Chapter 3: The Money Meant for Their Miracle
Daniel didn't shout when Marcus mentioned the money.
That frightened me more than anything else.
He simply stood beside the cake table, holding Claire's phone in one hand and the artificial belly packaging in the other, while forty guests watched his marriage collapse in real time.
“Marcus,” he said carefully, “what money did you take from my account?””
On the other end, his best friend exhaled.
“Look, man, I didn't mean for you to find out like this.””
“Like what?””
“Not in front of everybody.””
Daniel glanced around the room.
“Fine. Then tell me privately.””
Claire seized the opportunity.
“Yes. That's what we need. Privacy. Daniel, let's go home, and I'll explain everything.””
He looked at her.
“You don't get to decide when I hear the truth anymore.””
She flinched.
He turned back to the phone.
“Marcus, answer the question.””
Another pause.
Then Marcus said, “It was supposed to be temporary.””
Daniel's fingers tightened around the phone.
“How much?””
“Daniel—”
“How much money?””
“Forty-five thousand dollars.””
My mother made a small choking sound.
Daniel stared ahead.
“Forty-five thousand?””
“I was going to put it back.””
“From my savings?””
“Yes.””
“The money I saved for the baby?””
Marcus didn't answer.
Daniel laughed once, a hollow sound that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside his chest.
“You knew what that money was for.””
“I know.””
“You helped me choose the crib. You came with me to look at strollers. You stood in my kitchen and told me I was going to be a great father.””
“I know, Daniel.””
“And all that time, you were stealing from me?””
“I wasn't trying to steal it!””
Daniel's voice rose.
“Then what do you call taking forty-five thousand dollars without asking?””
Claire began crying again.
“Daniel, please. Marcus was helping me.””
Daniel turned slowly toward her.
“Helping you do what?””
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
The silence answered nothing, but it told me she was afraid of the answer.
Daniel put the phone on speaker.
“Marcus, I'm giving you one chance. Tell me everything.””
Marcus hesitated.
Then he said, “Claire came to me several months ago. She said she was pregnant, but that the fertility clinic had made a mistake with the paperwork. She needed money to fix a problem before you found out.””
Daniel stared at his wife.
“You told Marcus you were pregnant months ago?””
Claire wiped her cheeks.
“I was trying to protect you.””
“From what?””
She didn't answer.
Marcus continued, his voice growing more agitated.
“She said the clinic needed another payment. Then she told me you were having trouble with the bank transfer, so I offered to help move some money around.””
Daniel's expression hardened.
“You offered to help yourself to my savings?””
“No. I transferred it because she said you had authorized it.””
“Did you verify that with me?””
Marcus fell silent.
“Did you call me?”” Daniel demanded.
“No.””
“Did you text me?””
“No.””
“Then you knew it was wrong.””
“I made a mistake.””
“A mistake is forgetting someone's birthday. You stole from your best friend.””
Marcus started talking quickly.
“I can pay it back. I swear. I just need time.””
Daniel looked at Claire.
“How much of that money did you get?””
She stared at the floor.
“Claire.””
“Thirty thousand.””
Daniel's face went white.
“Where's the rest?””
She pressed her lips together.
“Where is it?””
“I used some of it.””
“For what?””
She whispered, “Living expenses.””
“You told me you were working extra hours.””
“I was embarrassed.””
“You told me the baby needed special medical care.””
Claire covered her face.
Daniel stepped away from her.
“You told me our child needed medical care?””
“I was going to fix everything before the birth!””
“Before the birth?”” He pointed at her stomach.
“There is no birth, Claire!””
She jerked backward as if he'd struck her.
For the first time, nobody rushed to comfort her.
My mother sat down heavily in a chair.
Aunt Patricia whispered, “Oh, my God.””
Daniel's eyes filled with tears, but his voice remained steady.
“How long?””
Claire shook her head.
“How long have you been lying to me?””
“I didn't plan for it to go this far.””
“That's not an answer.””
She looked at him through her fingers.
“Eight months.””
Daniel stared at her.
Eight months.
Eight months of prenatal vitamins he had purchased in bulk. Eight months of midnight conversations about baby names. Eight months of him resting his head against her stomach and whispering promises to a child who didn't exist.
I remembered Christmas morning, when Daniel had presented Claire with a tiny pair of white sneakers wrapped in silver paper.
He'd cried while she opened them.
Now I understood why she'd barely looked at the gift.
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“Why?””
Claire lowered her hands.
“Because you wanted a baby so badly.””
“That doesn't make sense.””
“Every month, you became more distant. Every failed treatment made you more miserable. I couldn't stand watching you suffer anymore.””
“So you invented a pregnancy?””
“I thought if I could give you something to be happy about, everything would get better.””
“And the money?””
Her shoulders shook.
“I needed time. I thought I could make it right.””
Daniel looked at her belly.
“Take it off.””
Claire froze.
“What?””
“The belly. Take it off.””
“Daniel, please.””
“Now.””
She glanced at the guests, then toward the hallway.
For several seconds, I thought she would refuse.
Then she reached behind her waist and fumbled with something beneath her dress. The padded shape shifted awkwardly as she loosened its straps.
She didn't remove it completely.
She couldn't.
Instead, she covered it with her hands and began sobbing.
Daniel turned away.
That was when Sophie's small voice rose from beside me.
“Mommy?””
I crouched beside her.
“What is it, sweetheart?””
She pointed at Claire's purse, which had fallen open beside the table.
“That's not the only thing she dropped.””
Inside the purse, beneath a lipstick and a bundle of receipts, lay a white envelope.
Daniel noticed it too.
He bent down and picked it up.
His name was written across the front in Claire's handwriting.
“What's this?”” he asked.
Claire stopped crying.
“Don't open it.””
Daniel looked at her.
“Why?””
“Please, Daniel. You don't understand.””
He slid his finger beneath the flap.
Inside was a folded document bearing the logo of the fertility clinic where they had undergone their treatments.
Daniel unfolded the first page.
His eyes moved down the paper.
Then his lips parted.
“This says…” His voice failed him. He swallowed and tried again.
“This says our final embryo transfer was canceled.””
Claire's face drained of color.
Daniel looked at the date.
It was dated eight months earlier.
The exact week she'd first announced her pregnancy.
He turned to the second page.
There was a handwritten note beneath the clinic's letterhead.
*Patient requested that all future correspondence be sent to her personal email. Spouse not to be contacted without authorization.*
Daniel looked up.
“You canceled the treatment before you told me you were pregnant.””
Claire whispered, “I can explain.””
He held up another sheet.
It was a printed email from the clinic.
At the bottom was a line that made him grip the paper so tightly it began to tear.
*Reason for cancellation: Patient requested termination of treatment and stated she no longer wished to pursue pregnancy.*
Daniel stared at his wife.
“You didn't just fake a pregnancy.””
His voice broke.
“You made a decision about our future, then let me believe we were finally getting everything we'd prayed for.””
Claire took one shaky step toward him.
“Daniel, there's something else you need to know about that appointment.””
He didn't move.
“What?””
She looked toward Marcus's name still glowing on the phone screen.
May you like
Then she whispered, “The embryo wasn't the only thing I canceled.””
And when Daniel demanded to know what she meant, Claire finally revealed the secret she'd spent eight months trying to bury.
