I watched her read.
Then she looked at Mark again.
“You knew for three and a half years?”
He nodded.
Lauren’s shoulders shook.
“And you never told me?”
“I was afraid you’d leave.”
“You should have been.”
Mark looked toward me.
“Rose, I love her.”
“Then you should have told her the truth.”
He turned back to Lauren.
“Tania found out you were pregnant. She started contacting me again.”
Lauren held up the note.
“She says you promised to tell me.”
“I did.”
“When?”
He hesitated.
Lauren’s voice rose.
“When, Mark?”
“After the baby was born.”
She stared at him in disbelief.
I suddenly understood the cake.
“Why did you change the gender result?” I asked.
Mark looked ashamed.
“Tania knew we were having a boy.”
Lauren blinked.
“A boy?”
The baker nodded.
“The original doctor’s envelope said male.”
Lauren sat down hard in one of the patio chairs.
Her hand covered her mouth.
Mark began speaking quickly.
“Tania told me that if we had a son, she was going to tell Lauren everything today.”
“Why?” I asked.
“She thought I would replace her daughter.”
Lauren looked up.
“So you paid to make the cake pink.”
Mark nodded.
“I thought if Tania believed we were having a girl, she’d back off.”
The baker frowned.
“But she came back.”
“Yes,” I said.
Lauren looked down at the note again.
Tania had not backed off.
She had hidden the truth beneath the cake.
Lauren started crying harder.
This time, there was no confusion in her expression.
It was grief.
Not because the baby was a boy.
Not because the cake had been pink.
Because the truth about her marriage had been hidden underneath a celebration that was supposed to mark one of the happiest days of her life.
“I thought you were happy about our daughter,” Mark whispered.
Lauren looked at him.
“You saw me crying, and you still said, ‘We’re having a daughter.’”
His face fell.
She shook her head.
“I wasn’t crying because it was a girl.”
Mark stared at her.
Lauren pressed one hand against her stomach.
“I already knew something was wrong.”
My breath caught.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
She looked at me.
“Last night, I saw a message on his phone from Tania.”
Mark went pale.
Lauren continued.
“I only saw her name and the words, ‘You cannot hide her forever.’”
The backyard seemed to tilt.
“I didn’t know what it meant,” Lauren said. “I thought maybe he was having an affair.”
She wiped her cheeks.
“Then the cake was pink, and Mark looked strangely relieved instead of surprised. That scared me more than anything.”
He took one step toward her.
