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It has come to our attention that you have violated the state-mandated rules that ensure all attorneys in the State of Massachusetts uphold their commitment to law and morality above all things.
We have decided to suspend your license to practice law for the time being. This is subject to reassessment after a period of twelve months.
Regards,
Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers
Amanda gasped and dropped her phone just as another contraction swelled over her belly and across her lower back. The agony and confusion created a perfect storm. When the contraction subsided, she burst into tears and scrunched her face.
“Honey! It’s okay!” Susan cried. She wrapped her arms around Amanda and cradled her hair. “I know you’re scared, but you’re healthy. The baby’s healthy. And everyone you love is right here.”
All Amanda could think about right now was the tremendous amount of energy, time, and worry she’d spent on the law. She’d worked tirelessly through undergrad to follow in her parents’ footsteps. The admittance to Rutgers Law School had fit securely within the story she was telling herself, one in which her ex-fiancé and Amanda got married, had babies, and worked as a criminal justice lawyer in Newark.
Last year, she’d begun taking her own clients. Everything had gone smoothly. Almost everything.
“It’s not that,” Amanda gasped. “I mean, it is. I’m terrified of labor and delivery and all the pain that’s coming. Don’t get me wrong.” She dried her face with the bedsheet. Was she too embarrassed to show Susan the email? Was it proof Amanda wasn’t good enough to work at her mother’s law firm?
“Just look,” Amanda said, handing her mother the phone.
Susan read the email. Her face echoed confusion, then surprise, then shock, then anger. She glowered.
“It’s that kid, isn’t it?” Susan spat.
Amanda filled her lungs and held her breath. She felt another contraction around the corner and gripped the bedsheets to brace herself.
“His parents,” Susan said. “Those uber-rich, old-moneyed Nantucketers. They were always so keen to brag that they knew the governor. That he came over for dinner sometimes.” Susan’s face was blood red. She burst to her feet, still clutching Amanda’s phone. “They can’t get away with this,” she said. “They are entirely outside the law, asking the governor to pull strings like this. They’re playing this like mobsters.”
Sam returned with a cup of coffee and a bag of croissants. Sensing the shift in mood, he stalled in the doorway and blinked at Susan, then Amanda with confusion. A contraction wrapped around Amanda’s back and made her feel genuinely possessed by a demon for the span of it. She felt the baby clambering for light. She wanted to tell the baby, “Not now. I have so much to deal with.”
“What did I miss?” Sam asked after the contraction faded.
“Nothing,” Amanda said, not wanting to get into it. “Mom’s just trying to distract me.”
Susan looked grim. Her chin quivered.
Amanda had read numerous books written by and for working mothers about how to juggle their professional careers with motherhood. How to ensure you don’t get left behind in the workforce when you have a baby. How to maintain emotional connections with your children when you can’t always be there. “Women can have it all in 2024,” an essay said, “but just not everything at the same time. It takes balance. Organization.” And that was something Amanda knew about herself. Generally, she was organized and didn’t make mistakes.
But this situation was much bigger than her. And she had no idea if her career would survive.
Chapter Two
Wes Sheridan was back in his element. Dressed in a suit jacket and a button-down with a pair of corduroy pants, he manned the front desk of the Sunrise Cove Inn, greeting guests, giving advice, and smiling till his cheeks hurt. It wasn’t often that Sam asked him to take over. But today was different. Today, Wes would have a brand-new great-grandbaby.
Wes wasn’t afraid to announce that to anyone who cared to listen. “My granddaughter is at the hospital right now,” he sang. “They’re going to text me as soon as it happens. But you know how these things go. It could be tomorrow till the baby’s here.”
One of the guests, Frank Halibut, had been coming to the Sunrise Cove Inn nearly every April since Wes could remember. Anna used to call him “Frank Fish,” which made Frank wallop with laughter. These were the memories of Anna that Wes liked the most. The silly, innocuous ones. The ones that reminded him why he’d fallen in love with her in the first place before everything had crumbled.
Frank came downstairs around four to rap his knuckles on the counter and say hello.
“There he is! Frank Fish,” Wes said. “How is your trip so far?”
“You know I can’t get enough of this place,” Frank said. “It’s heaven on earth.”
“I always tell you the same thing. Move here. You’d be welcome.”
Frank blushed. Like Wes, he’d lost his wife many years ago. Also, like Wes, he had a tremendously large family back in Providence, grandchildren and great-grandchildren he doted on. He couldn’t leave them for good.
But instead of no, Frank just said, “Maybe one of these days.”
