Two weeks after Evelyn Parker’s funeral, I entered a conference room at Whitmore & Langley in downtown Chicago. I was dressed in black, still weighed down by grief. The room smelled faintly of old coffee, and a framed photo of the skyline hung crookedly behind the long table.
But what stopped me in the doorway wasn’t the room.
It was who was already inside.
My husband, Daniel, sat comfortably at the table beside the woman I had spent the past year pretending didn’t exist.
He didn’t stand when I entered. He didn’t even look particularly surprised. Instead, he casually rested his hand on the empty chair next to him.
The chair meant for her.
Megan Carter looked up at me with a calm, almost pleasant smile. She wore a pale blue dress, her hair styled perfectly, and in her arms she held a newborn wrapped in a soft gray blanket. The baby shifted quietly against her chest.
“You brought a baby,” I said flatly.
Her expression didn’t change. “He’s Daniel’s,” she replied smoothly.
Daniel finally glanced at me. There was no guilt in his eyes, no apology—just mild irritation, like I had interrupted something.
“We didn’t want you hearing about it from someone else,” he said.