Dawnlark Plains Don't Accept the Truth

As Reek grinned, so did Sofi. They shared wide smiles, and though silly, they were genuine. Though she felt a tug of jealousy in her heart, she was truly happy for him and his good fortunes. Experience told her it would not last forever.

"That sounds great; amazing really," she said. She remembered when she and Mikhail were trying to get pregnant. The wait was well worth it. The pups brought more joy than she could have ever imagined to their lives. Like all things, the joy had been impermanent and later became the cause of much grief.

He asked about her own family, and for a moment, she felt stiff. She racked her brain with how to respond. It was not fair to him, a new friend, to put more strain than she had already expressed to him. She could not tell the truth. She herself could not accept the truth anyway.

"They're... well," she hesitated. "You know how families can be. We all went our separate ways not long ago, I guess. Um, my kids were teens, you know, trouble-makers, and, um, yeah."
What a blunder.
Separate ways. What a crock.

She smiled to hide her white lies. It wasn't dishonest, it was merely better than the actual story.