Chapter 2 - The Son I Was Never Supposed To Meet
Ryan was ten.
That fact mattered.
Daniel met me when Ryan was already almost two.
So Ryan was not proof that Daniel had cheated and fathered another child during our marriage.
In some ways, that should have made the truth easier.
It didn’t.
Because Daniel had known Ryan existed before our first date.
Before our engagement.
Before he stood beside me at our wedding and promised there would be no secrets between us.
He simply never told me.
Ryan’s mother, Megan Cole, had died six days earlier after a sudden cerebral aneurysm.
Daniel had known immediately.
I had not.
For nearly a week, my husband left our house every morning claiming there were problems at the office.
Instead, he was arranging Megan’s funeral.
Talking to Ryan’s school.
Meeting with lawyers.
Trying to decide what to do with his son.
His son.
I sat in the hospital family room with my hands wrapped around cold coffee.
“You knew his mother died?”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I was trying to figure out how to tell you.”
“You had eight years.”
Daniel flinched.
“That isn’t fair.”
I laughed.
For the first time that day.
There was nothing humorous in it.
“No, Daniel. Fair would have been telling me before I married you.”
Ryan had temporarily been staying with Megan’s older sister, Beth.
But Beth lived in a small apartment in another school district and had three children of her own.
Daniel told me Megan’s will named him as the first person she wanted contacted regarding Ryan.
“Because you’re his father.”
“Yes.”
“And you promised him he could live with us.”
Daniel looked down.
“Yes.”
“Without asking me.”
“I panicked.”
“You promised a grieving ten-year-old my home without telling your wife he existed.”
Daniel’s shoulders dropped.
“I know how it sounds.”
“No.”
I stood.
“You know how it is.”
Then I asked the question that mattered most.
“Does Ryan think I knew?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
My stomach tightened.
“Daniel.”
“He thinks you knew about him.”
I stared.
“Why?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Because that’s what Megan believed too.”
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That was the first moment I realized the secret was larger than Daniel hiding his son from me.
For eight years, someone had apparently been told a completely different story about me.
