She lifted it out to reveal a bright pink filling.
“It’s a girl!” several people screamed out in pure excitement.
The backyard instantly erupted into loud applause and joyful cheers, while someone behind me let out a triumphant shout. Chloe’s best friend, Hannah, started laughing and crying at the exact same time, rushing forward to congratulate her.
However, Chloe herself didn’t celebrate at all. She just stared blankly at the slice of cake, looking completely frozen in place.
For one strange second, I honestly thought she hadn’t understood what she was looking at, but then heavy tears began streaming down her face. Spencer immediately wrapped both of his arms tightly around her trembling shoulders.
“We’re having a daughter, sweetie,” Spencer whispered softly into her ear.
“I know,” she whispered back, her voice sounding completely hollow.
Everyone around them naturally interpreted her emotional reaction as overwhelming joy and profound relief after everything she had gone through to reach this moment. Several relatives stepped forward to hug her tightly, telling her over and over that she was going to be an absolutely wonderful mother.
I desperately wanted to believe they were right about those tears, but something about her subtle facial expression deeply bothered me. She didn’t look happy or relieved in the slightest; instead, her face had gone completely pale, and she kept staring at the pink center as if it had just confirmed a terrible nightmare.
I kept a close watch on Spencer as he whispered something private into her ear, causing Chloe to give a stiff, reluctant nod.
That was when I noticed Nora, the baker, standing completely still near our backyard gate. She had delivered the cake hours ago, yet here she was, staring intently at my daughter and Spencer with a look of extreme anxiety.
Her arms were folded tightly across her chest, and her sharp gaze remained strictly fixed on the couple. When our eyes met across the lawn, she quickly made a discreet motion for me to come over to her right away.
I hesitated for a brief second because Chloe was still surrounded by well-wishers and Spencer still had his arm around her, but the sheer panic written across the baker’s face compelled me to walk across the grass.
“Is everything alright?” I asked quietly as I reached the wooden fence.
“I really need to show you something important,” Nora said nervously, glancing around the yard.
“What is it?” I asked, my heart beginning to flutter with uneasy dread.
“Not out in the open like this,” she insisted, leading me a few steps toward her parked delivery van before pulling her smartphone out of her apron pocket. “Early this morning, your son-in-law came directly into our bakery.”
I frowned in utter confusion. “Spencer came to the bakery?”
“Yes, and he told us that the original doctor’s envelope was completely wrong,” she explained hastily.
Behind us, I could still hear our relatives laughing and taking pictures, but a tight knot was rapidly forming in my stomach. “How could he possibly know that the doctor’s note was wrong?”
Nora turned the phone screen toward me to play a video. “Look at the security footage.”
The crisp video footage clearly showed Spencer standing at the bakery counter, but he was not alone. A stylish woman I had never seen before in my life was standing right beside him, handing the clerk a second sealed white envelope.
“They paid us five hundred dollars in cash to use this new result instead,” Nora confessed guiltily.
I stared back toward the ongoing party where Spencer was still holding my daughter close. “Then what is the baby’s actual gender?”
Nora swallowed hard before answering. “That’s not even why I pulled you aside just now.”
She quickly zoomed in on the unknown woman standing next to Spencer on the screen. “This woman came back to the shop alone after he left.”
