“We kept seeing each other occasionally for several months.”
I looked at Allison.
“How many?”
“I don't know.”
“You remember six years of lies but not how many times you cheated?”
“That was twelve years ago.”
“Yet somehow I’m hearing about it tonight.”
Silence.
Marcus said:
“When Allison became pregnant, she told me the baby was yours.”
“You believed her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She said the timing made it impossible for him to be mine.”
I looked at Allison.
“That was convenient.”
“I genuinely believed you were his father.”
“Until Lucas was three.”
She nodded.
Marcus said:
“I saw a photograph online.”
I looked at him.
“He looked like my father.”
I hated the sentence immediately.
Not because it was cruel.
Because it was possible.
Marcus continued.
“I contacted Allison.”
“And she agreed to a DNA test.”
“Eventually.”
I stared at her.
“And when it came back?”
“I panicked.”
“For six years?”
“I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“That's not true.”
She looked up.
“What?”
“You knew how.”
I pointed at the paper.
“You just didn’t like what might happen after.”
CHAPTER 3: THE OTHER LIFE
There were more papers under the photographs.
That was where the story changed again.
A rental application.
Townhouse development in Charlottesville.
Two hours away.
Allison’s name.
Marcus Denton’s name.
Then a private-school information packet.
Lucas’s name handwritten across the top.
I stared.
“You were moving him?”
“No.”
Allison stood.
“I hadn't signed anything.”
“You filled out the paperwork.”
“I was looking at options.”
“With him.”
Marcus shook his head.
“No.”
Allison turned.
“What?”
He looked at her.
“I never agreed to move in with you.”
Her face changed.
“You said you wanted a relationship with Lucas.”
“I do.”
“You said you wanted us to figure out a family.”
“A legal arrangement.”
His voice sharpened.
“An honest one.”
Allison stared.
Marcus continued.
“I never told you I was replacing Ryan.”
The sentence landed strangely.
I looked at him.
He looked back.
No challenge.
No satisfaction.
For the first time, I realized Marcus was not standing beside Allison.
He was standing across from her.
Emotionally, at least.
“What happened tonight?”
I asked.
Neither answered.
I pointed toward our bedroom.
“I found you holding my wife.”
Marcus said:
“She was crying.”
“Did you kiss her?”
Silence.
I looked at Allison.
“Did he?”
She closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Only tonight?”
No answer.
There it was.
I sat.
“How long?”
“Six weeks.”
I nodded slowly.
Six weeks.
I had worked twelve overnight shifts in that time.
Picked up two weekends.
Covered Labor Day because Allison wanted to reduce her own hours and be home more with Lucas.