I walked into my boyfriend’s family barbecue twenty-seven weeks pregnant / Chapter 6 / 63

Chapter 6 - Public Reckoning

The Mercer Family Investment firm occupied the top floor of the heritage brick building downtown. When Owen, Jenna, and I stepped out of the brass elevator at 11:15 AM, the double mahogany doors to the executive boardroom were wide open.

Laughter drifted down the hallway, accompanied by the clinking of porcelain and silverware. Denise had not merely gathered her immediate family; she had invited Tyler’s business partners, several extended cousins who had joined in the online mocking, and the local county commissioner who was a close friend of the family.

I took a deep breath, adjusted the collar of my blazer over my baby bump, and walked in.

The laughter died instantly.

A dozen heads turned toward the doorway. Tyler, sitting at the head of the conference table next to his mother, visibly flinched, his face draining of color. He looked down at the table, clutching his napkin as if he wished it could swallow him whole.

Denise, however, stood up with a theatrical sigh of pity, smoothing her cream linen pantsuit.

"Claire," Denise announced, projecting her voice so everyone in the room—and the staff in the hallway—could hear. "I must admit, I didn't think you would actually show your face. If you came to apologize privately, you should have called my assistant. We are in the middle of a private family business meeting."

"I didn't come to apologize, Denise," I said, my voice steady, resonant, and clear. "You posted on social media forty-five minutes ago challenging me to bring the official results here. You told two thousand people that silence was a confession of guilt."

A murmur rippled through the seated guests. Tyler cleared his throat weakly. "Mom, maybe we should take this into an office—"

"No, Tyler!" Denise snapped, cutting him off with a flick of her manicured wrist. "She wanted public drama; she gets public transparency. Well, Claire? Did the clinic confirm what we all suspected? Who is paying for that baby?"

Jenna stepped forward, unzipping her leather portfolio with deliberate slowness. She pulled out a thick, cream-colored dossier with the embossed gold seal of Genex Diagnostics.

"I am Jenna Sterling, legal counsel for Claire Vance," Jenna announced, her voice commanding the entire room. "I have here the certified, chain-of-custody laboratory results signed by Dr. Robert Chen, Chief Geneticist. Furthermore, every person in this room who participated in the online defamation campaign launched by Denise Mercer will receive a copy of this document—attached to a summons for civil court."