“You knew.”
Victoria went still.
“You knew,” he repeated.
“No.”
It came too quickly.
Daniel laughed once, without humor.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“And you’re causing a scene.”
“Someone lied to me about my child.”
The room went silent again.
Not a fake pregnancy.
Not a mistake.
My child.
That was what it had been to Daniel.
For twelve weeks, he had spoken to Claire’s stomach before bed.
He had downloaded an app that compared the baby’s size to fruits.
He had ordered a crib and hidden it in the guest room because Claire had asked him not to assemble anything until after the wedding season.
He had called his father in Ohio and told him he was finally going to be a grandfather.
He had cried the night Claire gave him the positive pregnancy test.
Except the test had not been hers.
Claire felt sick.
Daniel looked at her stomach again.
“Take it off.”
A shocked whisper passed through the table.
Claire shook her head.
“Daniel, please.”
“Take it off.”
“Not here.”
“Then tell everyone Sophie is lying.”
Claire could not.
Daniel saw the answer in her silence.
He stepped back.
His eyes became glassy.
“Oh my God.”
Claire stood suddenly.
Her chair almost tipped.
“Daniel, listen to me.”
He moved away before she could touch him.
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
The same word she had whispered minutes earlier.
Now it came from him.
And somehow it hurt more.
Daniel stared at her as if the woman in front of him was someone he had never met.
“You let me believe there was a baby.”
Claire began crying.
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“When, Claire?”
Her voice broke.
“After tonight.”
Daniel stared at her.
“After tonight?”
Victoria cut in.
“She was under pressure.”
Daniel turned toward her.
“From who?”
Victoria said nothing.
Daniel’s eyes moved between them.
Something clicked.
His face changed.
“This was your idea.”
“Daniel—”
“This was your idea.”
Victoria lifted her chin.
“I tried to help her.”
“Help her do what? Manipulate me?”
Claire stepped forward.
“No. Don’t blame her.”
Daniel looked at Claire with disbelief.
“You’re protecting her?”
“I made the choice.”
“What choice?”
Claire took a shaky breath.
The truth had already begun tearing through the room.
There was no stopping it now.
“I lost the baby.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Margaret Carter made a small sound.
Laura tightened her grip around Sophie.
Claire pressed both hands over her face.
“I lost the baby eleven weeks ago.”
Daniel stared at her.
“No.”
“I did.”
“No.”
“It happened two days after we told your parents.”
Daniel looked as if someone had struck him.
“You miscarried?”
Claire nodded.
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I tried.”
“You tried?”
“I wanted to. I swear I did.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I was there every night.”
“I know.”
“I was asking you about names.”
“I know.”
“I took you to dinner to celebrate the twelve-week mark.”
Claire sobbed.
“I know.”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“You sat across from me while I talked about our child.”
“I know.”
“And you knew there was no child.”
Claire could barely see him through her tears.
“I was scared.”
Daniel stared at her for a long time.
Then he asked the question that would destroy whatever explanation she thought she had left.
“Scared of what?”
Claire lowered her hands.
“Losing you.”
Daniel did not move.
Claire forced herself to continue.
“The morning I found out, I was alone. You were in Boston for that meeting.”
Daniel remembered.
A two-day business trip.
Claire had told him she felt tired but fine.
She had sent him a photograph that evening of the nursery catalog on the coffee table.
Claire looked toward the floor.
“I started bleeding. I went to the hospital by myself because I thought it was nothing.”
Her shoulders shook.
“They told me the pregnancy had ended.”
Daniel closed his eyes briefly.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because when they said it, I couldn’t move.”
“Claire—”
“I sat in the parking garage for almost three hours.”
Daniel’s anger weakened for half a second.
Claire saw it.
So did Victoria.
Claire continued.
“I kept thinking about everything you had said. About how happy you were. About your dad crying on the phone. About your mother already planning a baby shower.”
Margaret lowered her eyes.
Claire whispered, “And then I thought about what you said the night before you left.”
Daniel frowned.
“What did I say?”
Claire looked directly at him.
“You said becoming a father finally made your life feel complete.”
Daniel stared at her.
“I didn’t mean without you.”
“I know that now.”
“Did you?”
“I was grieving. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“So you decided to fake a pregnancy?”
“No. Not that day.”
Claire glanced toward Victoria.
Daniel saw it.