My Sister Announced Her Pregnancy at Sunday Dinner – Ten Minutes Later, I Saw Her Secretly Unzip Her Fake Baby Bump

When Dad poured the champagne, Natalie lifted her water instead.

“For the baby,” she said softly.

As we toasted, I noticed a small detail.

Her hand wasn’t resting gently on her stomach like a woman cradling new life. She was pressing down on it. Like she was holding something in place that wanted to slip.

Minutes later, she excused herself. “My back’s killing me. I need to lie down.”

We watched her go.

As we toasted, I noticed a small detail.

Mom and Dad chattered excitedly about who they would call first with the news, but I felt a dull throb behind my eyes.

Natalie’s story confirmed my suspicion that she’d been seeing someone, but why was she hiding him from her family? Why announce that she was pregnant when she hadn’t even introduced her new man?

It didn’t add up, and I was giving myself a headache trying to figure it out.

“I’m going to grab some aspirin,” I told my parents.

I headed upstairs.

I was giving myself a headache trying to figure it out.

I wasn’t intending to snoop, I swear, but as I passed Natalie’s old bedroom, the door was cracked open an inch.

I peeked in to check on her.

In the mirror, I saw her reflection. She wasn’t lying down. She was standing by the bed, and she wasn’t cradling her belly.

She was unzipping it.

I stood there, rooted to the floorboards, watching my sister peel off a silicone baby bump.

I peeked in to check on her.

She dropped it onto the bed like a piece of heavy luggage. Underneath, she was as flat-stomached as she had been at Christmas.

What in the world? I pushed the door open. “What are you doing?”

She spun around, and her face lost every drop of color.

Downstairs, I heard Mom on the phone with my aunt, telling her Nat was pregnant.

“Natalie, you…” I pointed to the fake pregnancy belly, “… you lied to Mom and Dad, and me. You—”

She rushed to the door and clicked the lock. “Please keep it down!”

She was as flat-stomached as she had been at Christmas.

“Why? Why would you fake this?”

Her eyes widened in pure terror.

“I’m not doing this for me,” she said, grabbing my wrists. “If they find out the truth, it won’t just ruin me. It will destroy this family.”

“By not being pregnant?” I asked, pulling free.

She shook her head hard. “By letting them know what really happened.”

I folded my arms. “Then tell me. Right now.”

“Why would you fake this?”

She stared at the silicone bump lying on the bed. “I’m not pregnant, but Emma is.”

“Emma?” I repeated. “Our Emma? She’s 18!”

Natalie nodded. “She’s supposed to start at State in August. She’s got the scholarship, the dorm, everything. She and her boyfriend were being careful, but things happen. Emma wants to keep the baby. And she still wants college.”

“So you decided to strap on a silicone belly and lie? Why would you do that?”

She stared at the silicone bump lying on the bed.

She made a small, broken sound. “You know how Mom and Dad are. I don’t want anyone to look at Emma differently. If I have a ‘surprise’ late-in-life baby, people will just shrug. Emma stays clean. She gets her life.”

“How long were you planning to keep this up?”

“Until she gives birth. She’d stay close for the first semester to ‘help’ me. No one would question it.”

“And ten years from now?” I asked.

Her chin trembled. “We’d figure it out.”

“You know how Mom and Dad are.”