Chapter 3: What Chloe Said
I looked at the phone.
I looked at Daniel.
His eyes were fixed on the screen.
His jaw was tight.
Something moved across his face — not guilt, not yet.
Calculation.
"Don't," he said quietly.
Just that one word.
I picked up the phone and answered on speaker.
"Jennifer." Chloe's voice filled the silence of the banquet room.
She sounded young.
Breathless.
Like she had been crying.
"I need to talk to you.
I know this isn't the right time, but I didn't know who else to call.
Daniel isn't answering and I—"
"He's right here," I said.
A long pause.
"He's — what?"
"He's sitting across from me.
His parents are here.
About sixty of his closest friends and colleagues." I kept my voice even.
"You're on speaker."
The silence on the other end lasted four full seconds.
"Oh God," Chloe whispered.
Daniel stood up so fast his chair scraped back against the marble floor.
Three people at the nearest table flinched.
"End the call," he said.
"Jennifer, end the call right now."
"Chloe," I said, "is there something you wanted to tell me?"
Another pause.
Then, quietly: "I didn't know he was still with you.
I mean — I knew he was married.
But he told me it was over between you two.
He said you were only staying together for the baby.
He said you'd already agreed to separate after the birth."
Daniel's mother made a sound I had never heard from her before.
Something between a gasp and a sob.
"That's a lie," Daniel said, loud enough for the phone to catch it.
"Chloe, stop talking."
"He told me you knew about us," Chloe said.
Her voice was steadier now.
Like she had made a decision.
"He said you'd agreed to it.
He said it was — that it was a mutual arrangement."
"There was no arrangement," I said.
"I know that now." Her voice broke slightly.
"I found something last week.
In his email.
A message he sent to a lawyer four months ago.
He was asking about — about how to have a spouse declared mentally unfit.
How to use it in a custody case."
The room went completely still.
I heard my own heartbeat.
"He was building a case against you," Chloe said.
"Before the baby was even born.
Jennifer, he was planning to take Lily."
I didn't move.
I didn't look at Daniel.
I kept my eyes on the phone in my hand.
Behind me, Daniel's father pushed back from the table and stood up.
"Daniel." His voice was low.
Controlled.
The voice of a man who had spent forty years managing difficult situations.
"Sit down and explain what this woman is saying."
"She doesn't know what she's talking about," Daniel said.
"She's upset.
She's hormonal.
She just had a baby, she's not—"
"I have the email," Chloe said.
"I forwarded it to myself before he could delete it.
I have the original timestamp.
I have the lawyer's name."
Daniel turned to me then.
And for the first time all day, the calculation in his eyes gave way to something rawer.
"Jennifer." His voice dropped.
"Whatever you think is happening — whatever she told you — I can explain all of it.
I just need five minutes.
Please.
Not here."
"You had nine months," I said.
His mother sat back down heavily in her chair.
She wasn't looking at Daniel.
She was looking at Lily, still sleeping near my mother across the room, one small fist curled against her cheek.
"The lawyer's name," I said into the phone.
"What was it?"
"Hargrove," Chloe said.
"Mitchell Hargrove."
I knew that name.
Mitchell Hargrove had been at the party two hours ago.
He had shaken my hand.
He had told me what a lucky woman I was.
He was still seated three tables away.
May you like
I looked up and found him watching me.
He reached for his jacket.
