Chapter 2: The Baker Who Tried to Warn Someone
They didn't call ahead.
Officer Rodriguez and his partner drove straight to the Texas Hill Country Estate.
I know because my best friend Dana was still inside — and she texted me the moment the doors opened.
*"Two cops just walked in.
The music stopped.
Everyone is staring."*
Then, thirty seconds later:
*"Lena.
Haley just laughed.
She actually LAUGHED."*
I stared at my phone under the ER lights, my cheek still raw and bandaged, my hands shaking against the screen.
Then Dana called me.
"She told the officer it was a cake decoration," Dana said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"She said you must have hit your face on your own jewelry.
She said — Lena, she said you've always been dramatic."
I couldn't speak.
"But there's something else," Dana said.
"The baker is here.
She's been crying in the corner since before the cops arrived.
One of the waitstaff said she tried to warn someone this afternoon and nobody listened."
My throat tightened.
"Who did she try to warn?"
Dana went quiet for a moment.
"She says she called your mother, Lena.
Two hours before the reception started."
May you like
The room felt like it tilted sideways beneath me.
My mother had been standing right beside me when the cake hit my face.
