Chapter 9 - The Positive Test
For thirty seconds, I could not make my brain accept what my eyes were reading.
Emily Carter.
Positive pregnancy test.
Five weeks earlier.
I looked at Claire.
She read the page and sat down beside me.
"Is it his?"
"I don't know."
My voice sounded far away.
Then the timeline began assembling itself.
Five weeks earlier would place conception sometime in late August or early September.
Daniel had told me he saw Emily twice.
Atlanta in April was one meeting.
He had never clearly dated the other.
My hands started shaking.
I called Rebecca.
She told me not to contact Daniel until she spoke with his attorney.
That lasted eleven minutes.
Then my phone rang.
Daniel.
I answered before I could stop myself.
"Is the baby yours?"
No greeting.
No hesitation.
Daniel made a sound like he had been punched.
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because I never slept with her."
"You lied about seeing her."
"I lied about how often we talked."
"You lied about the wedding venue."
"Yes."
"You lied about Atlanta."
"Yes."
"Why should this be the sentence I believe?"
He was silent.
"When was the second time you saw her?"
"August."
My stomach dropped.
"Where?"
"Nashville."
"You told me that conference was last year."
"There was another trip."
I closed my eyes.
Another lie inside another lie.
"Did you stay with her?"
"No."
"Did you kiss her?"
"No."
"Did she come to your hotel?"
"For twenty minutes."
I laughed once in disbelief.
"Of course she did."
"Nothing happened."
"You have destroyed those words, Daniel."
He started speaking faster.
"She came to tell me she thought Mark was cheating on her."
"Was he?"
"I don't know."
"Did you hold her?"
"Yes."
"Did you tell me she came?"
"No."
"Then you hid an intimate meeting with the woman you kissed in April."
"Yes."
At least he had stopped fighting the language.
"When did she show you the test?"
"At the venue."
"She told you it was yours?"
"She said there was a possibility."
My entire body went cold.
"How could there be a possibility if you never slept with her?"
"There couldn't."
"Then why did you believe her?"
"I didn't."
"You left me on our wedding night."
"Because I wanted to know what she was doing."
"You could have told me."
"I know."
"You could have told her the claim was impossible."
"I did."
"Then why go?"
Daniel was quiet for several seconds.
"Because she said if I refused to meet her, she would send you everything while we were at the reception."
My mouth went dry.
"Everything."
"The texts."
"The hotel receipt."
"The photo."
"The test."
"All of it."
I understood the shape of the trap.
Emily had arrived before the ceremony with proof of Daniel's betrayal and a claim that could destroy the wedding publicly.
Daniel had not chosen honesty.
He had negotiated.
He married me, smiled for photographs, danced with me, and promised Emily a private meeting afterward in exchange for silence.
"You went to keep her quiet."
"At first."
The words made my stomach turn.
"At first?"
"Then I wanted to know why she was doing this."
"She told you why."
"She wanted me to leave with her."
"And you did."
"I left the townhouse."
"With her."
"Yes."
"On our wedding night."
"Yes."
His voice cracked.
"I know what it looks like."
"Stop saying that."
My voice rose for the first time.
"Stop talking about appearances as if the facts are innocent and everyone else has bad eyesight."
He went silent.
I took a breath.
"What happened at the hotel?"
"We argued."
"About?"
"The test."
"Did she admit it wasn't yours?"
"Eventually."
I gripped the phone tighter.
"Whose was it?"
"Mark's."
I sat down.
"Does Mark know?"
"I don't know."
"Was she still pregnant?"
Another pause.
"No."
The answer changed the air in the room.
Whatever I thought of Emily, grief was grief.
"What happened?"
"She miscarried."
I closed my eyes.
For a moment, anger moved aside.
I could imagine the shock of losing a pregnancy while an engagement collapsed and an old love became an obsession.
Understanding pain did not excuse cruelty.
But it made the story human again.
"Why show you an old positive test?"
"She said she wanted me to feel what it was like to have my future decided by someone else's secret."
That sentence sounded like Emily.
Precise.
Punishing.
"And you still went to her hotel."
"Yes."
"Did you stay until morning?"
"I left at six fifteen."
"Did you sleep?"
"Maybe an hour in the chair."
"Did you touch her?"
"I hugged her when she told me about the miscarriage."
I said nothing.
"I am not going to lie about another inch of this," he said.
"You already lied about miles."
He inhaled sharply.
"I know."
I ended the call after that.
Then I called Mark.
He answered on the second ring.
"Did Emily lose a pregnancy?"
Silence.
"Who told you?"
"Daniel."
Mark's voice changed.
"Yes."
"Was it yours?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"I went to the first appointment with her."
I closed my eyes.
"Why didn't you mention it?"
"Because it wasn't relevant to Daniel cheating on you."
"She used the test to make him think the baby could have been his."
Mark went completely silent.
"Mark?"
"She what?"
I explained what Daniel had told me.
When I finished, Mark swore under his breath.
"The miscarriage was three weeks ago."
"Did Daniel know?"
"Not from me."
"Did Emily tell you why she ended the engagement?"
"She said she could not marry me while she still loved someone else."
His voice was flat.
"I thought that was the cruelest thing she could do."
He paused.
"Apparently she had more imagination than I gave her credit for."
I did not respond.
There was enough cruelty in the situation without adding mine.
That afternoon, Emily called me for the first time.
Not a burner email.
Not a screenshot.
Her actual number.
I stared at it until the ringing stopped.
She called again.
I answered.
"What do you want?"
Emily's voice was calm.
"To stop Daniel from turning me into the reason he betrayed you."
"You blackmailed him with a pregnancy test."
Her silence confirmed it before she spoke.
"He told you."
"Yes."
"Did he tell you why?"
"You wanted him to feel what it was like to have his future controlled by a secret."
Emily laughed once.
It was a broken sound.
"That is what I said at the hotel."
"Was it true?"
"Partly."
I was exhausted by partial truths.
"What is the other part?"
Emily breathed slowly into the phone.
"I wanted to know whether he would protect you or protect himself."
"And?"
"He protected himself."
I hated that she was right.
"That doesn't make what you did acceptable."
"I know."
Her answer surprised me.
"I was angry."
"At me?"
"At him."
"Then why punish me?"
Emily was quiet.
"Because you were the life he chose after telling me for a year that he still wondered about ours."
"That was not my decision."
"I know that now."
I closed my eyes.
"What do you want from me?"
"Nothing."
"Then stop contacting me."
"I will."
I almost ended the call.
Then Emily said, "But there is one thing you should know before I disappear."
My entire body tensed.
"What?"
"Daniel's mother knew about me before the wedding."
I thought of Paige's call.
"How much did she know?"
Emily's answer came without hesitation.
"Enough to call me and tell me that marrying into your family was the smartest thing Daniel would ever do."
My fingers went numb.
"When?"
"Two days before your wedding."
May you like
Emily paused.
"She told me if I really loved him, I would stop trying to ruin his future."
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