Chapter 4 - The Second Baptism.
Patricia read the contract twice.
Then she looked at Daniel with the expression of someone waiting for a familiar face to return.
It did not.
"Baby Noah?" she whispered.
Daniel rubbed the side of his jaw.
"Mom, don't do this here."
That answer was enough to make her step back.
Jennifer placed Lily's baptism invoice beside the second banquet contract.
The pages were from different venues, but the payment reference at the bottom matched.
So did the corporate card ending in 4418.
Daniel had told Jennifer that card was temporarily used because the family account had a transfer limit.
Now the lie looked embarrassingly simple.
"You used Lily's baptism to make me finance hers," Jennifer said.
Daniel's eyes hardened.
"That's not what happened."
"Then tell us what happened."
He looked toward the guests.
"Can everyone leave?"
No one moved.
Daniel's father folded his arms.
"Not until you answer her."
Daniel's anger flashed.
"You don't understand the situation."
Jennifer calmly turned another page.
"I understand the situation well enough to know the hotel charged two private events to the same payment profile."
She pointed to the lines.
"One for Lily."
Then to the next contract.
"One for Noah."
Melissa stared at her brother.
"Is Noah yours?"
Daniel looked at Jennifer instead of answering.
That choice told the room everything it needed to know.
Patricia sat down again.
Her eyes filled, but she kept her voice steady.
"Daniel, is that child yours?"
Daniel closed his eyes for a moment.
"It's complicated."
His father gave a bitter shake of his head.
"A child is not complicated."
Jennifer felt something inside her become unexpectedly calm.
All week, she had imagined this moment with anger.
She had imagined herself demanding explanations.
She had imagined Daniel denying everything until the room collapsed around the lies.
Instead, the truth had made him smaller.
He was no longer the brilliant man who always found a way to explain every contradiction.
He was simply a man who had run out of explanations.
Jennifer opened the contract to its signature page.
Daniel's initials appeared beside each charge authorization.
At the bottom was his full signature.
His father leaned closer.
"That's your signature."
Daniel did not answer.
Jennifer lifted a second sheet attached to the hotel file.
It was an event note from the banquet coordinator.
"Client requested discretion due to overlapping family event."
Patricia pressed her fingers against her lips.
Melissa whispered, "Oh my God," then caught herself and looked down.
Jennifer turned the paper back toward Daniel.
"You didn't make a mistake."
She paused.
"You planned around me."
Daniel's face tightened.
"Jennifer, you need to stop before you do something you can't undo."
Jennifer looked at him for a long moment.
"That's interesting."
She reached into the deepest pocket of the folder.
"Because that's exactly what Chloe said you told her."
Daniel's eyes snapped toward her hand.
May you like
Jennifer began pulling out a sealed white envelope.
The moment he saw the letterhead, every trace of anger left his face.
