She had secured a new job at a local bank. Kelly’s mother had suggested she apply. The woman had put in a good word for her. But when the boss said he was ordering pizza for the office Christmas party, Melissa made a snarky comment that led to a full-on argument. She told him it was a stupid choice and that anyone with half a brain wouldn’t do such a thing.

“Who orders pizza at a Christmas party? Deep dish and candy canes don’t go together. Makes me sick thinking about it.”

She regretted saying that almost as soon as it left her mouth and she could tell by the looks on her coworkers’ faces that she had crossed a line. Her boss had ended the argument by leaving the room but called her into his office and told her she could leave early that day.

“I don’t need to leave early.”

“Yes, you do. I want you to go home and think about whether you want to work here,” he said with a stern face. “We operate as a team and you need to decide if you’re on it.”

She picked up her purse from the desk and saw the calendar underneath. When she glanced at it, she realized she was only two weeks away from David’s birthday, and a flood of emotion hit her. Her eyes blurred and her boss asked her what was going on. No wonder she was on edge. But there was no way she could tell her boss or anyone else. She had to keep the secret.

On the drive home all she could think about was how different things would have been if she had kept David. And she would have kept him if it weren’t for Brian. A gloom came over her that only increased as she saw all the lights and tinsel and happy families with smiling children and the TV shows where every problem was solved in half an hour. Why didn’t any of her problems get solved that way?

She stopped at a big-box store near her house for paper plates and a rotisserie chicken for dinner but she got sidetracked by the toy aisle, imagining what she would give her son on his first birthday and how she would separate his birthday from Christmas morning. All the brightly colored toys brought back the truth of what she didn’t have.

When she arrived at the apartment and checked their mailbox, she saw a small brown envelope and knew what was inside. With David’s birthday approaching, this would be the last letter from the Coltons.

She hurried to the living room, opened the note, and found a picture of Susan and David at a Louisiana lake. David had grown so much. Susan was holding him with one arm and with the other she held up a huge catfish. That made Melissa smile.