“I have had cancer since March.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
I looked at him for a long moment.
“Because the last time your mother was in the hospital, I heard you and Amber discussing her life insurance in the hallway.”
Jason looked as if I had struck him.
Amber’s face hardened.
“That is a terrible thing to accuse people of.”
“It is,” I said. “And it was a terrible thing to hear.”
Jason lowered himself slowly back into his chair.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he whispered.
“How did you mean it?” I asked. “Kindly?”
He had no answer.
Amber reached for her purse.
“We are not going to sit here and be humiliated by some dramatic performance.”
“No,” I said quietly. “You were only comfortable when my wife was the one being humiliated.”
That stopped her.
I took out the last few pages.
Printed receipts.
Order confirmations.
A charge to Jason’s business card from a novelty website.
A fake ultrasound generator.
A silicone pregnancy belly listed as “fourteen-week size.”
Amber froze.
Jason looked down at the papers, then at his wife.
“What is that?”
Amber’s hand moved instinctively to her stomach.
“Nothing.”
“What is that?” Jason said again, louder.
I did not raise my voice.
“Your wife is not pregnant.”
Kathy’s eyes closed.
For a second, the whole restaurant seemed to hold its breath.
Amber laughed, but it came out wrong.
“This is insane. You’re seriously going to believe them? They’re desperate. They want money. They want attention.”
Jason was still staring at the receipt.
“It’s my card.”
Amber swallowed.
“It was for a costume thing.”
“A costume thing?”
“For a video. For content. I was going to return it.”
Jason looked at her stomach.
“Amber.”
She stood too fast, and when she did, the fitted fabric of her dress shifted. It was not dramatic, not like something from a movie. Just one small gap near her waist. Enough for anyone close to see the edge of the padding beneath the dress.
Kathy turned her face away.
That hurt worse than the lie itself.
Amber had not just lied to Jason.
She had handed a sick woman hope at a dinner table and watched her cry over it.
Jason stepped back from her.
“No,” he said.
Amber grabbed his sleeve.
“Jason, listen to me.”
“No.”
Her voice sharpened. “I did it because we needed time.”
“Time for what?”
“For the business,” she snapped. “For Derek to fix things. For you to stop falling apart. For your parents to stop acting like giving you money sixteen years ago means they own you forever.”
There it was.
Not grief. Not apology.
Resentment.
Jason stared at her.
“What does Derek have to do with this?”
Amber’s face changed again.
I could see the moment she realized she had said too much.
Jason’s business partner, Derek Hartman, had been part of his company from the beginning. Smooth voice, perfect teeth, always calling me “sir” in a way that made it sound like a joke. I never trusted him, but fathers are often told their instincts are just age turning into suspicion.
Amber looked around at the phones, the silent tables, Miguel standing nearby.