Chapter 7 - The Other Woman Learns the Truth
A voice cut through the courtyard behind us.
"Dean?"
Paige stood at the entrance, looking between the two of us with growing confusion. "Who is she?"
Nathaniel closed his eyes.
I stood. "His name isn't Dean."
Her frown deepened.
"His name is Nathaniel Wren," I said, calm and level. "I'm his wife. The little boy you saw at the pool yesterday is his son."
She turned on him. "You told me you were a widower."
He said nothing.
"You told me your wife died years ago." Her voice was climbing now, sharp at the edges.
"Paige, I can explain—"
"No." She cut him off flat. "I think you've done plenty of explaining in your life already, and none of it was true."
Her eyes filled, but her voice held steady, hard as stone. "You didn't build a new life out here, Dean, or Nathaniel, or whoever you actually are. You just hid inside one."
May you like
She turned and walked away without looking back.
Nathaniel took a step after her — then stopped, standing frozen in the courtyard, and for maybe the first time understood that chasing another person wasn't going to fix whatever was actually broken inside him.
