Chapter 5 - The Woman at the Door
Another car stopped near the curb.
A woman in a dark wool coat hurried up the walkway.
It was Colin’s mother, Rebecca.
She had been called by Brooke, who panicked when Lauren appeared.
Rebecca reached the porch, saw Piper wrapped in an Army jacket, and covered her mouth.
“Why is she outside?”
Colin spoke first.
“Lauren is making this look worse than it was.”
Piper lifted her face.
“Daddy said Mommy didn’t want us.”
Rebecca stared at her son.
“You told her that?”
Colin said nothing.
Rebecca stepped toward Lauren.
“Give her to me while you call someone.”
Piper clung harder.
Lauren shook her head.
“She stays with me.”
Rebecca accepted the boundary immediately.
Unlike Colin.
David called the county fraud unit while Lauren contacted military legal assistance and local police. Officers arrived to document Piper’s condition, the forged filing, and conflicting statements about how long she had been outside.
Brooke voluntarily handed over messages from Colin.
In them, he claimed Lauren had abandoned the family, surrendered the property, and agreed that Piper would live with him and Brooke after Christmas.
None of it was true.
Rebecca read one message and began crying.
“You told us Lauren extended her assignment because she didn’t want to come home.”
Lauren looked at Colin.
He had prepared every audience separately.
His mother believed Lauren chose her career over Piper.
Brooke believed the marriage had already ended.
Piper believed her mother no longer wanted her.
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Colin had not only betrayed his family.
He had built the affair out of different lies tailored to each woman.
