Chapter 1 - The First Page
I opened the folder.
The first page was a screenshot of Daniel’s conversation with Chloe.
His mother leaned closer.
Daniel moved faster.
He reached across the table to grab it.
I pulled the page back.
“No.”
His hand stopped in midair.
“Jennifer, this is not the place.”
I almost laughed.
He had chosen the place.
He had chosen the ballroom.
He had chosen the hundred and twelve guests.
He had chosen the photographer standing ten feet away.
He had chosen to turn Lily’s baptism into a performance about what a wonderful husband and father he was.
So I gave him the audience he wanted.
I turned the first page toward his parents.
His mother, Patricia, read the message at the top.
Chloe: I still can’t believe you came to the appointment with me.
Underneath it was Daniel’s reply.
Daniel: I told you I’m not letting you do this alone.
Patricia’s face changed.
“What appointment?”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Mom, don’t.”
His father, Robert, took the paper from her.
Then he saw the date.
It was four months earlier.
The same day Daniel had told his parents he was working late.
Robert’s eyes moved down the page.
His expression hardened.
I placed another screenshot beside it.
Then another.
Then a bank statement.
Then a transfer record.
$2,300.
$1,800.
$3,750.
$1,250.
Every transfer had gone to Chloe.
Daniel stared at me as if I had become a stranger.
“You went through my private messages?”
That was the first thing he said.
Not that he was sorry.
Not that the messages were misunderstood.
Not that the money belonged to both of us.
He was angry that I had caught him.
I looked at him.
“You used our daughter’s emergency fund to pay another woman’s hospital bills.”
The whispers around us grew louder.
Daniel glanced toward his coworkers.
Toward his clients.
Toward the photographer.
His reputation was collapsing table by table.
Then Patricia suddenly pointed at one photograph.
It was Chloe standing outside an OB/GYN clinic.
Daniel was beside her.
His hand was resting on Chloe’s pregnant stomach.
Patricia whispered, “Oh my God.”
Daniel shot to his feet.
“That picture proves nothing.”
I reached for the next page.
His panic sharpened instantly.
Because that page was not a photograph.
It was a message sent by Chloe six weeks earlier.
I slid it toward Patricia.
She read the first sentence.
Then she covered her mouth.
Robert leaned over her shoulder.
His glass slipped from his fingers and shattered against the floor.
The message said:
Once Jennifer’s baby is baptized, we can finally start planning the baptism for ours.
Daniel stopped breathing.
May you like
And I turned to the next page.
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