Chapter 5: What Marcus Didn't Know
Marcus was still holding Lily when I came back inside.
She had fallen asleep against his shoulder, one small fist curled against his collar.
He was swaying slightly, the way parents do without thinking, his hand spread across her back.
I stood in the doorway for a moment and just looked at them.
Then I crossed the room and touched his arm.
"I need to show you something," I said quietly.
"Not here."
He read my face.
"Lily—"
"My sister will take her.
Just for a few minutes."
We found a small side room off the main hall — a coat room, mostly empty now.
I closed the door.
Marcus leaned against the wall and I handed him the envelope without explaining it.
He looked at the first photograph.
Then the second.
When he got to the text message screenshot, he stopped.
He read it again.
"R," he said.
"That's Ryan.
My cousin Ryan."
"I thought it might be."
He looked up.
"She sent this to Ryan."
"At least to Ryan.
Patricia doesn't know who else."
He looked back down at the message.
His thumb moved over the words like he was checking whether they were real.
*The child isn't Marcus's.
She knows it and she married him anyway.
I have proof.*
"There is no proof," he said.
His voice was flat.
"I know."
"Because it isn't true."
"I know that, Marcus."
"She made this up." He said it like he was testing the sentence, hearing it out loud for the first time.
"She made this up and sent it to Ryan.
And Ryan—" He stopped.
"Ryan asked me, about a year ago.
Out of nowhere.
He asked if everything was okay at home.
I thought he meant work." He set the photographs down on the shelf beside him.
"He was asking about Lily."
I didn't say anything.
"How long has she been doing this?"
"Patricia said since before Lily could walk."
Marcus pressed the back of his hand against his mouth.
He stood there for a long moment.
"She told people at the reception tonight," I said.
"His aunt confirmed it.
Multiple people."
"My aunt told you?"
"She came to me.
She said Diane had been saying it for months."
He picked up the handwritten letter.
He read it slowly.
I watched his face change as he reached the last line.
He set it down.
"Remove the reason, remove the problem," he said.
"Yes."
He was quiet for a long time.
"I need to call Ryan," he finally said.
"Tonight?"
"Tonight." He looked at me.
"I need to know exactly what she told him.
And I need him to hear from me directly that it was a lie." He paused.
"And then I need to talk to my mother."
"Marcus—"
"Not tonight," he said.
"Not here.
But soon." He picked up the photographs again and slid them carefully back into the envelope.
"She is not going to keep doing this."
He tucked the envelope inside his jacket.
We walked back out into the reception.
Lily was asleep in my sister's arms now, still clutching a small piece of napkin she had twisted into a shape only she understood.
Marcus stopped beside them.
He touched Lily's hair very gently.
My sister looked at his face and didn't ask any questions.
"She's fine," my sister said softly.
"She's been fine the whole time."
Marcus nodded.
May you like
But his eyes were somewhere else entirely.
His phone was already in his hand.
