I frowned.
“Mark?”
“He told us the doctor’s envelope was wrong.”
For a moment, I simply stared at her.
Behind us, I could still hear people talking and laughing.
My stomach tightened.
“How could he know that?”
She showed me the security footage.
Mark was standing at the counter.
But he wasn’t alone.
A woman I’d never seen before was beside him.
She handed the baker a second sealed envelope.
“They paid us $500 to use this result instead.”
I stared back toward the party.
Mark was still holding Lauren.
“Then what’s the real gender?”
The baker swallowed.
“That’s not why I pulled you aside.”
She zoomed in on the woman beside Mark.
“She came back after he left.”
“And?”
“She asked me to put something under the cake board.”
My pulse started hammering.
I looked toward the table.
People had moved away from the cake. Lauren was talking to one of her friends. Mark stood only a few feet away.
We hurried back to the table.
I lifted the cake.
For one second, I saw nothing.
Then the board shifted in my hands.
A folded white envelope had been taped underneath it.
My heart dropped.
The baker reached for it, but I pulled it free first.
“What is this?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said quietly. “She wouldn’t tell me.”
I looked across the yard.
Lauren was still talking to her friend. Mark stood beside her with one hand on her shoulder.
He glanced toward me.
Our eyes met.
Something changed in his face.
It was small, but I saw it.
Fear.
He started walking toward us.
“Rose,” he called. “What are you doing?”
I held the envelope tighter.
Lauren turned.
The smile disappeared from her face.
“Mom?”
Mark moved faster.
“Give me that.”
I stepped back.
“No.”
His voice dropped. “This isn’t the place.”
The baker moved beside me.
Lauren stared at the envelope.
Then she looked at Mark.
“What is that?” she asked.
He did not answer.
That was all it took.
The few people still near the table went quiet.
Lauren walked toward us.
“Mark, what is that?”
“Nothing,” he said.
I almost laughed from pure disbelief.
Nothing.
He had changed a sealed medical result.
He had paid a bakery $500 to use another envelope.
A strange woman had hidden something beneath my daughter’s cake.
Nothing was not an answer.
I looked at Lauren.
“Do you know a woman who was with Mark at the bakery this morning?”
Lauren’s face went still.
Mark turned sharply toward me.
“Rose, stop.”
“No,” I said. “You stop.”
Lauren looked from me to her husband.
“What woman?”
Mark rubbed both hands over his face.
The baker unlocked her phone again.
“I have security footage.”
Lauren swallowed.
“Show me.”
“Lauren,” Mark said.
“I said, SHOW ME!”
The baker turned the screen toward her.
I watched my daughter’s expression change as the video played.
Confusion came first.
Then recognition.
Her lips parted.
“Oh my God.”
“You know her?” I asked.
Lauren nodded once.
“Her name is Tania.”
Mark closed his eyes.
Lauren looked at him.
“Why was she with you?”
He said nothing.
Her voice cracked.
“Why was she with you, Mark?”
Several guests had started drifting away from the table.
My sister quietly led two children inside.
Nobody wanted to watch.
Nobody could quite look away.
Mark finally spoke.
“I was trying to fix something.”
Lauren stared at him.
“Fix what?”
He looked toward the ground.
I handed Lauren the envelope.
Her fingers trembled around it.
“Open it,” I said.
Mark stepped forward.
“Lauren, please.”
She backed away from him.
That hurt him.
I could see it.
But I could also see something else.
He had expected this moment eventually.
He just had not expected it today.
Lauren tore open the envelope.
Inside was a folded note.
There was also a photograph.
She pulled the photograph out first.
I could not see it clearly from where I stood.
Lauren could.
The color drained from her face.
She gripped the edge of the table.
“Who is this child?”
Mark looked sick.
The baker glanced at me.
I moved closer.
The photograph showed Mark standing beside Tania.
Between them was a little girl.
She looked about three years old.
She had Mark’s eyes.
I knew before anyone said a word.
Lauren did too.
Her hand flew to her stomach.
“No,” she whispered.
Mark reached for her.
She recoiled.
“No.”
“Lauren, listen to me.”
“You have a daughter?”
