Chapter 2 The Secret Family
Maya's POV
The GPS signal on my phone was a steady, pulsing red dot. It didn't lead back to the office, and it didn't lead to our home. It led to a part of the city I rarely visited—a neighborhood of quiet, expensive high-rises where people paid for privacy.
I parked my car half a block away from the coordinates. I turned off the engine and the lights, letting the shadows swallow me. I didn't feel like a wife anymore. I felt like a hunter.
The street was silent. I looked at the dashboard clock. 9:22 PM. At this exact moment, I should have been finishing a glass of wine at our anniversary dinner. I should have been laughing at one of Lucas’s jokes. Instead, I was sitting in the dark, watching a glass-fronted lobby.
Five minutes later, Lucas’s black sedan turned the corner. I leaned back so he wouldn't see me. He pulled up to the curb with the confidence of someone who had done this a thousand times. He didn't look around. He didn't check his mirrors. He was too comfortable.
I watched him get out of the car. He was wearing the same suit he wore this morning, but his posture was different. The tension in his shoulders was gone. He looked younger. He walked toward the building entrance, and for a second, I hoped he was just meeting a client. I hoped I was wrong.
Then, the lobby door opened.
A woman stepped out. She was tall, with long hair pulled back in a simple ponytail. She wore a silk blouse and slim trousers. Even from a distance, her face hit me like a physical blow.
Evelyn Scott.
The memory came back in a sharp flash. Ten years ago. Our wedding. She was the photographer I had hired because I liked her "natural" style. She had spent all day following us, capturing our first dance, our first kiss, our cake cutting. I had thanked her. I had paid her. I had even recommended her to friends.
And here she was, ten years later, standing on a private sidewalk, waiting for my husband.
Evelyn didn't shake his hand. She didn't act like a business partner. She reached out and smoothed the lapel of his jacket. Lucas leaned into her touch. He smiled at her with a warmth he hadn't shown me in years. It was a look of deep, settled intimacy.
But the worst part was yet to come.
A little girl, no older than six or seven, burst out of the lobby doors behind Evelyn. She was wearing a bright pink dress and had curly brown hair that bounced as she ran. She didn't stop until she reached Lucas.
"Daddy! You're finally here!"
The girl’s voice was high and clear. It cut through the night air and shattered my world into a million pieces.
I felt a cold, sharp pain in my chest. I couldn't breathe. I watched as Lucas—my husband, the man who told me he wasn't ready for kids, the man who said we should wait—laughed out loud. He bent down, scooped the girl up in his arms, and spun her around.
He kissed her forehead. He whispered something in her ear that made her giggle. He looked at her with so much pride it made me feel sick.
I reached for my phone. My hands were freezing, but they were steady. I didn't open my messages to cry to Tessa. I opened the camera app.
Click. The first photo was Lucas holding the child.
Click. The second was Evelyn leaning her head on Lucas’s shoulder as they talked.
Click. The third was the three of them—a perfect, happy family—walking back into the building.
I looked at the screen. The images were clear. This wasn't a mistake. This wasn't a "meeting." This was a life. Lucas had built a second home while I was busy maintaining our first one. He had a daughter who was old enough to go to school. That meant this betrayal started years ago. Maybe it started the day we said "I do."
My phone buzzed in my lap. It was Tessa. I didn't want to talk, but I needed her to hear this. I needed a witness.
"He's here, Tessa," I said as soon as I answered. My voice didn't sound like mine. It was flat and hard.
"Is he at a meeting?" she asked, her voice full of hope.
"He's with a family," I said. "He's with Evelyn Scott. Our wedding photographer. And they have a daughter. She’s at least six years old."
Tessa let out a sharp gasp. "The photographer? Maya, that’s impossible. That would mean—"
"It means he’s been lying since the beginning," I interrupted. "Every late night at the office. Every business trip. Every time he said he was too tired to talk. He was here. With them."
"Maya, stay there. I'm coming to get you," Tessa said, sounding panicked.
"No," I said, watching the lights turn on in an apartment on the fourth floor. "I'm not staying here to watch them play house. I have the photos. I have the proof. I'm going back to our house."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to wait," I said. I looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror. My eyes looked different. The softness was gone. "He thinks I'm the perfect, quiet wife. He thinks I'll believe whatever lie he tells me when he walks through the door tonight with 'dessert.' He’s wrong."
"Maya, be careful. If he’s been hiding this for six years, he’s dangerous."
"He's not dangerous, Tessa. He's a coward," I replied. "He hid because he was afraid of losing the status I helped him build. He hid because he wanted my brother’s money and my professional help, but he wanted Evelyn’s bed. He wants everything."
I put the car in gear. I didn't look back at the building.
"I'm going to make sure he loses everything instead," I whispered.
I hung up. I didn't shed a single tear as I drove home. I didn't play music. I just listened to the sound of my own breathing. Every street light I passed felt like a second of my life I was taking back.
He had stolen ten years of my youth. He had stolen my chance to have a family of my own. He had treated me like a shadow in my own life.
By the time I pulled into our driveway, the anger had turned into a cold, hard stone in my stomach. I saw his car wasn't there yet. Good. I wanted to be waiting in the dark when he arrived. I wanted to see the moment his lie died.
I walked into our silent, expensive house and didn't turn on the lights. I sat on the sofa with my phone open to the photo of him kissing Evelyn. I waited. And when I heard his key turn in the lock ten minutes later, I didn't move. I just waited for the monster to walk into the light.
