Chapter 12 - DAVID'S FIRST LIE HAD CREATED EVERYTHING
Matthew arrived shortly after midnight.
He lived less than forty minutes away.
That was perhaps the cruelest detail.
Twelve years.
Forty minutes.
Two people had lost more than a decade because David and Thomas decided they knew what everyone else’s life should look like.
Matthew was quiet when he entered the house.
He looked nothing like the villain Elena had been taught to remember.
He looked nervous.
Ashamed.
Older than the twenty-three-year-old man she had loved.
Elena stared at him.
“Why did you take the money?”
Matthew swallowed.
“My mother was dying.”
David watched from across the room.
Matthew continued.
“Thomas told me David was Michael’s father, and that Elena wanted me gone.”
Elena shook her head.
“I never knew David was the father.”
Matthew’s eyes filled.
“I know that now.”
Another carefully constructed lie collapsed.
David had manipulated both of them.
But I still needed one answer.
“Why?”
Everyone looked toward him.
David sat alone near the fireplace.
His perfect suit looked strangely ordinary now.
He finally spoke.
“Because Elena was supposed to be my life.”
I felt surprisingly little.
Not because the words did not hurt.
Because they confirmed something I had already accepted.
He had married me while preserving another future in his imagination.
“When she got pregnant,” he continued, “I thought if Matthew disappeared, Elena would eventually come back to me.”
“And when she didn’t?” I asked.
His eyes met mine.
“I met you.”
Rebecca whispered, “Jesus.”
There it was.
The truth nobody could soften.
I had not been chosen instead of Elena.
I had been selected after David’s first plan failed.
Yet eleven years had still been real to me.
My love had been real.
My loyalty had been real.
That mattered, even if his version had been smaller.
Then Matthew pulled an old envelope from his coat.
“Thomas contacted me last month.”
David looked up sharply.
Matthew handed it to Richard.
Inside was an offer.
Another payment.
This time, Thomas wanted Matthew to sign documents relinquishing any future claim involving Michael.
Richard read the final line.
His face darkened.
May you like
Thomas had been preparing for something.
And according to the document, the deadline was tomorrow morning.
