Then I remembered the bakery.
“Why were you there with her?” I said. “At the bakery.”
“She wanted to see something connected to the wedding,” David said.
Ryan’s mother spoke up. Her voice was small.
“I knew I wasn’t invited,” she said. “By then. I knew. But I asked David about the cake. Just to see it. Just one thing. He told me where it was being made.”
David sighed and rubbed his forehead.
“I shouldn’t have taken her there.”
“But you did.”
“Yes. I did.”
A few weeks earlier, David had driven her to the bakery. She’d looked at the cake designs. She’d learned the pickup date. She’d learned who was handling the order.
I turned to her.
“What’s your name?”
She hesitated for a long time.
Then she said, “Laura.”
And suddenly everything about that bakery note made sense.
Do not release cake to Laura.
No last name. No mention of the bride’s mother. Just Laura.
The baker had read it, seen my name on the pickup, and assumed it meant me.
“You called the bakery,” I said.
She didn’t answer.
“You pretended to be Emma.”
“I called.”
“And told them not to give me the cake.”
“I told them not to release it to Laura,” she said. “That was me. I was Laura.”
“It was also me.”
Ryan stepped forward. His face was white.
“Did you really do that?”
“I was trying to get someone to listen to me.”
“By messing with our wedding?”
“I didn’t damage anything. The cake’s fine.”
“You impersonated my fiancée,” Ryan said. “You called a business and pretended to be Emma.”
She looked down at the floor.
“I knew the bakery would call somebody once there was a problem,” she said quietly.
And I understood her plan then. All of it.
“You knew I’d show up to get the cake,” I said.
She nodded.
“You knew they’d refuse me.”
Another nod.
“And then I’d call Emma. And Emma would panic. And somebody would finally start asking questions.”
“Yes.”
Ryan looked at her like he’d never seen her before.
Ethan Blake is a skilled Creative Content Specialist with a talent for crafting engaging and thought-provoking narratives. With a strong background in storytelling and digital content creation, Ethan brings a unique perspective to his role at TheArchivists, where he curates and produces captivating content for a global audience.
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