ADVERTISEMENT
I opened their messages.
Stephanie: He believed me. Men like him are so easy when they’re scared of losing you.
Stephanie: I don’t care about him. I care about what he has.
Stephanie: The house, the accounts, the ring. I WANT ALL OF IT!
Stephanie: Stay quiet until I lock this down. After that, I’LL TAKE HIS MONEY AND LET HIM CRY!
My breath caught.
I read the messages again, hoping I’d misunderstood something.
I hadn’t.
The room felt as if it were spinning.
But I didn’t wake or confront her.
I just sat there, holding her phone, realizing that the person sleeping next to me wasn’t who I thought she was.
By the time the sun came up, I had already made a decision.
***
I spent the next two days wisely.
I booked a venue for the pregnancy celebration and called it a “gender reveal.”
I didn’t wake or confront her.
Stephanie loved it. She didn’t question it once.
“A gender reveal? That’s perfect.”
That’s the moment I knew something was truly off beyond the messages.
Correctly ascertaining a baby’s gender at 10 weeks wasn’t accurate.
Still, my fiancée went along with everything.
She said she’d have her doctor give her the baby’s gender in secret, and then I could pass that on to the baker without finding out the sex beforehand.
She didn’t question it once.
I ordered a pink-and-blue cake and invited both families. Stephanie’s parents, Diane and Robert. My parents, Jeremy and Linda. I even reached out to a few friends to make it feel real.
But that wasn’t all I did.
I also called my doctor and set up an appointment.
If I were going to do this, I needed to be certain about everything.
***
On the day of the event, I arrived early.
I checked the setup, talked to the technician, and made sure the projector worked exactly the way I needed it to.
I also called my doctor.
***
Guests started arriving around noon. People laughed, talked, and took pictures.
Stephanie walked in last, wearing white, smiling as if she’d already won.
She came over and kissed me on the cheek.
“Everything looks amazing,” she said.
I nodded.
“It will be.”
***
An hour later, everyone gathered around the cake, phones out, recording.
I picked up the mic and the screen remote.
“Before we find out if it’s a boy or a girl, there’s something else everyone deserves to see.”
Guests started arriving around noon.
The room quieted. Behind Stephanie, the projector screen lit up.
She turned slightly, confused at first, and then the color drained from her face so fast it was as if someone had flipped a switch.
The screen showed a timeline.
ADVERTISEMENT
