“Yes, surrogacy.” I didn’t have enough saliva in my mouth to swallow easily. “Or anything else.”

I looked for answers in Amelia but just saw confusion and rigidity.

“I don’t even understand what surrogacy means,” Natalie said, swiveling on her chair.

Amelia furrowed her brow. I could tell she wasn’t in the mood for explanations.

“Well,” Fritz began tentatively, “a surrogate is a woman who helps people have a baby.”

“How?” Natalie asked.

“She carries the baby for someone who can’t,” he said.

“In her stomach?”

“Yes.”

“That’s weird,” Natalie said. “Like she’s a mom but she’s not a mom.”

“Shut up, Natalie!” Amelia said.

I couldn’t bear to hear Amelia speak harshly to her daughter. I walked over to where Natalie was seated and stood behind her protectively. Her frame looked so vulnerable from behind. I could practically feel Amelia’s words penetrating her.

“Delta, I need to understand.” Amelia’s hand wandered through her hair like a butterfly, without any real direction. “Are you offering to be a surrogate for our family?”

“I love your family so much.” Everything I wanted was in front of me, but I sensed that one mistake could undermine all of it.

Amelia held me by my forearms, her fingers covered in olive oil. “If you’re offering to be a surrogate for our family”—she looked into my eyes—“my answer is yes and my gratitude knows no bounds.”

A current of air lifted me up off the ground.

I didn’t respond to her. I feared that my voice would give away my excitement. If I were able to see myself in a mirror, I would have looked sixteen, the effects of gravity on my body having been reversed. I was weightless.

Tears fell from Amelia’s eyes. She spoke through her sobs. “But you can’t betray us, betray our trust. I can’t survive with this kind of pain again.”

“I don’t know.” Fritz frowned and looked down. “This … It feels like too much to ask.” His voice shook. He didn’t seem completely comfortable with the idea, but neither did he have the energy to challenge Amelia directly.

“We want you to be our surrogate,” Amelia sobbed, then bit her lip and swallowed. “Of course, we’d figure out a way to compensate you.”

“I wouldn’t accept money.”

“Some kind of compensation,” she said. “It wouldn’t be right otherwise.” I could hear underlying panic in her voice. It was the fear that I might say no. Or that I might say yes and then change my mind. Amelia was desperate and her desperation made her vulnerable.

“Money isn’t…”

“We would be eternally grateful,” Amelia said.

“Of course,” Fritz said, “we’d be grateful.”

“Why would Delta want to?” Natalie chewed on her nails.

I placed my hand on Natalie’s shoulder. “The joy of bringing a life into the world.”