Chapter 3 - The Messages He Couldn't Explain.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Daniel stared at the photograph as if silence might erase it.
Jennifer watched his eyes move from the timestamp to the bakery logo and then to his father's face.
"That proves nothing," Daniel said.
His voice was quieter now.
"I work with people all over the city."
Jennifer nodded once.
"That's why I checked the hotel records."
Daniel looked up sharply.
Patricia sank into the nearest chair.
"Jennifer, please tell me this is some awful mistake."
Jennifer wished she could.
For years, Patricia had been difficult in the way elegant people sometimes disguised as concern.
She corrected Jennifer's table settings.
She questioned Lily's bedtime.
She complained that Jennifer worked too much and then complained when Jennifer took time away from work.
But Patricia loved Lily.
And the shock on her face now appeared painfully real.
Jennifer placed another screenshot on the table.
Daniel's message to Chloe was dated three weeks earlier.
"Keep Sunday simple. Jennifer thinks the extra hotel charge is for Lily's guests."
Melissa read it over Patricia's shoulder.
"Daniel, seriously?"
"You don't know what that means," Daniel snapped.
Jennifer's expression did not change.
"Then explain it."
Daniel opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
The silence grew heavier.
Jennifer remembered asking him about that exact charge.
He had laughed and told her the hotel required a security deposit because her family had added guests at the last minute.
She had apologized to him.
That memory now bothered her more than the money.
She had apologized for a lie he invented.
"You made me call my mother and tell her the extra cost was because of our side of the family," Jennifer said.
Daniel's gaze flickered.
"I was trying to keep you from stressing before Lily's baptism."
Jennifer almost laughed.
"By creating the stress and giving it my mother's name?"
His father set his glass on the table.
The sound was precise and final.
"Answer the question, Daniel."
Daniel turned toward him.
"Dad, stay out of this."
The older man's face hardened.
"You invited half my company here."
He gestured toward the frozen guests.
"You made it everyone's business before she ever opened that folder."
Daniel looked around again.
His coworkers avoided his eyes.
His confidence slipped another inch.
Then Jennifer removed a cream-colored contract from the folder.
Daniel saw the hotel logo at the top.
He moved before she had fully unfolded it.
His hand shot across the glass table.
Jennifer pulled the contract back smoothly.
The sudden movement sent a spoon spinning against a plate.
Several guests stepped away.
"Don't," Jennifer said.
Her voice was soft.
That softness stopped him more effectively than a shout.
Daniel's hand hovered above the table.
"You have no legal right to show private business records."
"It's not a business record."
Jennifer unfolded the page completely.
"It's a banquet contract."
Daniel went pale.
Patricia stood again.
Jennifer turned the contract so the family could see the reservation name.
At the top, beneath the hotel's gold seal, were four words that changed the room.
"Chloe Hart - Baby Noah."
May you like
And beneath that was a date.
The same weekend as Lily's baptism.
