Chapter 1 - THE MESSAGE THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
“YOU EXPECT ME TO SAVE YOUR ENGAGEMENT PARTY, GRAHAM? AFTER YOU TOLD ME I WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH TO ATTEND? THEN YOU’D BETTER EXPLAIN WHY MY NAME IS ON A CONTRACT I NEVER SIGNED!”
I stared at my phone, struggling to believe what I had just read.
Four hours earlier, I'd left Providence with an overnight bag and a simple plan: spend the weekend somewhere my family couldn't make me feel worthless.
Now I was sitting inside my parked car at a roadside rest area in Maine, looking at a message that made my heart pound.
Graham had written:
Audrey, Hannah's father wants to know why you signed an eighteen-month business agreement and aren't here to discuss it. Dad told him everything was arranged. Please call me before this gets worse.
I read those words three times.
Eighteen-month business agreement?
What agreement?
I owned Bluebird Bakes. I made custom cakes, wedding desserts, and specialty pastries. I didn't have the employees, equipment, or desire to enter some enormous corporate arrangement.
And I certainly hadn't signed anything with Hannah's family.
My phone vibrated again.
Dad.
I let it ring.
Another message followed.
Audrey, stop acting like a child. We need to straighten this out.
I almost laughed.
Apparently, choosing not to deliver free desserts to a party where I wasn't welcome made me childish.
But signing mysterious business agreements behind my back was perfectly acceptable.
I called my cousin Tessa.
She answered immediately.
“Oh, thank God. Audrey, where are you?”
“Maine.”
“Maine?”
“Yes, Tessa. It's that state north of Massachusetts.”
“This isn't funny.”
“Neither was being excluded from my brother's engagement party.”
She went quiet.
Behind her, I could hear music, conversation, and the unmistakable clinking of champagne glasses.
She was still at Briar Point.
“Listen,” she whispered. “Something is really wrong here.”
My stomach tightened.
“What's happening?”
“The dessert table is completely empty. Graham told everyone there was a delivery problem. But that's not the strange part.”
I looked through my windshield at the gray Maine sky.
“What is?”
“There's a presentation about Graham's business. They've printed these beautiful brochures announcing some new partnership between Vale House Events and Bluebird Bakes.”
I stopped breathing for a second.
“My bakery?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don't know. The brochure makes it sound like your bakery is becoming part of Graham's company.”
I gripped the steering wheel.
“That isn't happening.”
“I figured you would say that.”
Tessa lowered her voice further.
“There's more. Hannah's father has been asking questions about a signed agreement. Graham keeps disappearing into a private room with your dad.”
I closed my eyes.
For seven years, my family had dismissed Bluebird Bakes as a hobby.
Now, suddenly, my bakery was important enough to appear in expensive corporate brochures.
Interesting timing.
“Does Hannah know?” I asked.
“I don't think she knew you weren't coming.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“When she noticed the missing cake, she asked where you were. Graham told her you had an emergency order and couldn't leave the bakery.”
My chest tightened.
“So they told her I couldn't come?”
“Yes.”
“Not that I wasn't invited?”
“No.”
I stared at the wet pavement outside my car.
That changed everything.
My brother hadn't simply excluded me.
He had lied about why I was absent.
And apparently, he was using my business to impress his future in-laws.
“Take pictures of everything,” I told Tessa.
“Already doing it.”
“Especially anything with my bakery's name.”
“Audrey, are you coming back?”
I thought about the magnificent cake sitting inside my refrigerator.
The lavender macarons.
The miniature lemon tarts.
All the hours I'd spent preparing food for people who couldn't spare one chair for me.
“No,” I said quietly.
“Not until someone tells me the truth.”
After hanging up, I called Dad.
He answered before the first ring finished.
“Finally!”
“Dad, what's this contract Graham mentioned?”
A pause.
“It's a business opportunity.”
“Whose business?”
“Don't start.”
“Whose business, Dad?”
He exhaled sharply.
“Graham has arranged something potentially very profitable with Hannah's father's hospitality company.”
“Then Graham should sign whatever agreement they're discussing.”
“It's more complicated than that.”
“Why?”
“Because Bluebird is part of the proposal.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“I never agreed to that.”
“You've helped Graham with events for years.”
“Helping my brother make cheesecakes doesn't give him ownership of my bakery.”
“Watch your tone.”
“No. You watch yours.”
Silence.
I had never spoken to my father like that.
Not when he criticized my career.
Not when he compared me to Graham.
Not even when he told me to deliver the engagement cake and disappear.
But something had changed.
I was no longer asking permission to be treated like an adult.
“Did you sign something in my name?” I asked.
Dad hesitated.
“We'll discuss this when you get here.”
“Answer the question.”
“Your brother's future is at stake!”
“And mine isn't?”
He said nothing.
I waited.
Finally, he spoke.
“Graham needs this agreement. His company has had some difficult months.”
My stomach sank.
“How difficult?”
“Don't worry about that.”
“Then don't involve my business.”
“You don't understand how families work, Audrey. Sometimes one person has to make sacrifices for everyone else.”
I looked down at my hands.
The same hands that had mixed frosting before sunrise, carried heavy trays, repaired broken equipment, and built Bluebird Bakes one customer at a time.
For years, those sacrifices had always been mine.
“I'm not signing anything,” I said.
“Then you're putting your brother in a terrible position.”
“No, Dad. Whoever promised something they didn't own put him there.”
I ended the call.
My hands were shaking.
But underneath the fear, I felt something unexpectedly solid.
I had finally said no.
A minute later, a message appeared from an unfamiliar number.
Audrey, this is Hannah. I was told you couldn't attend because of work. I had no idea what was happening. Please don't sign anything or agree to anything over the phone until we've spoken.
I stared at the screen.
Then another message arrived.
This one was from Tessa.
Audrey, I found the contract.
A photograph followed.
It showed the final page of a document titled Vendor Integration Agreement.
At the bottom was a signature.
My signature.
Except there was one devastating problem.
I HAD NEVER SIGNED THAT DOCUMENT.
And when I enlarged the photograph, I recognized something about the handwriting that made my blood run cold.
Someone hadn't just written my name.
May you like
Someone had copied my actual signature from somewhere else.
And I had a terrible suspicion about who possessed the original.
