Chapter 19 - Lauren Chooses a Side
Lauren Carter requested a meeting the following week.
Gerald advised Megan not to attend.
Megan went anyway.
Lauren looked uncomfortable from the moment she entered.
Her court-ordered community service had recently ended, but she was still repaying money connected to her fake consulting company.
“I heard about Marcus,” she said.
Megan waited.
Lauren placed an old digital recorder on the table.
“I kept this because I didn’t trust Jack.”
The recording came from a dinner nearly two years before the airport incident.
Jack and Marcus were talking.
Marcus explained how to disguise foundation payments.
Then Jack asked a question.
“What happens if Megan notices?”
Marcus laughed.
Jack answered his own question.
“She won’t do anything publicly. She protects the family name.”
Megan felt something tighten inside her.
She remembered learning that Jack had written the same belief to Olivia.
He had not simply assumed she would forgive him.
He had built his crimes around that assumption.
Lauren continued.
“I knew Jack was cheating. I knew he was using my company. I knew he wanted Paris.”
Her voice broke.
“I didn’t know how large the fraud was at first. But eventually I knew enough that I should have stopped.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I liked what his success gave all of us.”
There it was.
No excuse.
No confusion.
Just truth.
Lauren pushed the recorder forward.
“I want prosecutors to have it.”
“Why now?”
“Because I spent my whole life watching my mother protect Jack.”
She looked at Megan.
“Then I became exactly like her.”
When the meeting ended, Lauren paused at the door.
“Do you think Sophie and Ethan will ever forgive me?”
“I don’t know.”
Megan did not soften the answer.
“But if you’re doing this only to be forgiven, you’re still doing it for yourself.”
May you like
Lauren nodded slowly.
For once, she did not argue.
