Chapter 6: The Call to Ryan
Marcus stepped outside to call Ryan.
I stayed near the door where I could see him through the glass.
The conversation lasted fourteen minutes.
I know because I watched the clock on the wall above the gift table without meaning to.
When he came back in, his face was the kind of still that comes after something has already broken.
"She told him more than that text," he said.
We moved to a quiet corner.
The reception was winding down — guests collecting jackets, the band playing something slow.
"She told Ryan that she had spoken to a doctor.
That she had concerns about Lily's paternity and that she had encouraged me to get a test but I had refused." He said it carefully, like he was reading from a document.
"She told him I refused because I already suspected the truth and I didn't want to know."
I stared at him.
"She built an entire story," I said.
"Yes."
"And Ryan believed her."
Marcus was quiet for a moment.
"Ryan didn't not believe her.
That's the difference." He looked at the floor.
"He said he'd been watching me for the past year trying to decide if I seemed like a man who knew something was wrong.
He said there were times he thought I did."
"What did you tell him?"
"I told him to think about what that says.
That my own cousin spent a year watching me like a suspect because my mother put a lie in his head." His voice didn't rise.
It went very quiet.
"I told him Lily is my daughter.
I told him I have never once doubted that.
And I told him that if he needed a test to believe me, then he should think hard about what kind of relationship he wants with this family going forward."
"How did he take that?"
"He apologized." Marcus looked up.
"He cried, actually.
He said he should have come to me directly.
He said he was ashamed." A pause.
"I believe him.
Ryan isn't cruel.
He was just given something by someone he trusted and he didn't know what to do with it."
"Your mother knew exactly what she was doing," I said.
"Yes.
She did."
He was quiet again.
Then he said: "Ryan told me one more thing.
He said he wasn't the only one she told.
He said she spoke to at least three other people in this room tonight.
He doesn't know exactly who.
But he knows she made a point of doing it before the reception started."
Before the reception started.
She had arrived early.
She had worked the room before the ceremony even ended.
And then she had walked in, found Lily with a cupcake, and decided to make her point visible.
It wasn't an outburst.
It was a plan.
"She came here tonight intending to do this," I said.
Marcus didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Across the room, my sister was dancing with her new husband, Lily still asleep against her shoulder, borrowed and peaceful.
The band played on.
The candles were burning low.
And somewhere outside, Diane was waiting.
I could feel it the way you feel a change in weather — not seeing it yet, but knowing it's already decided.
My phone buzzed again.
Same unknown number.
One line.
*She's still in the parking lot.
May you like
She's on the phone.
I think you should know who she's calling.*
