The pregnancy changed everything and nothing at the same time.
Sterling became insufferably protective within approximately forty-eight hours of my announcement. Suddenly, every business trip required a detailed risk assessment. Every late night at the office resulted in a lecture about the effects of prenatal stress. He tried to ban me from board meetings because he'd read somewhere that “corporate tension” could be harmful to fetal development.
“You're being ridiculous,” I told him three weeks after breaking the news, when he suggested I should “delegate more responsibilities” to my senior staff.
“I'm being careful,” he countered, physically stepping between me and a stack of quarterly reports like they might explode. “You're carrying the future of this company.”
“I'm carrying our ch
