Chapter 4 - THE NIGHT MEGAN LIED
Megan went home with Logan before midnight.
Not because the conversation was finished.
Because he was fifteen.
He had spent enough time inside adult betrayal for one day.
In the car, he said:
“Are you mad at me?”
Megan kept her eyes on the road.
“For telling?”
“Yeah.”
“No.”
“For doing it there?”
She thought.
“A little.”
He nodded.
Fair.
Then:
“I didn't know Grandma knew.”
“Neither did I.”
“I thought Travis was just lying to Vanessa.”
“He was.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
Megan turned onto their street.
“How did you get the second video?”
“I went back after the band thing.”
She glanced at him.
“What?”
“Not inside.”
“Logan.”
“I wanted to know if I was crazy.”
He had seen Travis at Northwood.
Recognized him.
Watched Emma call him Dad.
Then did nothing for a week.
The following Saturday, Logan saw Travis's car outside a grocery store near Northwood while riding with a friend's family.
He asked his friend's mother to stop because he said he needed a pharmacy.
He walked past the grocery store.
Saw Travis loading bags into Rachel's SUV while Emma sat in the cart laughing.
He took a photograph.
No confrontation.
No following them home.
Good.
Still more investigation than Megan wanted her son doing.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Logan stared out the window.
“Because everybody says you make family stuff dramatic.”
That hurt.
“Who says that?”
He looked at her.
She knew.
Diane.
Travis.
Vanessa sometimes.
Relatives.
The story attached to Megan after the divorce.
Aaron cheated.
Megan left.
Somehow Megan became the person who “couldn't let things go.”
Logan continued.
“I wanted proof.”
Megan parked.
Turned off the engine.
“You should not have needed proof for me.”
“I know.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“I mean I need you to know that.”
He nodded.
Then:
“Why did Uncle Travis look at Grandma?”
Megan had been asking herself the same thing.
The answer came the next morning.
Not from Diane.
From Vanessa.
She arrived at Megan's apartment at eight-twenty.
No makeup.
Hair pulled back.
No maternity photoshoot smile.
She handed Megan her phone.
“Do you remember this date?”
A text chain.
Nine years earlier.
Vanessa:
Is Travis with you?
Megan stared.
Then saw her own response.
Yeah. Logan was sick and he came over to help. Why?
Her stomach dropped.
Memory returned.
Logan had been six.
A severe asthma flare.
Emergency department.
Aaron traveling.
Travis brought groceries in the afternoon.
Then left around six.
At ten-thirty he called Megan.
He sounded rushed.
If Vanessa asks, I was with you until midnight. I screwed up a client thing and I'm trying to fix it before she finds out.
Megan had been exhausted.
Travis had recently loaned her eight thousand dollars for the attorney retainer she needed to begin divorce proceedings against Aaron.
He was the sibling who believed her when she said Aaron had been cheating.
So Megan said yes.
No questions.
When Vanessa texted, Megan confirmed.
Vanessa stared at her now.
“That was the night.”
Megan's mouth went dry.
“How do you know?”
“Travis admitted it.”
Rachel had become pregnant within the likely conception window.
Vanessa continued.
“I asked him where he was because a restaurant charged our card in Westbury.”
Northwood was near Westbury.
Travis said client dinner.
Vanessa called Megan.
Megan gave him the alibi.
Vanessa believed her.
Megan sat down.
“I didn't know.”
“I believe you.”
That somehow felt worse.
Vanessa looked around Megan's small kitchen.
“You still lied.”
“Yes.”
“You didn't ask why.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Megan could have said exhaustion.
Divorce.
Loyalty.
All true.
The simpler answer:
“Because I needed him.”
Vanessa nodded.
Megan looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Vanessa did not say it was okay.
Good.
Then she pulled out another screenshot.
A message from Rachel to Travis from six years earlier.
I am not doing another year where Vanessa thinks Emma is a scheduling conflict. Tell her or I will.
Megan read it.
Below was Travis's reply.
Mom says wait until after the next IVF cycle.
Megan looked up.
Vanessa's face had emptied.
“Your mother wasn't just aware.”
May you like
No.
She had been helping manage the timing.
