Claire slowly turned toward the woman in the black dress.
“What did you just say?”
The woman walked closer.
“My name is Margaret. And Sophie’s father isn’t the man you think he is.”
Claire looked at Michael.
He could barely meet her eyes.
Margaret pulled another photograph from her purse and placed it beside the first one.
Claire stopped breathing.
The second picture showed Michael holding baby Sophie in the hospital.
But standing beside him was Claire’s older sister, Rebecca.
Claire stared at the photograph.
“No… Rebecca died eight years ago.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No. Your family told you she died.”
Claire’s mother suddenly stood up from the front row.
“Margaret, stop.”
Every head in the ballroom turned toward her.
Claire whispered:
“Mom… what did you do?”
Her mother started crying.
“Rebecca became pregnant. Your father paid her to disappear. We thought we were protecting you.”
Claire looked at Michael.
“And you knew?”
Michael’s silence answered everything.
Then Sophie tugged Claire’s wedding dress.
“There’s something else.”
She pulled a folded letter from her pocket.
“My mommy told me to give you this if he married you.”
Claire opened it.
The first line made her knees buckle:
“Claire, if you are reading this, Michael has lied to you again.”
But the final sentence was worse.
“He isn’t Sophie’s father.”
Claire looked up.
“What?”
Margaret stared across the ballroom at Claire’s father.
Then she said:
“Your father is.”
Nobody moved.
Claire’s mother screamed.
Her father dropped his champagne glass.
And Michael whispered:
“That’s the secret I was trying to protect.”
