PART 2 — THE NAME SHE PLANNED TO PUT BESIDE MY HUSBAND
Patricia stared at my phone for three seconds.
That does not sound long until you are sitting at a dinner table with eleven people pretending not to watch a woman realize she has been caught.
Her fork remained suspended over the coconut cake.
Then she placed it down carefully.
“Dana,” she said, “you really shouldn’t go through private correspondence.”
I almost laughed.
“Private correspondence I was copied on?”
Her mouth tightened.
Eric reached for my phone.
I put my hand over it before he could.
“No,” I said. “You can read it from there.”
His eyes moved across the screen.
I watched the exact second he reached the words.
Please remove Dana from Eric’s cabin for now. Family decision.
His face changed.
“Mom.”
Patricia picked up her coffee.
“Yes?”
“What is this?”
She took a sip like we were discussing the weather.
“I told you. There was an oversight.”
“An oversight doesn’t usually come with an email requesting that my wife be removed.”
Nobody touched their dessert.
Megan stared at Patricia.
Trevor suddenly found the pattern on his napkin fascinating.
Patricia sighed.
That sigh.
The one she used when everyone around her had become too stupid to understand how reasonable she was.
“There were concerns.”
I leaned forward.
“What concerns?”
“This really isn’t appropriate dinner conversation.”
“You announced the cruise at dinner.”
Her eyes snapped to mine.
For the first time that evening, the smile disappeared completely.
Eric said, “What concerns?”
Patricia rubbed one finger along the rim of her coffee cup.
“Dana has made it clear over the years that she doesn’t particularly enjoy spending time with this family.”
I actually looked around the table to see whether anyone else had heard what I had heard.
“I paid $4,760 toward a family vacation I supposedly don’t want to attend.”
“That money was temporary.”
“Six months is temporary?”
“I was going to reimburse you.”
“When?”
She ignored that.
Eric pushed his plate away.
“Mom, put Dana back on the reservation.”
Patricia’s eyes moved to him.
It was almost fascinating watching her calculate.
“You don’t understand how complicated that would be now.”
“Why?”
“The cabins have been assigned.”
“She was assigned to mine.”
“There have been changes.”
There.
That sentence hit the room differently.
I felt it before I understood it.
“What changes?” I asked.
Patricia looked at Megan.
Megan immediately looked away.
My stomach tightened.
Eric noticed too.
“Megan?”
His sister’s face flushed.
“I’m not getting involved.”
“You’re already involved,” I said quietly.
She shook her head.
“Mom said she was handling everything.”
“Handling what?”
Nobody answered.
I picked up Eric’s blue folder and opened it again.
Cabin 8234.
Eric Malloy.
Guest pending.
I flipped through the pages more slowly this time.
Excursion package.
Dining reservation.
Drink package.
Emergency contact form.
Then I found something clipped to the back.
A handwritten seating chart for dinner.
Patricia.
Megan.
Trevor.
Uncle Ray.
Aunt Susan.
Two cousins.
Eric.
And beside Eric’s name was an empty line.
Not Dana.
Just an empty line.
I looked up.
“Who is supposed to be in his cabin?”
Eric frowned. “Nobody.”
Patricia said nothing.
That was my answer.
I stood.
Eric stood too.
“Dana—”
“No. I want her to answer.”
Patricia folded her napkin.
“You’re being dramatic.”
“Who is supposed to be in Cabin 8234 with my husband?”
“Dana.”
“Who?”
Megan whispered, “Mom.”
Patricia turned on her.
“Enough.”
And that was when I knew Megan knew the name.
I looked straight at her.
“Megan.”
She swallowed.
“Don’t put me in this.”
“You let me sit here while your mother handed everyone a folder except me.”
“I didn’t make the reservation.”
“But you knew.”
Silence.
Eric looked between them.
His face had gone pale.
“Knew what?”
Megan closed her eyes for half a second.
Then she said, “Ashley.”
Eric froze.
I had never heard the name before.
“Who is Ashley?” I asked.
Patricia pushed back from the table so sharply her chair scraped the hardwood.
“This has gone far enough.”
“No,” I said. “It just started.”
Eric looked at his mother.
“Who is Ashley?”
Patricia began gathering plates.
He took the plate from her hand and set it back down.
“Mom.”
Her expression hardened.
“She’s a friend of the family.”
“What family?”
“Eric—”
“What family?”
Megan finally spoke.
“She works with Mom’s church committee.”
I stared at her.
“And she’s going on the cruise?”
Megan nodded once.
Eric looked stunned.
“Why would she be in my cabin?”
Patricia snapped, “Nobody said she was.”
“Then why did Megan say her name?”
Patricia turned toward her daughter with such fury that Megan actually leaned back.
“That is not what we discussed.”
Interesting.
