the business in their hands. They were both far more knowledgeable than she was anyway, and she had contributed very little to the business in recent years. And Joe had the business end of it in full control. They no longer needed her, except to care for their child.
Maribelle offered to move in with them and take care of the baby. Olivia was overjoyed at the idea. She knew the baby would be in good hands, and she and Joe could go on working full time. And Joe was insistent that he would do everything he could to help, so that Olivia would be free to work. It was the perfect solution and made having a baby sooner than they planned far less upsetting for her. And Maribelle was thrilled. Taking care of their baby seemed like much more fun to her than working at the store. She’d been doing that for years, and it had outgrown her by leaps and bounds, thanks to Olivia and Joe.
As far as Olivia was concerned, this was no time for her to stay home. The changes she wanted to implement were crucial to the business and couldn’t wait.
She worked right up until the last day of her pregnancy, and she and Joe were going over accounts and inventory in the office late at night when her water broke. And for a moment, Olivia was scared. It was happening. It was real. He reassured her immediately, calmed her down, called her mother and the doctor, and drove her to the hospital. He hated to leave her, but they wouldn’t let him attend the birth. Instead, he sat in the waiting room for twelve hours, while Maribelle came to see him from time to time, to let him know how things were going. She said that first babies were always slow, but Olivia was doing well. He was worried sick about her, and hoped it wouldn’t be too hard for her. He was deeply in love with her by then, and excited about their firstborn.
And for Olivia, it was rougher than she’d planned or known it would be. She would have been even more frightened than she’d already been, if she had known how painful it would be. Phillip weighed just over nine pounds, and she looked exhausted and in pain when Joe saw her at last, moments after the birth. He had never loved her more, and their baby was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. They had both cried when they saw him and Joe held the baby for the first time. It seemed like a miracle to him, but to her, it was the hardest thing she’d ever done. But by the next day, she had begun recovering and thought the baby was very sweet. She nursed him for the first few days, and then they switched him to a bottle, so Maribelle would be able to feed him at night. Joe didn’t want Olivia exhausted, and from what he could tell, she had been through enough of an ordeal, and he treated Olivia like hand-blown glass when he took her and the baby home after a week. She insisted that she was feeling fine by then. She was twenty-three years old, and both she and the baby were healthy and strong.
Maribelle got Phillip on a schedule immediately, never let him out of her arms, and fussed over him constantly. And the moment she set him down, his doting father picked him up. Olivia had barely had time to bond with him, when she went back to The Factory in another week. She worked half days until Phillip was a month old, and then she went back full time. Joe thought it was a little soon, and he wanted her to regain her strength, but he knew how anxious she was to be in the store, and he didn’t have the heart to object. He shortened his own days to go home to their son, allegedly to give Maribelle a break, but in truth because he wanted to be with Phillip himself.
Phillip was a happy, easy baby, with a father and grandmother who doted on him and catered to his every need and whim. And when Olivia came home at night, she took turns with them holding him. She still couldn’t believe that she and Joe had a baby. He felt like someone else’s to her, but by the time he was six months old, Phillip’s face lit up every time