My brother, your husband, is DEAD, and you’re going round sleeping with other people? You…you…”

Claire’s mouth dropped open in shock. Tasha thought she’d had a one night stand?

“Tasha, what?!”

“You heard me.” Tasha threw her cup down with a loud crash on to the cold bathroom tiles. “I can’t believe you. All my respect for you has gone. I want you out of my house.”

“Tash!” Claire began to cry.

“Don’t ‘Tash’ me!” She yelled, quiet enough to not disturb Jake playing playfully in his room but with enough anger to make Claire’s body go weak.

“Tasha, it’s Yongguk’s baby!”

Tasha stopped. “What?”

“I’ve not slept with anyone else, how could you think that? There’s no way I could do that when I’m GRIEVING FOR MY HUSBAND. I haven’t noticed any signs before, but it was conceived before Yongguk died. There are no questions or other possibilities, I promise.”

Tasha didn’t say anything for a while; she just stared at Claire, then shook her head and covered her face with her hands.

“Claire…” She sobbed. Claire took her into her arms and she wept into her pyjamas. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I know you wouldn’t have done that, I can’t believe I accused you of it. I’m so, so sorry…”

“Shhh.” Claire rocked her like a baby. “It’s OK. I understand why you’d think that, usually you can tell quite soon afterwards the baby is conceived.”

“I should be the one cuddling you.” Tasha lifted her head up and gave a watery smile. “How do you feel? Are you happy?”

Claire shrugged, her eyes watering. “Guk and I, the night he died, decided that we’d start trying for a baby. We were both so excited. I’d been asking him for a while but he’d only said he was ready that night, and I couldn’t believe that we were going to have children running around soon. We’d be proper parents! With the big family car and the family planners so we wouldn’t forget their friends’ parties or piano lessons or parents’ evenings, and all the toys and mess everywhere that I could get stressed at and we’d argue about parent things like whose fault it was that the dentist appointments were forgotten…” The roles were reversed and Tasha wrapped her arms around Claire so she could cry. She didn’t ask any more questions; she just let Claire cry and gave her the opportunity to talk if she wanted.

“I am happy. It’s what I wanted.” Claire sniffled, getting to the hiccupy-stage of her cry. “But it’s what Yongguk wanted too. I’m going to have to raise his baby by myself.”

“I’m always going to be here for you, Claire.” Tasha kissed her head and brushed her hair with her fingers. “I’m going to help you whenever you need it and I’ll stay away when you don’t. This has all been so hard, and this won’t be easy either…but it’s happiness amongst all the sadness. Another little life.”

Claire nodded. “I know. I know.”

“I’ve got a lot of clothes that you can have that Jake has grown out of. If it’s a girl you can still have the babygrows!”

“He’d love to have a cousin, wouldn’t he?”

Tasha smiled. “He’d love it! He can have a real-life person to help look after instead of them blooming stuffed animals.” They both laughed.

“Right, are you ready to get dressed? I’ll make you an appointment at the hospital and we’ll try and go later today. Can I tell Frank?”

“Yes of course. But let’s keep it between us at the minute. It’s quite shocking news, I don’t know how people will react with it.”

“Neither do I. But it’ll be OK.” Claire rubbed her belly; only now she noticed a bump. A little bump; her little family.