But there was nothing I could fix.
So I stayed nearby.
Eventually, attorneys became involved.
Not because Lauren immediately filed for divorce.
Because she needed facts.
Real ones.
For once.
She learned that Tania had not been asking Mark for money.
Mark had been contributing financially to his daughter voluntarily.
What Tania wanted was acknowledgment.
She wanted him to stop treating their daughter like a secret that could be visited every few months and then hidden again.
That didn’t make Tania’s behavior right.
She had participated in changing the cake result.
She had placed a devastating revelation beneath a gender-reveal cake.
Lauren was furious with her too.
But one thing became clear.
The little girl was innocent.
Her name was Sophie.
Lauren asked to see a photograph of her again weeks later.
I watched her study the little girl’s face.
“She looks like him.”
“Yes.”
“She didn’t ask for any of this.”
