TWO

DAISY

For the second time that day, my phone dropped from my hand as I stared at the faces in front of me. Selene, Ilya, and Mia. My three best friends from Pack School and my bridesmaids were standing in front of me. What were they doing here? And why were they sweating so badly?

Was Aaron inside with them?

“Wh… what’s going on?” I stuttered, my eyes flicking between the three of them.

Selene nudged me with her fingers and smiled. “It’s a surprise, silly.”

“A surprise?”

“Yes! We planned all of this to get you here.”

I could feel the wrinkles forming on my forehead from frowning. None of this was making any sense. I glanced between them again before picking up my phone and holding it up to their faces.

“The messages? The address? The pictures?”

The three of them exchanged a look before laughing right in my face, the sound only adding to my distress.

“Aaron planned it for you. We’ve been working on this all morning,” Ilya added this time before nudging Mia with her shoulder. “Go ahead. Explain it all.”

“Of course,” Mia said before wrapping an arm around my neck and pulling me inside. “This is a baby shower for you. Aaron knows how long you’ve been trying for a baby, so he asked us to do this. But we didn’t want you to figure it out or just invite you, so we decided to do it this way. Something that would get you here without you figuring out what we were up to.”

She stopped, removed her arm, and stood in front of me once more with a dazzling smile on her face.

“So, what do you think? Did we do it well?”

I couldn’t even talk.

Everything I had seen and thought of since coming here played over and over in my head. The woman on the table, the switching of shirts, the kissing, his trousers pulled down as a woman pleasured him.

“A surprise?” I repeated out loud, because none of this made sense.

“Yes!” they all chuckled, beaming like something was so funny. “Poor Daisy. I can imagine how your heart would have given out. Aaron was part of it too. He hired the woman and hired someone to take the pictures to make it all believable. The woman was a prop. It’s like how they do it on TV. Like a sex performance.”

“A… a prop?”

“Yes,” they all nodded. “Aaron wanted to make it…”

“Believable,” I completed for them.

“I’m sorry if we scared you. We just wanted to make it all good for you.”

For the first time since I got the message, ease pooled into my chest. It felt like a brick had been sitting on my chest and had finally been removed.

“Oh God,” I cried. “I was so scared. I thought… I was so… Oh God…”

“We know. We know,” they all sang in unison.

I finally looked properly around the room, and that was when I saw it.

The surprise.

Unfinished decorations lay scattered around the room, paper, foil, ribbons, and everything else that clearly showed they were still setting up. For a planned baby shower, this was nothing.

“Why is it not done yet? Where is the cake? The food?”

“Oh, please, Daisy. You came on time. We didn’t know you’d get here this early,” Selene replied.

“We were still setting up. But the cake will be here soon.”

I frowned, unease settling over me again.

The cracks were starting to form again.

“But you sent the text. It doesn’t make sense for you not to finish…” I started, but Selene quickly cut me off.

“Relax, Daisy. We’re trying our best,” she said with an edge to her voice as they continued setting up.

But the feeling had already settled.

Something was wrong here.

And it wasn’t until then that I noticed the small details.

Ilya’s hair was blonde, just like the woman in the picture, only hers was a little rough and messy. Her face looked slightly flushed. Selene kept glancing toward the entrance, while Mia seemed determined not to meet my eyes.

Still, I pushed it aside.

This was all a surprise.

I was probably just on edge because of the messages.

I smiled faintly. “Well… thank you. This means a lot.”

That softened them instantly, and they all looked at me.

“We know,” Selene said more gently.

The four of us had been friends since Pack School. Back then, everything had been simple. We had shared rooms, meals, secrets, and years of growing up together. Then things changed when I met Aaron, they started drifting away. And when I married him, they simply left.

“How did you all manage this place?” I asked, glancing around the large, expensive-looking house. “When did you even move?”

Another quick exchange passed between them.

“We moved recently,” Mia said.

“This place must cost a fortune,” I added.

“We saved,” Selene replied a little too quickly.

I frowned before laughing a little. “Saved? Since when did you guys learn to save? I thought you spent it as it came.”

Ilya gave a short laugh. “You’ve been busy, Daisy. Not everyone stayed in the same world.”

The words weren’t openly harsh, but they carried something sharp beneath them. Selene shot her a look, but Ilya only shrugged like she hadn’t meant anything by it.

Guilt flickered through me.

Maybe things had changed.

When I got married, I tried to keep everything the same, but they pulled away from me. Every hangout, every outing I planned was always rejected.

Busy.

No time.

Not in the city.

Those were the excuses they always gave me.

But maybe I hadn’t tried hard enough.

“I’m sorry,” I started, guilt tainting my voice. “I know we haven’t hung out in a while, but let me make it up to you guys. How about this Saturday? We can do something more…”

Before they could give me a reply, the doorbell rang, and Ilya quickly stood up.

“That must be the cake. I’ll get it.”

She rushed out without even looking at me, and something about it felt strange.

She came back minutes later carrying a cut cake on four separate plates with wine, all placed on a tray.

“Here, this is yours, Daisy.”

“Thank you.”

I smiled as I started eating. The cake was delicious, melting on my tongue.

“Wow! This is so nice!” I exclaimed.

“Of course! We only get the best things for you,” they all said together, looking at me as we ate.

The conversation started again, this time flowing more naturally than before. We talked about life, my anniversary with Aaron, and how they had made the plan, which they all quickly pushed aside whenever I tried to get them to divulge their secrets.

Then suddenly, my stomach tightened.

It started as a dull discomfort, nothing alarming. I shifted slightly in my seat, brushing it off.

“I think I ate something wrong.”

Mia chuckled. “Baby’s acting up already?”

I smiled faintly. “Probably just digestion.”

But the pain came again, sharper this time, making me pause. I pressed a hand lightly against my stomach, frowning. Something about it felt different now, less like discomfort and more like something deeper that I couldn’t immediately name.

“I think I need the bathroom,” I said, standing slowly.

“Second door on the left,” Selene replied.

I laughed awkwardly as I left the table. “Either pregnancy is weird, or my stomach hates me today.”

No one seemed alarmed.

I didn’t think I needed to be either until I reached the bathroom.

The moment I closed the door behind me, another wave of pain hit, stronger than before. I braced myself against the sink, breathing slowly as something warm suddenly slipped down my thigh.

My body froze.

I looked down slowly.

Red.

For a moment, my mind refused to understand what I was seeing.

“No,” I whispered.

My hands moved to my stomach instantly as the realization set in.

“No, no, no…”

This couldn’t be happening.

Not now.

Not after everything.

My hands trembled violently as I reached for my phone. I needed Aaron. I needed help.

But before I could dial, the screen lit up with a new message from the same unknown number.

My breath caught.

“They’re lying to you.”

I stared at it, confusion cutting through the panic for half a second.

What?

How was this number still texting me if it belonged to them? Another sharp pain tore through me, stronger than before.

My phone slipped from my hand as my legs weakened, blood continuing to spread beneath me.

“Aaron…” I whispered, my voice breaking.

The last thing I saw before everything went black was the message glowing faintly on the floor.

**************

When I finally woke up, the first thing I saw was the doctor. Then my friends.

They were all standing in front of me, but their expressions were now different. No smiling or laughing. Just silence.

“Wh… what’s going on?” I whispered, my voice barely audible. “Why… why are you all looking at me like that?”

None of them answered. I looked from one face to another, searching for someone to tell me what had happened. The doctor exchanged a glance with my friends, then Mia nodded at him.

The doctor finally looked back at me, adjusting his glasses as his expression softened.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Daisy… But your baby is gone. You had a miscarriage.”