At My Baby Shower He Celebrated Another Woman’s Child Chapter 06
“I’m not going to fall apart.”
With my lawyer’s help, I had already legally reclaimed Iris’s ashes.
I placed the sealed documents in a drawer and looked up at June.
“I’m going to wait one year.”
“Until Clara turns one. Until that luncheon where the Mercer family trust confirms her as an heir.”
“I’m going to make Graham—and every single person who betrayed me—pay for what happened to Iris.”
I closed the drawer.
“On Clara’s first birthday, I’m giving them all a gift.”
A year later, Clara’s first birthday luncheon and trust heir confirmation ceremony was held at the Mercer family’s seaside estate.
A champagne tower. White roses. Pearl-colored balloons. Even the silver cradle on the cake was an exact replica of the one I had designed for Iris.
Only the child at the center of it all had changed.
Just as the trust lawyer stepped onto the stage, I pushed open the banquet hall doors, a solitary figure in a black dress.
The laughter died.
Graham shot to his feet, knocking over his wineglass.
“Nora?”
He strode toward me, his eyes instantly red-rimmed.
“Where have you been this past year? I’ve been looking for you everywhere. It was all a misunderstanding. I regret it every day. I lost our child, too—”
He reached for me.
I stepped aside and handed him a white gift box tied with a black ribbon.
“If today is for the child, then you should open her gift first.”
Every eye in the room was on us.
Graham’s hands trembled as he untied the ribbon and lifted the lid.
There were no jewels inside.
Only a perfectly preserved glass urn of ashes. Beside it lay a hospital baby ID band and a keepsake card printed with two tiny purple footprints.
On the wristband, the name was clear: *Iris Mercer*.
All the color drained from Graham’s face. His knees buckled, and he nearly collapsed.
He stared at the box, shaking so hard his voice was a fractured whisper.
“Nora… what is this?”
I looked at him, my own voice perfectly calm.
“This is your daughter. Iris.”
“You kept saying you hadn’t lost a daughter, so I brought you the only one you ever truly had.”