Part Six: The Hands That Went Up
The voice came from the far end of the table.
Daniel had risen from his chair, his napkin still crumpled in his fist. He was Mark’s oldest friend. They’d grown up three houses apart. In all the time I’d known him, I’d never once heard him raise his voice.
Everyone turned.
Claire’s smile flicked back on like a light switch. “Daniel. Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve known us for years.”
“I have,” Daniel said slowly. “That’s why I’m asking.” He turned to Mark. “Is this what that conversation was really about?”
My skin prickled. “What conversation?”
“Stay out of it, Dan,” Mark said.
Which, of course, only made me press harder. “Daniel. Please.”
Daniel rubbed his jaw. He looked miserable, like a man who’d been handed something heavy and had no idea where to set it down.
“A few weeks ago, Mark asked me something,” he said. “He told me it was hypothetical. He wanted to know whether a father could get primary custody if the mother”—he hesitated—”quote, wasn’t coping.“
The room went utterly still again.
“I figured he was nervous about becoming a dad,” Daniel went on. “Or just talking nonsense because you two were going through a rough patch. I didn’t think he meant it.” His eyes went to Claire, standing there in my apron. “Now I get it.”
That was when everything finally came into focus, painfully and completely.
Mark hadn’t only been planning to leave me.
He had already started asking how much of my child he could take with him when he went.
“Asking a question isn’t a plan,” Mark said, his voice cracking high.
“He’s right,” Claire jumped in, and I swear she believed she was helping. “And look around. Everyone here can see it. She’s not equipped to raise a child properly. Why put a baby with a struggling single mother when we can provide a real home?”
That was when Tessa stood up.
All five-foot-two of her, chair scraping back, eyes blazing.
“Did you seriously just threaten a pregnant woman,” she said, “in front of all of us?”
Claire scoffed. “Oh, please. These are Mark’s friends. Who do you think they’re going to side with?”
She looked around the table as though the answer were obvious. As though she’d counted the votes before she walked in the door.
I looked at Mark.
After everything Claire had just said about me and about our baby, this was his chance. One sentence. That’s enough, Claire. Nobody is taking this baby from Jen. That’s all it would have taken to draw a line.
Mark turned to me, and his face flushed red.
“Will you stop provoking her?” he snapped. “Claire kindly opened her heart to this child, and you’re turning it into something ugly.”
I went completely still.
Even now. Even here. His first instinct was to manage me, so that Claire could get what she wanted.
Fine, I thought. If Mark wouldn’t draw the line, I would.
And this time, I wasn’t interested in winning an argument.
So I stopped arguing.
I reached into my pocket and took out my phone.
“What are you doing?” Mark asked.
I unlocked the screen and opened a new note.
“I’d like the contact details,” I said, loud enough for the whole table to hear, “of anyone who’s willing to tell my lawyer exactly what they heard tonight.”
For one long second, nobody moved.
Then Tessa’s hand went up. Immediately, without hesitation.
Then one of Mark’s cousins. Then the other.
Then Priya, who glanced at her husband, and set her jaw, and raised her hand.
Then Daniel.
Then, one by one, more followed. A college roommate. A coworker’s wife. Hands going up all around that table, until the only people not raising them were Mark and the woman in the apron.
I watched Claire’s confidence slip. Not all at once. In small, visible pieces. Her eyes moved from face to face, as if she were recounting, sure she’d made a mistake in the math.
“Dan,” Mark said, outraged. “We’re friends.”
“Yeah,” Daniel said quietly. “We are. Friendship doesn’t mean I lie for you.”
“Are you serious?” Claire snapped. “Of course you’re supposed to lie for your friends. That’s how you prove your loyalty, Daniel.”
Daniel looked at her for a moment, then said the most words I’d ever heard him say in one go.
“You were always needy and controlling, Claire. But you’ve gone too far this time.” Then he turned to Mark. “And if you’d told me you were planning to get back with her, I would’ve reminded you how she acted when she left you the first time. You called me crying for a month.”
Mark’s mouth fell open.
Claire spun toward him. “Well. I guess we’re finally seeing the real Daniel. And he’s no friend of yours.”
I could feel a whole new argument gathering in the room like a storm front, and I wanted no part of it.
I tucked my phone back in my pocket.
“Keep the apron,” I told Claire. “Keep Mark. But you don’t get my baby.”
I picked up my purse from the side table, and I walked out of my own front door.
Behind me, I heard Tessa grab her coat and follow.
My marriage was over.
But my baby’s future was still very much undecided, and I had a lot of work to do.
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