Chapter 5
I removed the tag.
Then I sent Megan one message.
Do not use my bakery’s name to promote your studio. My lawyer will contact you about the loan.
She replied almost instantly.
After everything I did for you when your mother died, this is how you treat me?
I put the phone down.
For twelve years, Megan had been the person I called when something hurt. Now she was taking one of the hardest days of my life and using it to stop me asking about my money.
Tasha came into the kitchen.
“Did she answer?”
I showed her.
“She knows where to push,” Tasha said.
“She sat with me through Mom’s last week.”
“That mattered. It doesn’t make what she’s doing now okay.”
I ate the dinner Daniel brought. I was angry with him, but the food was still warm and I was hungry. Both things could be true.
The next morning, Priya sent Megan’s company a formal request for the signed loan document and an accounting of the funds. She asked that the agreement not be used as proof of my consent while the signature was disputed.
Megan called me five times.
I let the calls go unanswered.
At the bakery, June asked why our name had appeared on Megan’s studio post. A customer had asked whether we were catering the opening.
“We aren’t,” I said. “Please tell anyone who asks that no event is scheduled.”
June nodded. She did not press me.
I hated that Megan had brought the problem into the place where I had worked so hard to build trust.
After lunch, a woman named Celia came in carrying a folder. She supplied flowers for events around town and had done a few jobs for Megan.
“I saw the studio post,” she said. “I’m trying to find out if the opening is still happening. Megan booked flowers and hasn’t paid the deposit.”
“I don’t know her plans.”
Celia looked embarrassed.
“She told me your bakery was handling the food. I thought you might have a date.”
“She hasn’t booked my bakery.”
Celia’s face changed.
“She’s been using your name for weeks.”
I wrote down exactly what Celia told me and asked whether she would be willing to speak to Priya. She said yes.
By the time she left, I was shaking.
Megan had planned an opening, promised vendors payment, and offered my bakery’s work without asking me. She had expected Daniel to persuade me after giving her the money.
I called him.
“Did you know she was telling vendors I agreed to cater?”
“No.”
“Celia came by.”
Daniel was silent.
“I’ll tell Megan to stop.”
“Priya is handling it. Don’t negotiate for me.”
“Okay.”
He sounded exhausted.
“I’m sorry, Claire.”
“I know you are. I need more than apologies right now.”
“I understand.”
That afternoon, Ryan called after meeting his lawyer. He could share messages from his own account and records for expenses he had personally paid. He had learned the studio lease was in Megan’s name alone, though she had told him he was a partner.
“I’m going to ask her for an accounting too,” he said.
“Are you staying together?”
“I don’t know.”
I understood the answer.
Marriage did not end the moment you learned something painful. It changed shape while you tried to decide what remained.
Lena invited me for coffee after work. She apologized for letting her birthday dinner become the place where everything came out.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I said.
“I watched Megan flirt with Daniel earlier in the evening. I thought if I ignored it, she’d stop.”
“Ryan said something similar.”
“I should have spoken up.”
“You did speak up. You came outside.”
Lena stirred her coffee.
“Megan’s been calling people. She says she made an awkward joke and you threatened her business because you were embarrassed.”
“Do they believe her?”
“Some might. I told the people who asked what I heard.”
I was grateful. I also wished my oldest friend had left me with a smaller mess to explain.
When I returned to Tasha’s, a letter from Megan was waiting.
She had left it at the door.
Inside was a photocopy of the loan agreement and a note in her handwriting.
You signed this because you wanted to support me. I won’t let you rewrite history now that you’re angry.
I read the line twice.
May you like
On the copy, beneath the disputed signature, someone had written a date.
That date was the day I had been at the hospital with Tasha from morning until evening.
