Chapter 2: Don't Be Stupid, Claire
Part 2 — Continued 👇
"Mrs.
Mercer, we need you to come in.
Tonight if possible."
I was still in my car.
My fractured finger was wrapped in a pharmacy splint.
My thigh ached every time I shifted in the seat.
It was not yet 5 a.m.
"What did you find?" I asked.
"We've been watching that folder for six weeks," she said quietly.
"You just gave us what we needed."
My hands went still.
Six weeks.
Owen had been under investigation before I ever walked into that bedroom.
She asked me to say nothing, go nowhere near the house, and come to Halcyon's legal office at 8 a.m.
with the original photo and my medical records.
I said yes.
Then I sat in the dark and thought about eleven years of dinners I had cooked, trips I had cancelled, arguments I had swallowed — while Owen was already building a second life with a woman who laughed from my bed.
At 6:43 a.m., Owen texted me for the first time.
*"You made a mistake.
Delete that photo and this goes away.
Don't be stupid, Claire."*
I screenshot it and forwarded it to my attorney without replying.
Then a second message arrived.
Not from Owen.
From Dana.
*"He told me you were already separated.
I think you should know — I'm not the first."*
---
What Claire found inside Halcyon's legal office that morning exposed something far bigger than one affair.
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