Not “That isn’t true.”
Not “Ashley isn’t going.”
That is not what we discussed.
I picked up my phone.
“I’m calling Leanne.”
Patricia’s face changed immediately.
“You are not.”
I almost smiled.
“Why?”
“The reservation is in my name.”
“The deposit came from my account.”
“You have no authority to make changes.”
“I’m not making changes. I’m asking a question.”
She stepped toward me.
“Dana, give me the phone.”
I took one step back.
“Don’t touch me.”
Eric moved between us.
“Mom, sit down.”
“I am not going to be interrogated in my own house.”
I looked around at the blue folders.
“You were perfectly comfortable humiliating me in your own house.”
“That was not my intention.”
“You handed out eleven folders.”
“I already explained—”
“You had six months to print mine.”
Her cheeks turned red.
For once, Patricia Malloy had run out of polished phrases.
I opened the confirmation email and found Leanne’s number beneath her signature.
Patricia watched my thumb hover over it.
Then she said something that changed the entire evening.
“If you call her, you may regret what you find out.”
Eric slowly turned toward his mother.
“What does that mean?”
Patricia said nothing.
I pressed CALL.
The phone rang once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then voicemail.
Of course.
It was Sunday evening.
I ended the call.
Patricia gave me a small, satisfied smile.
“You see?”
“No,” I said. “I see that travel agents apparently don’t work during your coconut cake.”
Trevor coughed into his fist.
Megan almost smiled before catching herself.
Patricia glared at both of them.
I forwarded the entire email chain to my personal backup address.
Then I forwarded it to Eric.
His phone buzzed.
“Read the attachment,” I said.
“What attachment?”
“The trust letter.”
Patricia went completely still.
Eric opened it.
I watched him scroll.
His eyes narrowed.
Then he read the clause aloud.
“No family funds for travel unless legal spouses are included or decline in writing.”
He looked at his mother.
“You used Dad’s trust to pay for this cruise?”
Patricia folded her arms.
“Your father created that trust for family experiences.”
“And Dana is my family.”
“She was originally included.”
“Then you removed her.”
“I had reasons.”
“What reasons?”
Patricia glanced at me.
For a second, I saw something beneath the arrogance.
Fear.
Not embarrassment.
Fear.
And suddenly the cruise itself felt smaller than whatever she was hiding.
I said, “Eric, ask her how much money she took from the trust.”
Patricia snapped, “Do not accuse me of stealing.”
“I didn’t.”
That shut her up.
“I asked how much you took.”
Eric looked at the paperwork.
“The cruise total is almost thirty thousand dollars.”
Megan whispered, “What?”
Patricia waved a hand.
“That includes everyone.”
“Everyone except Dana,” Eric said.
I tapped the clause on the screen.
“If she removed me without my written refusal, would the trust administrator have approved the money?”
Eric’s eyes lifted.
Patricia’s did not.
There was my second answer.
Megan whispered, “Mom, what did you send them?”
Patricia’s jaw tightened.
I felt a cold sensation crawl across my shoulders.
“What did she send them?” I asked.
Megan shook her head quickly.
“I don’t know.”
But again, she looked afraid.
Eric walked around the table.
“Mom. What did you send the trust administrator?”
Patricia’s voice became quiet.
“You’re making this into something it isn’t.”
“What did you send?”
She stared at him.
Then at me.
Finally, she said, “Documentation.”
“What documentation?”
“That Dana wasn’t attending.”
“I never said I wasn’t attending,” I replied.
Patricia looked down.
I remembered the email attachment.
The trust distribution letter.
There might have been more attachments in the chain.
I started scrolling.
Patricia saw what I was doing.
“Dana.”
I kept scrolling.
“Dana, stop.”
That was the first time all evening she sounded genuinely nervous.
I found another email from three months earlier.
No preview.
One attachment.
DECLINATION_DANA_MALLOY.pdf.
My heart began pounding.
I opened it.
The first page loaded.
Carnival Family Travel Declination.
Passenger: Dana Malloy.
I read the paragraph beneath it.
I voluntarily decline participation in the Malloy family cruise and consent to travel funds being distributed for the remaining eligible family members.
Then I saw the signature.
Dana Malloy.
My name.
My handwriting.
Except I had never signed it.
The room went silent.
Eric stared over my shoulder.
“Oh my God.”
I zoomed in.
My signature had been copied from somewhere.
Not perfectly.
But well enough.
Patricia whispered, “Dana, there is an explanation.”
I looked at her.
“You forged my signature.”
“I did not forge anything.”
“My name is on a document I have never seen.”
Megan covered her mouth.
Eric looked furious now.
Not nervous.
Not uncomfortable.
Furious.
“Mom, did you do this?”
“I said there is an explanation.”
