Chapter 6: The Woman Who Left the Note
The baker's name was Ruth.
She answered on the second ring the next morning and didn't seem surprised to hear from me.
"I was wondering when you'd call," she said.
"The woman from the footage.
Diane.
Did she pay by card?"
"Cash.
But she left something in the van by accident." A pause.
"A loyalty card from a coffee shop.
It had her name on the back.
Diane Calloway.
I looked her up after she left.
She has a photography business.
Website, Instagram, the whole thing."
I wrote the name down.
"Ruth," I said.
"Thank you.
For all of it."
"How is your daughter?"
I looked across the kitchen at Lauren, who was sitting at the table with both hands wrapped around a mug, staring at nothing.
"She's standing," I said.
Lauren found Diane's website in under a minute.
Professional headshots, family portraits, a contact form.
The Instagram showed a woman in her early thirties.
Dark hair.
Pretty in a quiet way.
The most recent post was a sunrise over a lake with no caption.
Posted at 4 a.m.
"She's not sleeping either," Lauren said.
She picked up her phone and dialed the number from the website before I could say anything.
It rang four times.
"Hello?" Diane's voice was careful.
Prepared.
"This is Lauren.
Mark's wife."
Silence.
"I'm not calling to fight," Lauren said.
"I'm calling because I think we both deserve to know the truth.
And I think you know things I don't."
Another silence.
Longer.
"He told you," Diane said finally.
"He told me his version.
I want yours."
I stayed at the table and listened to my daughter handle the conversation I didn't know she had in her.
She asked questions.
She listened.
She didn't interrupt.
When Diane said something that clearly hurt — I could tell by the way Lauren's hand tightened around the mug — she waited until it passed and kept going.
It took forty minutes.
When Lauren hung up, she sat quietly for a moment.
"She didn't know about the miscarriages," Lauren said.
"He never told her.
She thought we'd been trying casually.
She didn't know what we'd been through."
"Does that change anything?"
"No.
But it changes how I feel about her." She set the phone down.
"She's not the villain, Mom.
She thought he was leaving me.
He told her he was leaving me.
For eight months he told her he was going to leave."
Eight months.
"She found out about the gender reveal from his calendar.
He had it listed as a work event." Lauren almost laughed.
It wasn't quite a laugh.
"She came to the bakery to stop it.
Not to hurt me.
She wanted to stop the whole thing — cancel the cake, cancel the party, force it all into the open."
"But Mark got there first."
"And paid to keep the lie going one more day." Lauren looked at her hands.
"He paid five hundred dollars to give me one more happy afternoon."
The kitchen was very quiet.
"Diane wants a paternity test," Lauren said.
"She agreed.
She said she'll do it as soon as possible."
"What changed her mind?"
Lauren looked up.
"I asked her directly.
I said, 'Do you want to spend the next eighteen years connected to a man who lied to both of us for eight months?' She was quiet for a long time.
Then she said no."
I reached across the table.
Lauren didn't take my hand this time.
She straightened up instead.
Squared her shoulders.
"I need a lawyer," she said.
"Today if possible.
May you like
Can you help me find someone?"
I already had my phone out.
