Emily had gone completely still.
She wasn’t looking at Natalie anymore.
She was staring at the ring.
Ryan noticed.
“Em?”
She swallowed.
“Let me see it.”
He hesitated.
“Ryan.”
He placed the ring in her palm.
Emily turned it over and rubbed her thumb across the inside of the band.
Then her expression changed.
She recognized something.
“Emily?” I asked.
She closed her fingers around the ring.
“Where did you get this?”
Natalie didn’t answer.
Ryan looked from his sister to his wife.
“What is it?”
Emily opened her hand.
“There are initials inside.”
Ryan reached for it.
She pulled her hand away.
“Don’t.”
The word was quiet, but it stopped him.
I ended the call after telling the bakery woman I would contact her later.
Around us, 50 guests were trying not to stare.
I lowered my voice.
“Emily, come inside.”
“No.”
“Sweetheart.”
“I said no.”
She looked at Natalie.
“You wanted everyone here for this, didn’t you?”
Natalie’s face tightened.
“No.”
“Then why put it in my cake?”
“I didn’t know how else to make sure you saw it.”
Ryan threw up his hands.
“Would somebody please tell me what we’re talking about?”
Natalie finally looked at him.
“You know exactly what we’re talking about.”
His face changed.
His jaw tightened, and his eyes went straight to the ring.
Emily saw it, too.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered.
“Emily, wait,” Ryan said.
She stepped backward.
“You recognize it.”
“No.”
“You do.”
“I recognize a ring. That doesn’t mean anything.”
Natalie gave a bitter laugh.
Ryan spun toward her.
“Shut up.”
That one sentence changed the mood in the backyard.
Guests exchanged glances, and someone turned off the music.
I stepped closer to Ryan.
“Do not speak to her like that.”
“This is between me and my sister.”
“No,” Emily said. “It’s between you and me.”
She held up the ring.
“And I want to know why your sister had to hide this in my gender reveal cake to make me see it.”
Natalie reached into her purse.
Ryan moved immediately.
“Don’t.”
I stepped between them.
“Whatever she has, Emily is going to see it.”
Ryan stared at me.
“Dette, you don’t understand.”
“You’re right. I don’t.”
I pointed toward the cake.
“But someone interfered with my daughter’s order and put a ring inside food that 50 people were about to eat. Start explaining.”
Natalie lowered her eyes.
“I told them to place it inside a sealed, food-safe holder.”
“That doesn’t make this better.”
“I know.”
Emily suddenly grabbed my arm.
“Mom.”
She was staring at the inscription again.
I looked down.
There were two initials inside the band.
R and B.
Beside them was a date.
Emily whispered, “I know this date.”
Ryan’s face drained of color.
Natalie closed her eyes.
At that moment, I realized my daughter wasn’t wondering where the ring had come from anymore.
She was wondering why her husband looked terrified of it.
Emily read the date aloud.
It was from eight months earlier.
The backyard became so quiet that I could hear balloons tapping against the fence.
Emily looked at Ryan.
“That was the weekend you went to Chicago.”
Ryan shook his head.
“Don’t do this here.”
Natalie answered before Emily could.
“He wasn’t in Chicago.”
Ryan turned on her.
“You promised me.”
Natalie’s face hardened.
“No. You made me promise.”
Emily’s hand went to her stomach.
I moved beside her.
“What is she talking about?”
Ryan looked around at the guests.
“This is nobody else’s business.”
Emily stared at him.
“Then make them leave.”
“Emily…”
“Make them leave.”
I asked everyone to give us privacy.
Within minutes, the yard began clearing.
The congratulations stopped.
Blue confetti remained scattered across the grass, and a huge balloon still read, “IT’S A BOY!”
Natalie waited until only a few relatives remained inside the house.
Then she pulled an envelope from her purse.
“I wanted to give this to you before today,” she told Emily.
Ryan stepped forward.
I blocked him.
“Stay where you are.”
Emily opened the envelope.
Inside were photographs.
One showed Ryan outside a courthouse.
Another showed him walking beside a woman.
A third showed them sitting together at a restaurant.
In one photograph, the woman was wearing the gold ring now resting in Emily’s palm.