“Then explain it.”
Patricia looked toward the hallway.
For one strange second, I thought she might actually run.
Instead she lowered herself into her chair.
She looked suddenly older.
“The trust administrator required paperwork.”
“So you manufactured it?” I asked.
“I was trying to keep the reservation from falling apart.”
“By forging my signature?”
“You weren’t supposed to know.”
The sentence escaped before she could stop it.
Nobody moved.
I stared at her.
“You weren’t supposed to know?”
Patricia closed her eyes.
Eric said, “Jesus Christ, Mom.”
I saved the PDF.
Then another thought occurred to me.
If she was willing to forge a document involving nearly thirty thousand dollars, then excluding me from a cruise was not the whole plan.
I looked at the passenger list again.
“Who is Ashley?”
Patricia said nothing.
“Megan.”
Her daughter shook her head.
“Megan, I am going to call the cruise line tomorrow. I am going to call Leanne. I am going to call the trust administrator. So whatever secret you’re protecting has approximately twelve hours left.”
Megan’s eyes filled with tears.
Patricia pointed at her.
“Do not say another word.”
That did it.
Megan stood.
“For once, Mom, stop telling everybody what they’re allowed to say.”
“Megan.”
“No. You told me Dana knew.”
My stomach dropped.
“Knew what?”
Megan looked at me.
“You said Dana agreed that Eric could—”
Patricia slammed her palm on the table.
“Megan!”
The silverware jumped.
Eric stared at his sister.
“Could what?”
Megan’s face crumpled.
“I’m sorry.”
“Megan, could what?”
She looked at Eric.
Then at me.
“Share the cabin with Ashley.”
I turned toward my husband.
His face looked as shocked as mine.
“I did not agree to that.”
“I know,” Megan whispered.
Patricia stood again.
“This is being completely misunderstood.”
I laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You removed me, forged my signature, took trust money, and planned to put another woman in my husband’s cabin.”
“She wasn’t going as his partner.”
“Then why his cabin?”
“Because cabin assignments changed.”
“There are eleven people going. Put her with you.”
Patricia opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Eric said, “Dana, we’re leaving.”
I picked up my purse.
Patricia followed us toward the front door.
“Eric, you need to understand that Ashley’s situation is complicated.”
He stopped.
“What situation?”
“Not tonight.”
“What situation?”
Patricia looked toward the dining room.
Everyone was listening.
She lowered her voice.
“There are things your father arranged before he died.”
Eric frowned.
“What does Dad have to do with Ashley?”
Patricia immediately looked as if she wished she could pull the words back.
I felt that same cold feeling again.
Eric stepped closer.
“Mom.”
She shook her head.
“You should leave.”
“You just brought Dad into this.”
“I shouldn’t have.”
“Who is Ashley?”
Patricia opened the door.
“Goodnight.”
Eric did not move.
I touched his arm.
“Come on.”
He looked at me.
I could see twenty questions fighting behind his eyes.
But I had one of my own.
And it had nothing to do with the cruise anymore.
We drove home without speaking for the first ten minutes.
Then Eric said, “I swear to you, I don’t know any Ashley.”
“I believe you.”
He looked surprised.
“I do.”
“Then why do you look like that?”
“Because your mother isn’t trying to send you on vacation with a random woman.”
He tightened his hands on the steering wheel.
“What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know yet.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
One text.
I opened it.
My breath caught.
Eric glanced over.
“What?”
The message contained a photograph.
A woman about our age standing beside Patricia on what looked like a church patio.
Blonde hair.
Green dress.
One hand resting protectively over a very pregnant stomach.
Beneath the picture was one sentence.
ASK PATRICIA WHY ASHLEY’S BABY IS LISTED AS FRANK MALLOY’S BENEFICIARY.
Eric pulled the car onto the shoulder so fast my seat belt locked across my chest.
“What does it say?”
I handed him the phone.
He read the message twice.
Then a third time.
“My father has been dead for four years.”
“I know.”
Eric looked at the photograph.
Then at me.
“That baby hasn’t even been born.”
Another message arrived.
This time, it included a screenshot from what appeared to be a trust document.
Eric read the first three lines.
His face drained of color.
Because beneath Ashley’s name was a date.
And beside it were four words neither of us expected to see.
PATERNITY INTEREST — ERIC MALLOY.
Eric whispered, “What the hell is this?”
Before I could answer, my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman was crying on the other end.
“Dana?”
“Yes?”
“My name is Ashley.”
Eric stared at me.
The woman took a trembling breath.
“Please don’t hang up. Patricia has lied to both of us.”
Then she said the one sentence that made Eric grab the dashboard.
“I was never supposed to share a cruise cabin with your husband.”
She began sobbing.
“I was supposed to tell him the baby was his.”…………
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 3…
