“No,” I cut in quietly. “I’m making statements based on records, locations, and the fact that my seven-year-old came home terrified of answering simple questions without looking at her mother first.”
Rachel went pale, then angry. “You went through her things?”
“I protected my daughter.”
“It was none of your business where my mother took her.”
That line hung in the room for one stunned second.
“It became my business,” I said, “when you used her to hide your affair.”
Eleanor scoffed. “Affair. Such a dramatic word.”
I turned to her. “Then pick a better one for bringing a child into your daughter’s secret second life and teaching her to keep it from her father.”
For once, the old woman had no elegant comeback.
Rachel stood up. “So what, Marcus? You found out. Fine. I was going to tell you.”
That was such a coward’s lie it almost insulted me more than the cheating itself.
“When?” I asked. “After Sofia started calling another house normal? After she learned that adults make children protect their secrets? After your boyfriend’s kid got more honesty than our daughter?”
Rachel’s mouth tightened.