Chapter 13 - THE PARTY WITHOUT ME
At nine on the morning of the gender reveal, I was home eating peanut butter toast over the sink.
I knew what the estate looked like without going there. I'd planned enough Bennett parties to picture every chair, every ribbon, every guest pretending not to notice the fight happening in the family behind the flower arrangements.
On my counter sat a small yellow folder with my medical records. Next to it was the white gift box. I'd brought it home after the police finished documenting the contents. The silver bow was bent in two places. I didn't try to fix it.
My phone rang.
"Before you ask," Laura said, "yes, the petition has been filed and the process server has accepted the assignment. That means service will be documented when it happens. Nothing about this is a final divorce decree."
"I know. You've explained it four hundred times."
"Four hundred and one now. Eat something that isn't toast."
I smiled and hung up.
Rosa sent me a photograph from the estate. Workers in black shirts were setting up a white-and-gold backdrop where I'd planted hydrangeas three summers earlier. On the grass stood a giant illuminated question mark. Behind it, the east wing glowed with fresh paint and new windows.
A sign on an easel read WELCOME TO OUR NEXT CHAPTER.
I showed Laura the photo when she called back.
"It's a little much," she said.
"That's the Bennett family motto."
At noon, my doctor called with the results of another scan. The small bleed was shrinking. The heartbeat was steady. I sat down on the kitchen floor and cried so hard my dog, Pepper, tried to climb into my lap.
I hadn't told anyone that morning that I was afraid to hope. Now I texted Maddy one line: The baby looks good.
She sent back eleven heart emojis and then, Sorry. That's a lot of hearts. I panicked.
I laughed out loud.
By three, photographs from the party were everywhere. Victoria looked beautiful in red satin, one hand pressed to her belly. Alex wore a charcoal suit I'd picked for him in happier days. Diane stood behind them like a woman supervising the launch of a new hotel.
I wanted to throw my phone across the room. Instead, I put it facedown and washed my plate.
At 3:17 p.m., Rosa called.
"You didn't ask me to do this," she said quickly. "I just thought you should hear it from somebody who was there."
"Hear what?"
"Alex was about to speak. The process server came through the gate with papers for him. It wasn't a performance. He tried all morning, but security kept sending him around the service drive. Alex finally had to take them in front of people."
I closed my eyes.
"Was there a scene?"
"Not from you."
In the background, I heard glass break, then a woman saying, "Not in front of the cameras."
"Rosa?"
"Victoria's been crying. Alex opened an envelope from the testing lab."
The room seemed to move around me.
"Did he tell her?"
"He asked one question, so quiet I barely heard. He said, 'Who's Luke?'"
I sat on the edge of the sofa. Across the room, Pepper was chewing the corner of a cardboard box. I should have stopped him.
"What happened next?" I asked.
Rosa took a shaky breath.
"The confetti machine went off before anybody could cancel it. Pink paper came down on all of them. Alex stood there holding the results, and Victoria kept saying, 'Let me explain.'"
I looked at the two little socks beside me.
For months, Alex had told me I wasn't capable of giving him a child. Now, with two hundred guests watching, he had learned the child he'd used to replace me might not be his.
May you like
I didn't feel victorious. I felt tired. And then Rosa said something that made me sit up straight.
"Mrs. Bennett just pulled Leonard Pike into the study," she whispered. "She told him to destroy the original loan files before Monday."
