Chapter 4: The Name on the Screen
The phone kept ringing.
Nobody moved.
Nobody even seemed willing to breathe.
Evelyn stared at the screen as if it had shown her a ghost.
Marcus noticed.
“Who is it?””
She quickly turned the phone over.
“Nothing.””
His eyes narrowed.
“Mom.””
“It’s nothing important.””
I almost laughed.
Nothing important.
That was what people said when they were trying to hide something that mattered most.
Marcus stepped closer.
“Then answer it.””
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.””
“Why?””
Her silence was the answer.
The guests watched from a distance.
The same people who had arrived carrying gifts and smiling pictures were now standing around a family secret that had exploded in the middle of a baby shower.
Marcus pointed toward the phone.
“Who is calling you?””
Evelyn looked at him.
And for the first time, I saw fear in her eyes.
Not guilt.
Not embarrassment.
Fear.
“Nobody you need to know.””
Marcus’s face changed.
“That’s not your decision anymore.””
He reached for the phone.
Evelyn pulled it away.
“Marcus.””
Her voice cracked.
“Please.””
That one word stopped him.
Because Evelyn Carter was not someone who begged.
Not in public.
Not in front of anyone.
Marcus lowered his hand.
“Please what?””
She looked at him.
“I’m trying to protect you.””
His expression hardened.
“You keep saying that.””
He glanced at the sealed envelope in his hand.
“But every time you protect me, you hide something from me.””
I stood beside him.
The frosting on my face had dried.
My dress was stained.
My baby shower was ruined.
But somehow, the cake was no longer the most painful thing in that garden.
The truth was.
Evelyn had always made me feel like an outsider.
But now I realized something worse.
Maybe Marcus had been one too.
A phone rang again.
This time, louder.
Evelyn looked down.
The name appeared.
Marcus saw it.
His entire body went still.
Because the person calling wasn’t a stranger.
It was someone connected to his past.
“Mom…”
His voice dropped.
“Why is my father calling?””
The question hit the air like thunder.
Everyone knew one thing.
Marcus’s father had been gone for years.
Not dead.
Just gone.
He left after a family argument nobody ever explained.
Marcus had always believed his father walked away because he didn’t care.
But Evelyn’s reaction told a different story.
She stared at the phone.
Then at the envelopes.
Then at me.
Like she was trying to decide which disaster to stop first.
The phone stopped ringing.
A second later, a message appeared.
Marcus looked down.
“What did he say?””
Evelyn moved forward.
“Don’t.””
Marcus opened the message.
His face changed as he read it.
“What?””
I stepped closer.
“Marcus?””
He didn’t answer.
He just turned the phone around.
The message was short.
Only one sentence.
*I know what your mother did. Ask her why she needed those DNA results before you did.*
The garden went silent.
Again.
It was becoming a pattern.
Secrets arriving one after another.
Marcus looked at Evelyn.
His voice was barely above a whisper.
“How many people know?””
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“I can explain.””
“No.””
Marcus shook his head.
“Not anymore.””
He held up the sealed prenatal envelope.
Then he looked at Daniel’s envelope.
Then back at his mother.
“I want the truth.””
Evelyn looked at Nia.
And something about that look made my stomach tighten.
Because it wasn’t anger.
It wasn’t hatred.
It was fear.
Like she knew something about me.
Something she had never told me.
Marcus noticed too.
“What are you looking at her like that for?””
Evelyn opened her mouth.
No words came out.
I touched my belly.
My daughter moved beneath my hand.
A strange calm came over me.
Because whatever was inside those envelopes, whatever Evelyn had done, whatever everyone had been hiding…
I deserved to know.
Marcus reached for the seal again.
This time, Evelyn didn’t move.
She didn’t scream.
She didn’t stop him.
She only whispered:
“Nia… before he opens that, there’s something you need to know about the day you met Marcus.””
I stared at her.
“What?””
Evelyn looked down.
And then she said a name.
A name that made Marcus drop the envelope halfway open.
May you like
A name I had never heard before.
A name connected to the beginning of our entire marriage.
