Eric looked at her.
“No?”
“I never asked for blue flowers.”
“My mother asked whether we should add blue.”
“I said no.”
Nathan nodded.
“I was there.”
Emily pointed at the cake.
“This is the cake I ordered.”
“Every flower.”
“Every detail.”
Margaret looked away because relief had become too much.
Emily noticed.
“What happened?”
Nobody answered immediately.
David did.
“He told Margaret the cake was wrong.”
Emily looked at Eric.
Eric said:
“Based on the order in the system.”
David continued.
“He told her to throw it away.”
Emily’s face changed completely.
“What?”
Margaret said quietly:
“It’s okay.”
“No.”
Emily turned toward her.
“It is not.”
Margaret looked at the cake.
“He believed the order was different.”
Emily turned back to Eric.
“But my order wasn’t different.”
Eric spoke faster.
“There may have been a clerical correction.”
“Whose?”
Emily asked.
“I finalized the design yesterday.”
“Nothing changed.”
Eric said:
“I found an inconsistency after lunch.”
Rosa appeared beside the production computer.
“Then explain this.”
Everyone looked.
She had printed the order history.
Two pages.
The first was entered the previous afternoon.
Initials:
ED.
Eric Dawson.
Design:
Peach roses.
White filler flowers.
Ivory piping.
No metallic ribbon.
Print time:
7:46 a.m. that morning.
The second order version appeared at 1:42 p.m.
Also edited under Eric’s employee login.
Design changed to:
Dusty blue roses.
White hydrangeas.
Silver ribbon.
Minimal green.
Print time:
1:46 p.m.
Margaret’s cake had been completed at 1:31.
Rosa held both pages.
“This is the sheet I saw on Margaret’s station.”
She pointed to the original.
“Peach.”
“This clean copy did not exist until after the cake was finished.”
Nobody spoke.
Emily looked at Eric.
“You changed my order?”
Eric’s face had lost color.
“No.”
“I corrected an entry.”
“You entered the original.”
Rosa said.
“Your initials are right there.”
Nathan stepped closer to the screen.
“Did we ever contact the bakery today?”
“No.”
Emily answered.
“We were at the venue all morning.”
Nathan looked at Eric.
“Then corrected from whose instructions?”
Eric’s mouth opened.
No answer came.
Margaret stared at him.
For the first time, she understood.
Not all of it.
Enough.
“You made the mistake.”
Eric looked toward her.
“You entered something wrong.”
Margaret continued.
“Then when you noticed the cake didn’t match what you thought it should be, you changed the order afterward.”
Eric said:
“That is not what happened.”
Rosa pointed to the audit log.
“You updated your own order at 1:42.”
“After Margaret finished.”
Eric’s breathing became shallow.
Emily folded her arms.
“Why?”
Eric looked around the kitchen.
Every person was watching now.
Maya from retail.
Rosa.
Two junior bakers.