Chapter 8
Evelyn cried for almost a minute before speaking.
I waited.
I was done rescuing people from uncomfortable silence.
Finally, she whispered, “Jayden isn’t Marcus’s nephew.”
I closed my eyes.
“Who is he?”
“He’s Marcus’s son.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Aaliyah sat across from me, staring.
“His son?”
“Yes.”
“How old?”
“Twenty-two.”
I gripped the phone.
Marcus and I had been married eleven years.
Jayden existed long before me.
The fact that Marcus had a son was not the betrayal.
The fact that he had hidden him was.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
Evelyn sniffed.
“He was ashamed.”
“Of having a child?”
“Of how it happened.”
I said nothing.
“Marcus was seventeen. The mother was older.”
“How much older?”
“Twenty-four.”
My anger shifted.
That was not a simple teenage mistake.
Marcus had been a teenager.
I softened slightly.
“Did he know Jayden?”
“Not until later.”
Evelyn explained that Jayden’s mother, Simone, moved away when he was a baby.
She contacted Marcus when Jayden was fourteen.
Marcus secretly began seeing him.
“Why keep that from me?”
“I told him to tell you.”
For once, I believed her.
“He said he was afraid you would judge him.”
I almost laughed.
Marcus had trusted me with none of his vulnerabilities.
Instead, he built walls and called them authority.
“Why the apartment?”
“Jayden moved back here two years ago.”
“Marcus rented it for him?”
“Yes.”
“With stolen money?”
“I don’t know.”
Of course.
Nobody knew anything until everything collapsed.
I asked for Jayden’s number.
Evelyn hesitated.
Then gave it to me.
I stared at the digits for several minutes before calling.
A young man answered.
“Hello?”
“Is this Jayden?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Nia Carter.”
Silence.
Then a quiet, “I know.”
My chest tightened.
“You know who I am?”
“My dad told me.”
Dad.
The word felt strange.
Marcus had been someone’s father for twenty-two years, yet he had never told his wife.
“What did he tell you about me?”
Another pause.
“That you didn’t want anything to do with me.”
I shut my eyes.
Of course.
“What else?”
“That you said if he brought me around, you’d leave him.”
My throat tightened.
“Jayden, I didn’t know you existed.”
Silence.
Then I heard him exhale sharply.
“What?”
“I found out ten minutes ago.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is.”
“He said…”
His voice cracked.
And suddenly, the young man on the other end was not part of Marcus’s deception.
He was another victim of it.
“He lied to both of us,” I said.
Jayden was silent for a long time.
Then he asked, “Is he in trouble?”
“Yes.”
“How bad?”
“Bad.”
I told him enough to understand.
Not every detail.
Just that Marcus was being investigated for money connected to his employer and other accounts.
Jayden went quiet.
“He gave me money.”
My heart dropped.
“How much?”
“For rent.”
“Anything else?”
“He paid tuition last year.”
I wrote it down.
“How much?”
“About twelve thousand.”
I did not blame Jayden.
He had believed his father was helping him.
Just as Evelyn had.
Just as Tara had.
Just as I had.
Marcus created separate realities for each person.
In mine, he was the overworked provider.
In Tara’s, he was the wealthy man escaping a dead marriage.
In Evelyn’s, he was the successful son rescuing her financially.
In Jayden’s, he was the father fighting a cruel wife who wanted nothing to do with him.
He was the hero in every story.
Until those stories touched.
“Did he ask you to do anything recently?” I asked.
Jayden hesitated.
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“He asked me to hold something.”
“What?”
“A bag.”
“Where is it?”
“My apartment.”
I looked at Aaliyah.
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t open it.”
“When did he give it to you?”
“Yesterday.”
Yesterday.
Before the explosion in my kitchen.
Marcus had known trouble was coming.
“Jayden, do not open it.”
“Why?”
“Because investigators may need it.”
He became frightened.
“Am I in trouble?”
“Not if you didn’t know.”
At least I hoped not.
“Call a lawyer if anyone questions you,” I added. “And don’t let Marcus take the bag.”
Twenty minutes later, Jayden called again.
“He’s here.”
I stood.
“Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“Do not open the door.”
“He has a key.”
My heart jumped.
I heard banging through the phone.
Then Marcus shouting.
“Jayden!”
I called Detective Hayes from Aaliyah’s phone while keeping Jayden on mine.
“Police are coming.”
Marcus shouted again.
“Open the damn door!”
Jayden whispered, “He sounds crazy.”
“Stay away from the door.”
Then I heard a key turning.
Jayden cursed.
The call became chaotic.
A door slammed.
Marcus yelled.
“You called Nia?”
Jayden shouted back, “Why did you lie to me?”
I heard something crash.
My heart nearly stopped.
“Jayden?”
Marcus grabbed the phone.
“Nia.”
His voice was low.
Cold.
“You really can’t stop.”
“Leave him alone.”
“You destroyed everything.”
“No, Marcus.”
My hand shook.
“You did.”
He laughed bitterly.
“You think those cops are going to save you?”
The threat was subtle.
But real.
Detective Hayes heard it through Aaliyah’s phone.
“Keep him talking,” she whispered.
I swallowed.
“What’s in the bag?”
Silence.
Marcus said, “None of your business.”
“That means it matters.”
“You always thought you were smarter than me.”
“No.”
I looked at the kitchen where this had all begun.
“I just finally stopped believing you were smarter than me.”
Marcus’s breathing changed.
Then I heard police shouting in the background.
“Hands where we can see them!”
The phone dropped.
Jayden yelled.
Marcus cursed.
Then the line went dead.
I stood frozen.
Ten minutes later, Detective Hayes called.
Marcus had been detained.
The bag was secured.
Inside were stacks of cash.
Financial records.
A second phone.
And several forged documents.
Including one that made my knees buckle when Detective Hayes described it.
A quitclaim deed.
It appeared to transfer my house to Marcus.
May you like
My signature was at the bottom.
A signature I had never made.
