Chapter 5 - Three and a Half YearsTrent reached for her. She recoiled. "No."

"Bianca, listen to me."

"You have a daughter?"

His face crumpled. "Yes."

Nobody spoke. The silence was unbearable.

"How old is she?" Bianca asked.

"Three and a half."

My stomach turned. Four years — Bianca had spent four years trying to become a mother. Two miscarriages. Three failed treatments. And during that same stretch of time, Trent had fathered a child with someone else.

"You cheated on me?"

"Once."

She laughed. There was nothing happy in it. "Once? Really?"

"I was drunk. We were fighting constantly. We'd just lost the second pregnancy."

Her eyes flashed. "So I lost our baby, and you slept with someone else?"

"I hated myself for it."

"Good."

His mouth closed. Tears ran down her face. I wanted to pull her into my arms. I didn't — this was her moment, and she needed room to stand inside it.

She unfolded the note, read it, and looked back at him. "You knew for three and a half years?"

He nodded. Her shoulders shook. "And you never told me—"

"I was afraid you'd leave."

"You should have been."

He looked at me. "Rose, I love her."

"Then you should have told her the truth."

He turned back to Bianca. "Tania found out you were pregnant. She started contacting me again."

Bianca lifted the note. "She says you promised to tell me."

"I did."

"When?"

He hesitated. "When, Trent?"

"After the baby was born."

She stared at him in disbelief. That's when I finally understood the cake.

"Why change the gender result?" I asked.

Trent looked ashamed. "Tania knew we were having a boy."

Bianca blinked. "A boy?"

The baker nodded. "The original envelope said male."

Bianca dropped into a patio chair, a hand over her mouth.

"Tania told me if we had a son, she was going to tell Bianca everything today," Trent said quickly.

"Why?" I asked.

"She thought I'd replace her daughter."

Bianca looked up. "So you paid to make the cake pink."

"I thought if Tania believed we were having a girl, she'd back off."

The baker frowned. "But she came back."

"Yes," I said.

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Bianca looked down at the note again. Tania hadn't backed off. She'd hidden the truth under the cake instead.

Bianca cried harder — no confusion left in her face now, just grief. Not over the baby's gender. Over her marriage.