"Push, Ellie! Push!"
Trevor's encouraging presence and words in her ear helped her bear down a final time.
There was a final gasp and then a small plaintive cry.
"It's a girl, Mr. Fields!"
Eloise, as she sucked in air, watched the nurses clean the newborn and then hand her to Mr. Fields. He smiled widely.
"Look at this little wonder my money produced!"
He handed her over to Eloise who finally had her first view of her infant. (No, not her infant, HIS infant.) She had dark hair and blue eyes with a deeply tanned skin tone. She was certainly her father's daughter, but as Eloise peered more closely, she saw signs of herself and her oldest daughter in the newborn's features.
"Her registration number is 302215619. What do you want to name her?"
The question was directed, not at Eloise, but at Mr. Fields.
"Echo!" replied the blonde billionaire. "Echo Rachel Fields."
Eloise could not deny the wristband denoting the infant as property. From this moment on she would be set apart. Her number would be her identity. She would be schooled with other slave children, receiving a limited education, which would largely prepare her for a life of service. A month past her eighteenth birthday she would be permanently collared, tattooed, and auctioned off stark naked to the highest bidder, forever the property of someone else. Mr. Fields would receive nearly all that money. If Echo was exceptionally beautiful, as a slave trained since infancy, she could sell for many millions of dollars.
Eloise was both overjoyed and astoundingly depressed. The thrill of new motherhood marked by the horror of that child never having the same freedom or opportunities of her peers.
Echo would never be permitted to vote, marry, own property, or travel freely. Her children, if she had them, were doomed to be slaves as well. Worse, Eloise would age out of her collar before Echo was even a teenager.
All of this hit her at once. Her smile as she gazed upon the wonder that was Echo transitioned to tears. Richard Fields picked up Echo anew. Trevor embraced her and allowed Eloise to cry into his shoulder.
**
The years rolled by. Eloise's relationship with Trevor was the most satisfying emotionally and sexually she had ever enjoyed. Her marriage to Bob was its near equal, but Trevor was a far more rounded, erudite, and compassionate individual. Trevor was also able to overlook the fact that she slept with Richard Fields several times a week. Trevor was not Echo's biological father, but he was in every other sense. Loving, kind, and patient, he gave her a firm footing that would remain with her the rest of her life.