Grant cleared his throat.
“There is one more thing.”
Everyone turned toward him.
Natalie stared at the red folder.
“What else?”
Grant opened it again.
This time, he removed several photographs.
He placed them on the table.
One after another.
Natalie and Eric.
Natalie and Daniel.
Different hotels.
Different restaurants.
Different dates.
But the most important photograph wasn’t of Natalie.
It was of Eric.
Standing outside a law office.
My law office.
My heart stopped.
I looked at him.
“What is that?”
Eric didn’t speak.
Grant answered for him.
“Your husband visited an attorney six weeks ago.”
I looked at Eric.
“Why?”
He finally raised his eyes.
“Because I was going to ask for a divorce.”
The room went silent.
I felt something inside me crack.
Not because I loved him.
Not anymore.
But because after ten years, I realized he had been planning to leave me while smiling across the breakfast table every morning.
“Why didn’t you?”
His eyes filled with tears.
“Because I found out about Natalie.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
“I found out she was seeing Daniel too.”
He looked toward Natalie.
“She told me the baby was mine because she knew I’d leave you for her if she convinced me she was carrying my child.”
Natalie’s expression changed.
Eric continued.
“But when I confronted her about Daniel, she denied everything.”
He looked at me.
“I was going to leave anyway.”
I nodded slowly.
“Then why stay?”
His voice broke.
“Because I was ashamed.”
I almost laughed.
“You’re ashamed now?”
“I was afraid of what everyone would think.”
I looked around the room.
Three hundred people were watching us.
“Well,” I said quietly, “you don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
Then I reached into my handbag.
I pulled out a small envelope.
Eric looked at it.
“What is that?”
“My anniversary gift to myself.”
I handed it to him.
He opened it.
Inside was a signed divorce petition.
His hands began shaking.
“You already filed?”
“Yesterday.”
His eyes widened.
“Yesterday?”
“Yes.”
I looked at the clock.
“Tonight wasn’t supposed to be a celebration of our marriage.”
I paused.
“It was supposed to be the final chapter.”
My mother covered her mouth.
My father stared at me with tears in his eyes.
I continued.
“I kept the party because I didn’t want you to know.”
Eric whispered my name.
But I wasn’t listening anymore.
I turned toward Natalie.
“You wanted everyone to know the truth tonight.”
She nodded weakly.
“Well, now they do.”
Then I looked at Daniel.
“You should know something too.”
He looked confused.
“The investigator found something else.”
I handed him another photograph.
His face changed immediately.
It showed Natalie leaving a clinic.
The date was six weeks earlier.
Daniel stared at it.
“What is this?”
I looked at Natalie.
“Tell him.”
She began crying.
“Tell him!”
Natalie covered her face.
Daniel’s voice became cold.
“You told me you were pregnant.”
“I am.”
“Then what’s this?”
I pointed to the date.
“The pregnancy started before she ever met Daniel.”
Daniel looked at me.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“That’s exactly why I waited.”
Grant stepped forward.
“The timeline indicates Natalie was already pregnant when she began seeing Daniel.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Then whose baby is it?”
Natalie couldn’t answer.
I looked at Eric.
He looked just as confused.
Then Grant opened the final page.
“The laboratory couldn’t identify the father through the original test because the sample we received was incomplete.”
I frowned.
“What?”
Grant nodded.
“That’s why I arranged a second test.”
He looked directly at Natalie.
“The result came back this morning.”
Natalie whispered:
“Who?”
Grant looked toward a man sitting near the center of the room.
A man who hadn’t said a single word all night.
My father’s oldest business partner.
Richard.
My father’s face went completely pale.
Richard slowly stood.
Natalie screamed.
“No!”
My mother turned toward him.
“Richard?”
Richard looked at Natalie.
Then at my father.
“I’m sorry.”
My father staggered backward.
I couldn’t move.
Natalie had been sleeping with my husband.
She had been sleeping with Daniel.
And now we were discovering she had been hiding something even bigger.
The room was no longer an anniversary party.
It was a courtroom without a judge.
And everyone was suddenly guilty.
THE END — WHAT I DID NEXT
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