Chapter 1
My mother-in-law smashed my four-year-old daughter’s birthday cake straight into her face while everyone was singing. When my little girl started screaming, I grabbed that woman by the hair and slapped her before anyone could stop me.
The room went silent.
My daughter, Emma, stood frozen beside the table with frosting covering her eyes and nose.
“Mommy!” she screamed.
I rushed to wipe the cake from her face.
Then I saw blood.
A broken plastic decoration had cut her cheek.
I turned around so fast my chair fell over.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?”
My mother-in-law, Diane, was laughing.
Actually laughing.
“Oh, calm down,” she said. “It was a joke.”
“A joke?”
“She’s spoiled anyway.”
Something inside me snapped.
I crossed the room, grabbed Diane by the hair, and pulled her away from the table.
She screamed.
I slapped her across the face.
My husband, Jason, immediately grabbed my arm.
“Sarah! Have you lost your mind?”
I pointed at Emma.
“Your mother just hurt our daughter!”
Diane touched her cheek and started crying.
“She attacked me in front of the whole family!”
Jason looked at me like I was the problem.
Then he said the words I will never forget.
“Apologize to my mother.”
I stared at him.
Emma was still crying behind me.
“You want me to apologize?”
“Yes.”
Diane smiled through her fake tears.
“She’s always been unstable, Jason.”
I felt sick.
Then Emma suddenly whispered, “Grandma told me this morning she was going to make Mommy leave.”
Everyone heard her.
Diane’s face changed.
Jason looked at our daughter.
“What are you talking about?”
Emma pointed toward Diane’s purse.
“She said after the party, Daddy would have a new wife.”
My stomach dropped.
Diane lunged for her purse.
I grabbed it first.
“What’s in here?”
“Give me that!”
I opened it.
Inside was an envelope with my name written across the front.
There were divorce papers inside.
Already signed by Jason.
I looked up at my husband.
He went completely pale.
But underneath the papers was something worse.
A photograph of Jason kissing a woman outside a hotel.
And when I turned the picture over, Diane stopped screaming.
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There was one sentence written on the back.
“Emma must never find out who her real mother is.”
