Natalie stared at the paper in my hand.
For several seconds, nobody in the room breathed.
Then she laughed.
It wasn’t a real laugh.
It was the kind of laugh people make when reality becomes too frightening to accept.
“That’s fake,” she whispered.
I looked at her.
“Read it.”
She didn’t move.
So Grant stepped forward and turned the document toward her.
“The laboratory confirmed the pregnancy is not biologically related to Eric,” he said calmly.
Natalie’s face went completely white.
She looked at Eric.
He looked at her.
Then she looked back at me.
“You lied.”
“No,” I said. “You lied.”
She shook her head violently.
“Eric is the father. He told me himself.”
Eric suddenly stood.
“Wait.”
Everyone turned toward him.
His voice was trembling.
“How did you get that test?”
I smiled for the first time that evening.
“Four months ago, when I discovered your affair, I didn’t know how far it had gone. I didn’t know whether Natalie was pregnant. So I started documenting everything.”
Eric’s eyes dropped.
“Every hotel. Every message. Every meeting. Every time you told me you were working late.”
I looked at Natalie.
“And every time my sister came to your apartment.”
My father lowered his head.
My mother was crying silently.
But Natalie still wasn’t looking at me.
She was staring toward the back of the room.
Toward table twelve.
I followed her eyes.
A man in a dark navy suit was sitting there.
His name was Daniel.
He had been introduced to me earlier that evening as one of Eric’s business associates.
But I knew exactly who he was.
Because Grant had shown me his photograph three months ago.
Daniel wasn’t Eric’s coworker.
He was Natalie’s secret boyfriend.
And he had been seeing her for almost a year.
Natalie had been sleeping with both men.
She had assumed Eric was the father because she wanted him to be.
Daniel slowly stood.
His chair scraped against the floor.
Natalie covered her mouth.
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Yes.”
Eric turned toward him.
“You?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
He didn’t have to.
His silence said everything.
Eric walked toward him.
For a moment, I thought he was going to hit him.
Instead, he stopped inches away.
“You knew?”
Daniel swallowed.
“I found out she was pregnant six weeks ago.”
Natalie screamed.
“You promised you wouldn’t tell!”
The room erupted.
People began whispering.
My mother looked at me with tears running down her cheeks.
“How long have you known?”
“Four months.”
She looked devastated.
“You knew all this time?”
“I needed to know the truth before I destroyed my own life over a lie.”
Then Eric turned toward me.
His face was pale.
“You knew she was seeing Daniel?”
“I knew she was seeing someone.”
“And you still invited him?”
“No.”
I looked at Daniel.
“Eric invited him.”
Eric froze.
I continued.
“He told me Daniel was an important client and insisted he attend our anniversary.”
The irony was almost unbearable.
Eric had unknowingly brought the real father of Natalie’s baby to our tenth anniversary celebration.
Natalie suddenly ran toward Daniel.
“Tell her it’s not true!”
Daniel stepped backward.
“Stop.”
“Daniel!”
“You told me Eric was the father.”
“I thought he was!”
“You told me you loved me.”
“I do!”
Daniel shook his head.
“You told me you were going to leave him.”
Natalie went silent.
I looked at Eric.
“She told you the same thing, didn’t she?”
He couldn’t answer.
Because she had.
She had promised Eric a future.
She had promised Daniel a future.
And somehow, she had believed she could keep both men while destroying mine.
But she had made one mistake.
She underestimated how patient I could be.
PART 3 — THE SECOND FOLDER
See more on the next page
