“Who?”
“There was someone before you.”
“Before me?”
“It ended.”
“When?”
She did not answer quickly enough.
David’s face changed.
“When, Allison?”
“Around the time you and I started talking seriously.”
“Talking seriously? You told me you weren’t seeing anyone.”
“I wasn’t, by then.”
“By then?”
The doctor stepped back from the machine.
“I’m going to give you a few minutes.”
The door shut softly behind her.
David turned toward Allison.
“You knew there was a chance.”
She pressed both palms against the edge of the examination bed.
“I knew the dates were close.”
“Close? Six weeks isn’t close.”
“I didn’t know exactly how far along I was.”
“You told me twelve weeks.”
“Because that’s when I tested.”
“That isn’t what you said.”
Allison’s eyes flashed.
“What do you want me to say? That I was scared? That once you decided this was your child, everything moved too fast? Your mother was buying things.
Megan was talking about schools.
You were shopping for a bigger apartment.”
David stared at her.
“You let me leave my wife believing this.”
Allison’s expression hardened completely.
“You were already leaving Catherine.
Don’t put that on me.”
For one second, David could not speak.
Because beneath the panic, he recognized the truth in it.
Allison had lied.
But she had not forced him to humiliate Catherine in the mediation room.
She had not made him dismiss Aiden and Chloe as confusion.
She had not put the word legacy into his mother’s mouth or smirk beside Megan while Sandra asked who would want a divorced woman with two children.
David had done his part willingly.
His phone began vibrating.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
He pulled it from his pocket.
Three missed calls from Megan.
One message from his mother asking whether they knew the sex yet.
Then another notification appeared.
Steven Barrett.
David frowned.
Catherine’s attorney had sent him an email marked urgent.
He opened it.
The first paragraph was formal enough that he had to read it twice.
Steven was notifying him that documentation discovered after execution of the settlement raised serious questions about undisclosed property transactions and the diversion of funds traceable to Catherine’s separate family contribution.
Catherine reserved every available right concerning recovery, disclosure failures, and any property purchased with those funds.
Attached were transaction summaries.
