Chapter 5 - The Woman Carrying My Husband's Child
The photograph of Rachel's house changed everything.
Until that moment, I had believed Daniel was desperate to protect his money.
Now I understood he was willing to frighten me into silence.
Hannah contacted Detective Martinez immediately.
Within an hour, two officers had visited Rachel's neighborhood.
They found no one outside.
But a neighbor's security camera showed a dark sedan passing the house three times.
It resembled Victor Hale's car.
My stomach tightened.
Victor was still missing.
He had escaped the police at Evelyn's house.
And now someone driving a similar vehicle knew where I slept.
Rachel insisted I stay somewhere else.
Hannah helped arrange a temporary hotel room while we considered longer-term options.
I hated leaving.
I hated feeling chased out of another home.
But I was beginning to understand that courage didn't mean ignoring danger.
Sometimes it meant taking the threat seriously.
***
On Sunday morning, Claire called.
"I found something in the records."
Her voice sounded urgent.
"What?"
"A name. Megan Foster."
I closed my eyes.
The woman in the photograph.
"What about her?"
"She received several payments from one of Daniel's companies."
My fingers tightened around the phone.
"How much?"
"More than eighty thousand dollars over the last year."
I sat on the edge of the hotel bed.
"And what were those payments for?"
"They were labeled consulting fees. But I couldn't find any contracts."
I thought of Daniel's arm around Megan.
The pregnancy.
The smile.
The anniversary weekend he'd spent with her.
A bitter feeling rose in my throat.
"She's having his baby."
Claire went silent.
Then she whispered, "I'm sorry."
I looked toward the window.
"Do you know where she lives?"
"I found an address in the records."
I wanted to go immediately.
Confront her.
Demand every answer Daniel had refused to give me.
Instead, I called Hannah.
She advised me not to approach Megan unexpectedly.
"If she's connected to the money, she may be a witness. Let the investigators handle that part."
I agreed.
But the truth reached me before the police did.
That afternoon, the hotel receptionist called my room.
"Ms. Bennett? There's a woman downstairs asking for you."
My chest tightened.
"Who?"
"She says her name is Megan Foster."
For several seconds, I couldn't breathe.
Then I asked the receptionist to tell her I'd meet her in the lobby.
I called Rachel and told her what was happening.
She was nearby and came immediately.
When I stepped into the lobby, I recognized Megan at once.
She looked younger than I'd expected.
About twenty-eight.
Her dark hair was tied behind her head.
She wore a loose cream sweater.
One hand rested protectively on her stomach.
She stood when she saw me.
"Nora?"
I stopped several feet away.
"How did you find me?"
She looked ashamed.
"Claire told me which hotel you were staying at."
I later learned Claire had contacted her after discovering the payments.
Megan had begged for a chance to speak to me.
I folded my arms.
"Why?"
Tears filled her eyes.
"Because Daniel lied to both of us."
I stared at her.
She swallowed.
"He told me you were separated."
A terrible pressure built behind my ribs.
"Since when?"
"Last spring."
Last spring.
Daniel had taken me to Charleston for our wedding anniversary.
He'd kissed my forehead and told me he still believed we could have a baby someday.
I felt physically sick.
Megan continued.
"He said you lived separately but weren't legally divorced because of financial issues."
I shook my head.
"We shared a bed."
She covered her mouth.
"I'm so sorry."
I wanted to hate her.
A part of me did.
But the woman standing before me looked genuinely devastated.
She wasn't wearing expensive jewelry.
She wasn't celebrating.
She was trembling.
"What did he tell you about the baby?" I asked.
Her expression collapsed.
"That he was excited."
I looked at her stomach.
"Is it his?"
She nodded.
"Yes."
I felt something inside me twist.
Daniel had been furious whenever I mentioned our lost child.
He told me I was dwelling on the past.
He complained that my grief made him miserable.
Meanwhile, he was building another family.
I sat down.
Megan took the chair opposite me.
"He promised we'd move into a house together after the baby was born."
"What house?"
She hesitated.
"One beside a lake."
My entire body went cold.
"My grandmother's house?"
She looked confused.
"I don't know whose it was. He showed me photographs. White siding. A wooden porch."
I gripped my hands together.
That was my house.
The place where my grandmother had taught me to bake bread.
The place where I'd spent summers catching fireflies.
The place I'd refused to sell because it was the last physical piece of my childhood.
Daniel had promised it to another woman.
I stared at Megan.
"Did he tell you where the money came from?"
She shook her head.
"He said he'd inherited investments from his father."
"His father's estate went through probate years ago."
Megan looked horrified.
She pulled out her phone.
"I have messages."
She showed me photographs of properties.
Bank transfers.
Promises.
One message made my breath catch.
Once Nora signs the final documents, everything will be ready.
I pointed at it.
"Can I show this to my attorney?"
Megan nodded.
"Yes."
Then she began crying.
"He told me you were difficult. That you were keeping him trapped in a dead marriage."
I stared at the floor.
"That's what he told everyone."
She wiped her cheeks.
"There's something else."
I looked up.
"His mother knows about me."
The words hit harder than I expected.
"Evelyn?"
Megan nodded.
"She came with Daniel to one of my appointments."
I felt suddenly numb.
"She met you?"
"Several times."
I remembered Evelyn criticizing me for failing to give her grandchildren.
I remembered her cruel words about the baby I'd lost.
All that time, she'd known another woman was pregnant with Daniel's child.
Megan leaned forward.
"She said something strange at dinner last month."
"What?"
"She said Daniel would be free to marry me soon."
I stared at her.
Megan's hands shook.
"I asked what she meant."
"And?"
"She told me not to worry. She said everything was already arranged."
A cold sensation crept down my spine.
I thought of the forged documents.
The property transfer.
The sudden insistence that I obey Evelyn.
May you like
And I realized that my husband and his mother hadn't merely been waiting for our marriage to fail.
They had been planning its destruction.
