“What does she want?”
“Nothing.”
“Stop saying nothing!”
Mark flinched.
Lauren held up the note.
“She says you’ve been promising for years that you’d tell me.”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation was answer enough.
“When, Mark?”
“After the baby was born.”
Lauren stared at him.
“After?”
“I didn’t want to put you through this while you were pregnant.”
She laughed again.
“You mean you didn’t want consequences while I was pregnant.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“Fair?”
Her voice rose.
“You want to discuss fair?”
Mark looked away.
I thought about the cake.
Then asked:Plan Family Trips
“Why did you change the gender?”
Mark’s face went pale again.
Lauren slowly turned toward him.
“What?”
Jenna spoke quietly.
“The original doctor’s envelope said you’re having a boy.”
Lauren’s hand moved immediately to her stomach.
“A boy?”
“Yes.”
She looked at Mark.
“You knew?”
He nodded.
“And you paid them to make the cake pink?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked toward the photograph.
“Tania knew about the pregnancy.”
Lauren waited.
“She found out we were having a boy.”
“How?”
“I told her.”
Lauren closed her eyes.
“Of course you did.”
“She became upset.”
“Why?”
Mark swallowed.
“She thought once I had a son with you, I would stop seeing our daughter.”
Lauren looked at him sharply.
“You see her?”
“Sometimes.”
Another lie exposed.
“How often?”
“Every few months.”Explore Special Tutors
Lauren’s eyes filled again.
“You told me those were work trips.”
Mark said nothing.
Lauren nodded slowly.
“Of course.”
I almost couldn’t keep track anymore.
One betrayal opened into another.
Then another.
Like doors in a hallway.
I pointed toward the cake.
“So why pink?”
Mark spoke quietly.
“Tania said if today’s cake was blue, she was coming here and telling Lauren everything.”
Lauren stared at him.
“And your solution was to fake the gender.”
“I panicked.”
“You paid five hundred dollars to lie to everyone.”
“I thought it would buy me time.”
Jenna crossed her arms.
“But Tania came back anyway.”
Mark looked toward her.
“Yes.”
Lauren lifted the note.
“She didn’t believe you.”
“No.”
I looked at the photograph again.
Tania hadn’t hidden it under the cake because she wanted money.
She had put proof where Lauren would eventually find it.
It was cruel.
But after years of promises, she had apparently decided Mark was never going to tell the truth himself.
