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She shook her head again. “I’m just not.” She shrugged.
I sat back, trying to look comfortable, but I was anything but. “Explain why not. I’m curious.”
She laughed. “You don’t want to hear the answer to your question. Not really.”
“Why not?”
“You won’t like it.”
“Try me.”
She leaned down so that her palms rested on my desktop, where she could stare into my eyes. “I’m an attractive, young, smart female. I don’t need a man to complete me.” She smiled at me, but it was the kind of smile that hurt rather than healed. “Now go ahead and tell me about the joy of the happily ever after.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about happily ever afters. Never walked down that particular path myself.” I broke eye contact with her and took a sip of my coffee. “I don’t think you need to change a thing about yourself.”
“Aww,” she crooned. “That’s so sweet.”
Suddenly, her phone broke the tension that crackled between us. She pulled it out and smiled as she lifted it to her ear.
“What?” she asked as she picked up her purse and looped it over her head. “When?” She started toward the door. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“What’s going on?” I called toward her back. She was already out the door. She turned back to face me when I raced after her into the hallway.
“I’m really sorry, Clark,” she said, wincing ever so slightly.
“Why? What happened?” She was scaring me.
“Nothing yet. But I’m going to have to kill the woman you love. I won’t like it. But I’m going to have to do it.” Then she turned and walked away.
I ran after her. What else was I supposed to do?
Chapter 15
Shelly
“She was in our house!” Lynn bent down and screamed the words in my face. Then she went deadly still. “Who is she?” she asked, her voice scary-quiet. “Why was she in my house?”
“Can I see the video recording?” I asked, modulating my voice so that I sounded almost bored. I tapped my fingers on the arm of the chair I’d sat down in when I’d arrived. I’d tried standing, but Lynn had been pacing a path across the room, streaking from one side to the other, when I arrived, all while Mason sat and fumed from his own chair. I’d sat down next to him, because I didn’t know how else to stay out of Lynn’s way.
The thing about Lynn was that she was quiet and dependable, but when she was angry, she had a temper that rivaled mine. Most people had never seen it. I wasn’t even sure that Mason had seen it before.
Lynn set her laptop on my lap. “The password is—” she began. But then scoffed. “Never mind,” she muttered. I knew all Lynn’s passwords. I always had. And if there was ever one I didn’t know, I could find it out in minutes.
I opened her laptop, logged in, and logged into the app that recorded the action from her baby monitors and video cameras she had around the house. “When did it happen?” I asked. I planned to watch all the footage, but it would be easier to see it quickly if she gave me a time frame.
“She was here while I took a nap. She walked right in the front door!” Her voice went up another octave as she began to pace again. Clark jumped out of her way, choosing to hang out in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. He leaned there in the open doorway, like his bulk alone could hold up the whole house.
“I found it,” I muttered, as I found the footage she was talking about. I watched as Megan walked into the house through the front door, turned off the alarm system, and walked straight to my nephew’s room. I motioned for Clark to come over and take a look.
His breath hitched as he leaned over my shoulder to watch as Megan reached into the crib, removed Jason from his bedding, and sat down with him in a rocking chair, where she cradled his sleeping form, staring down silently into his cherubic little face. Then her gaze lifted from his perfect self and she stared directly into the camera. The smile that had graced her face fell away, and she looked like the Megan I’d encountered earlier. She raised her hand, extended her middle finger, and shot me the bird. I knew it was for me. There was no one else who would appreciate it the way I did.
There was no doubt in my mind that her visit to Lynn and Mason’s, and her holding the baby, were for anyone’s sake but mine.
“Who is she?” Lynn demanded.
Clark’s voice rumbled from behind me. “She’s one of my ex-wife’s alter egos,” he said, his voice clear but quiet. “This is my fault.”
“Why?” Lynn asked. “Why would she come here?”
