CHAPTER 2 — THE MAN SHE NEVER EXPECTED
No one breathed.
Three hundred people turned to follow my finger.
A man slowly rose from Table Twenty-One.
He looked no older than forty.
Dark suit.
Silver tie.
His face had already turned ghostly pale before anyone recognized him.
Natalie stared.
Her lips parted.
"No..."
The word escaped before she could stop it.
The man swallowed hard.
"My name is Daniel Brooks," he said quietly.
"I think... we need to tell the truth."
Eric frowned.
"What is this?"
Daniel ignored him.
His eyes never left Natalie.
"We met eight months ago."
Natalie shook her head violently.
"Don't."
"You promised."
"I promised I would never hurt you," Daniel replied.
"I never promised I'd lie forever."
Grant calmly placed several photographs onto the cake table.
Hotel receipts.
Restaurant security photos.
Airport surveillance stills.
Every date matched the weeks Eric claimed he was traveling for work.
Gasps echoed through the ballroom.
Eric grabbed one photograph.
His face lost every trace of color.
"You..." he whispered to Natalie.
"You were seeing someone else?"
Natalie burst into tears.
"It wasn't supposed to happen."
"I loved you both."
The room erupted.
Guests whispered.
Phones appeared.
Someone had already started recording.
My mother buried her face in her hands.
My father closed his eyes.
For years he had believed our family was unbreakable.
Tonight, it shattered in public.
Daniel reached inside his jacket.
"I didn't know she was married to your husband," he admitted.
"She told me she was divorced."
Natalie screamed.
"Stop talking!"
But he continued.
"When she said she was pregnant, I asked for a DNA test."
He looked directly at me.
"I hired the same laboratory before you ever confronted them."
Grant nodded.
"The reports match."
The document I held wasn't a surprise.
May you like
It was confirmation.
Natalie's greatest weapon had just become the evidence that destroyed every lie she had built.
