Chapter 6 - A Birthday Wish Nobody Should Have Heard
Madison answered Mark's call on the first ring.
"Finally."
"Did you go to the hospital?"
Silence.
"Madison."
"I was concerned."
"About what?"
"The babies."
He gripped his phone.
"You don't even know them."
"Mark, don't be cruel."
"You went to the NICU and asked whether all three of my daughters would survive."
"I wanted to know how serious things were."
"Why?"
"Because you've been acting like the world is ending."
Mark closed his eyes.
For years, Madison had possessed a particular talent.
She could make his most reasonable questions sound like accusations.
She could redirect an argument until he found himself apologizing for bringing it up.
And because she had once been the girl he loved at nineteen, he kept confusing that familiarity with trust.
"Don't go back," he said.
"Excuse me?"
"Don't contact Emily. Don't contact her family. Don't ask about the babies."
Madison laughed softly.
"You're letting her do this to us."
"There is no us."
The words surprised him.
Madison went silent.
Then her voice changed.
"You don't mean that."
"Madison—"
"You told me at my birthday that we'd have another chance."
Mark closed his eyes.
"I shouldn't have said that."
"But you did."
He remembered the dining room.
The white chocolate cake.
The roses arranged around the table.
Madison lifting her glass.
To second chances.
He had raised his.
He hadn't thought about what the words meant.
Or maybe he had.
Maybe the truth was uglier.
Maybe he had enjoyed imagining a life without the responsibilities waiting at the hospital.
"Mark?"
He took a breath.
"I need to focus on my family."
Madison's voice hardened.
"You should have thought about that before you kissed me."
He froze.
They hadn't discussed the kiss.
Not since it happened.
Not because it meant nothing.
Because it meant too much.
He had kissed Madison that afternoon.
After the cake.
While Emily was in surgery.
He had told himself it was harmless.
A moment of nostalgia.
A mistake.
But he knew better.
And now Madison was threatening to use it.
"What do you want?"
She laughed bitterly.
"That's an interesting question coming from you."
"Tell me."
"I want you to stop pretending I'm the villain."
"Then stop acting like one."
The silence that followed was dangerous.
Finally, Madison spoke.
"I have a recording."
Mark's stomach tightened.
"Of what?"
"Your little birthday speech."
"Delete it."
"Why?"
"Because it was private."
"Everything is private until somebody needs proof."
Mark pressed his hand against his forehead.
"What are you planning?"
"I'm planning to remind you that you chose to be with me."
The call ended.
Mark stared at the screen.
He couldn't decide whether he was more frightened of Madison exposing him or Emily discovering the truth.
Then he remembered something from the video Rebecca had sent.
Emily lying in the hospital bed.
Her voice barely audible.
I kept thinking you'd come.
He had thought guilt was the worst feeling a person could experience.
Now he understood that dread could be worse.
Especially when the truth was still waiting to arrive.
Across town, Madison sat in her apartment overlooking the river.
Her phone lay on the marble kitchen island.
Beside it sat a small velvet box.
Inside was a diamond bracelet Mark had given her two weeks earlier.
He had called it an early birthday present.
She had called it a promise.
Madison opened the recording on her phone.
The video showed Mark standing beside the cake.
He was smiling.
His arm rested around her waist.
The room glowed with warm chandelier light.
Then his voice filled the speakers.
"Some people come into your life too early."
Madison watched herself smile.
"And some people," Mark continued, "never really leave your heart."
She paused the video.
For the first time that evening, her expression looked uncertain.
She opened her messages.
A contact appeared beneath the name E. Carter.
Madison typed slowly.
You deserve to know where your husband was while you were giving birth.
She attached the video.
Then waited.
Before sending it, she added one more sentence.
He made a wish before we cut the cake.
Her finger hovered above the screen.
Madison had spent years believing Emily had stolen the life that should have belonged to her.
Now she intended to prove it.
She pressed send.
At the hospital, Emily's phone vibrated beside her bed.
Rebecca was helping her settle against the pillows.
Emily glanced at the screen.
An unfamiliar number.
A video attachment.
A message.
May you like
She pressed play.
And within seconds, she saw her husband standing beside another woman, making a toast at the exact hour her children were fighting to live.
