Then one Saturday afternoon she arrived at my house with her husband, Ronald Caldwell.

Ronald carried a decorated pastry box.

Samantha carried a leather handbag and a face that told me nobody had come for cake.

“You look exhausted,” she said.

“I have looked exhausted since approximately 1998.”

That made Ronald smile.

Not Samantha.

We sat.

I poured iced tea.

Then Ronald said:

“We came to ask you something that could change our lives.”

Samantha started crying before he finished.

Their fertility specialist had told them that another pregnancy would carry serious risks for her and that their previous attempts had failed.

They still had frozen embryos created using Samantha’s eggs and Ronald’s sperm.