Chapter 4 - A Marriage Under Attack
Jake arrived in Chicago on a cold Thursday evening.
He did not tell Megan he was coming.
Lorraine met him outside the apartment building and hugged him tightly.
“You look exhausted,” she said.
“Where is Megan?”
“Upstairs.”
“Is she alone?”
Lorraine looked away.
Jake’s stomach tightened.
“What happened?”
“I heard voices earlier. A man may have been inside.”
That was a lie, but Jake did not know it yet.
He rushed upstairs.
The apartment was quiet. The nursery door stood open, and half-unpacked baby clothes were scattered across the floor. Megan’s phone rested on the kitchen counter beside a glass of water.
Lorraine followed him inside.
“She’s in the bedroom,” she whispered.
Jake stopped outside the closed door.
He could hear Megan crying.
For one terrible second, he believed Lorraine’s story. He imagined a stranger escaping through another room. He imagined Megan preparing another excuse.
Then he opened the door.
Megan sat on the bed beneath the blanket.
When she saw Jake, shock crossed her face.
“You’re home.”
“Who was here?”
Her expression changed from surprise to confusion.
“What?”
“Mom said she heard a man.”
Megan looked toward Lorraine, who had remained near the doorway.
“No one was here.”
“Then why are you crying?”
“I didn’t know you were coming.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
Jake hated the sharpness in his own voice, but weeks of suspicion had followed him across the ocean.
Megan tightened the blanket around herself.
“Jake, we need to talk alone.”
Lorraine entered the room.
“You see?” she said. “She wants to separate you from the only person who has told you the truth.”
“Get out,” Megan said.
Lorraine laughed softly.
Jake looked between them.
“Someone sent me photographs of you with another man.”
Megan’s face went pale.
“What photographs?”
Jake held out his phone.
She stared at the image of herself entering the clinic beside Dr. Reed.
“That’s not what it looks like.”
“Then explain it.”
“I will. But not with her standing here.”
Lorraine folded her arms.
“She’s going to tell you I’m controlling her. That I’m somehow responsible for every problem she has created.”
Megan began breathing faster.
Jake noticed that her hands were trembling.
He moved closer to the bed.
“Megan, look at me.”
She did.
He saw fear in her eyes.
Not guilt.
Fear.
That was when he noticed the edge of a bruise near her ankle, partly hidden beneath the blanket.
“What happened to your leg?”
Megan immediately pulled the blanket down.
“Nothing.”
Jake sat beside her.
“Megan.”
“Please.”
He reached for the blanket.
She gripped it tightly.
“Jake, please. Don’t make me show you.”
The suspicion that had brought him home vanished.
May you like
Carefully, he moved the blanket aside.
And the truth destroyed every lie Lorraine had built.
