Chapter 2: What Lauren Knew
Part 2 ⬇️
Lauren's face went through three expressions in about two seconds.
Shock.
Calculation.
Then something colder.
"You were watching me?" she said to Ryan.
"You were spying on your own wife?"
"I was standing in the garage doorway," Ryan said quietly.
"You didn't see me."
Lauren turned to me.
"Margaret, he's confused.
He misread what he saw.
I would never—"
"Stop." Ryan's voice came out flat.
"I watched you throw it twice."
The kitchen went completely silent.
Then Lauren did something I did not expect.
She started crying.
Not the kind of crying that comes from guilt.
The kind that comes from losing control of a situation.
"I'm under so much pressure," she said.
"You have no idea what it's like.
We have nothing, Ryan.
Nothing.
And she's sitting on all of this and she won't even help us—"
"She's been helping us for three years," Ryan said.
Lauren wiped her face and looked at me with an expression I had never seen from her before.
Not anger.
Something closer to desperation.
"Open the letter," she said suddenly.
I went still.
"What did you say?"
"Daniel's letter.
The one in the study." Her voice dropped.
May you like
"I know what's in it, Margaret.
And I promise you — you are not ready for what it says."
