Weeks earlier, doctors found a vascular abnormality.
Surgery was planned.
Risky.
Lena realized she needed legal documents for Oliver.
She contacted Ryan.
A DNA test confirmed paternity.
My stomach twisted.
“Ryan knew before she died?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“About three months.”
“And he told me nothing.”
“No.”
Dawson whispered:
“Did he tell you?”
Megan stopped.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The week after the DNA result.”
“So you knew Ryan cheated on Claire with your sister.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“Yes.”
Then Dawson asked the question I had almost been too hurt to form.
“When did you and Ryan start sleeping together?”
Silence.
“Megan.”
“Eight months ago.”
My entire body went cold.
Lena died fourteen months earlier.
Ryan and Megan started an affair six months later.
So the child had not caused a single moment of confused intimacy.
They had met repeatedly to discuss Oliver.
Guardianship.
School.
Money.
Eventually they chose each other too.
