Every eye in the yard turned to me.
Keaton finally found his words. “Kate, please. This isn’t the time or the place for this. We should talk inside.”
“This was exactly the time.”
I looked around at our friends. Our family. His coworkers. His parents, who had always been so kind to me. “After that night on the stairs, I hired a private investigator. She took these photos over the last two weeks.”
Briar took a step toward me, reaching out a hand. “I never meant to hurt you, Kate. You’re my best friend.”
My sister-in-law, who had been standing by the drinks table, snapped.
“I hired a private investigator.”
“Then why were you holding her husband like that? In a coffee shop? While she was home pregnant?” She turned to her brother, her eyes full of fire. “And you… How could you do this to her?”
Another guest spoke up, getting louder. “In public! You didn’t even try to hide it. You were just waiting for her to find out, weren’t you?”
Briar started crying harder now.
I reached into the folder I had been holding against my side and pulled out a single white envelope.
“How could you do this to her?”
I handed it to Keaton.
“Divorce papers,” I said. “You’ve been served. Happy gender reveal.”
He stared at the envelope like it might explode in his hands. He looked at the photos on the ground, then back at me.
“I never… I was going to break it off with her,” he mumbled. “You’re the one I love.”
“If you think this is love, then you have no idea what love is.”
The silence that followed was heavy.
“You’ve been served. Happy gender reveal.”
I turned back to the crowd. “I just wanted the truth to be visible.”
I rested a hand on my belly. The baby kicked.
My mother stepped to my side immediately. Keaton’s sister joined her. As I started to walk toward the house, I heard my father-in-law behind me.
“Keaton, we’re going to talk. Now.”
I didn’t look back. The photos still lay scattered across the lawn. They said everything I no longer had to say.
“I just wanted the truth to be visible.”
If you could give one piece of advice to anyone in this story, what would it be? Let’s talk about it in the Facebook comments.
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