“Jasen?”
I turn around and come face-to-face with the only logical explanation for all of this. I stare at the woman who holds the same eyes as my wife. The same skin tone. The same hair. She’s wearing an oversized sweatshirt and a pair of pink leggings. My eyes drift to her belly. “Have a seat. I’ll make your tea.”
She sits at the table while I boil the water and place the tea bag inside of a mug. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.”
Once the water is boiling, I pour it in the mug. I drizzle a little honey inside, grab a spoon, and stir it up. I place it in front of her when I sit down. “Let it sit for a minute.”
“Okay.”
We’re both quiet. She watches me with curiosity, and I cross my arms to compose myself. “I need you to start talking.”
She appears confused. Such a good actress. No wonder she was able to pull it off. “About what?”
By now, I’ve lost all reason. She’s playing with my intelligence. “You know goddamn well what I’m talking about, Morgan.”
She gasps, and her eyes go wide. “I…”
“Monroe couldn’t have children. She had a hysterectomy two years ago. How long? How long did you two play this little game of yours?”
I’ve hit a nerve. A tear slides down her cheek, and her lip quivers. “Over a month.”
I slam my fist down on the table, startling her enough to jump. I lean in, and my eyes sear into hers. I need her to see the pain in them. The anger. The betrayal. “We’re going to sit here. And you’re going to tell me every fucking detail from A to Z.”
“I wanted to tell you.”
“When?” I yell. “Before or after my wife was murdered?”
Her body shakes as she sobs. I stand up, grab some tissues—because what man allows a pregnant woman to cry?—and I hand them to her. “Get yourself together so you can talk.”
I sit in silence for what seems like hours and watch the tears fall as she struggles to tell me what I need to hear. Finally, after the last tear has fallen, her red-rimmed eyes meet mine. “I didn’t want to do this at first.”
“But you did.”
She nods.
“Why?”
“Monroe was having an affair. She said she was unhappy and needed time away to decide what she wanted to do. She asked me to swap with her for a weekend. At first, I didn’t want to do it. I told her she was lucky to have you. I told her she was making a mistake. But she insisted on it. Finally, I agreed, and we switched places. That weekend turned into a week and…”
Her tears fall again. “She decided she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t return to her life, and she wanted to go away. We agreed to make the switch permanent.”
“You two decided to live a lie. How could you two do something so reckless? Did you ever once think about the consequences of this? How it would affect Simone? Me?”
“Yes.”
And they still went through with it. It’s a punch to my gut. My wife deceived me. “All this time, I thought…” I try my best to shake the anger I’m feeling. Morgan is just as guilty in this, but she doesn’t deserve one hundred percent of my wrath. “All this time, I thought my wife was changing for the better. I thought my marriage was doing better. I thought we were falling in love all over again. And the whole time, this was some fucking joke between you two?”
Her hand slides across the table to connect with mine, but I pull mine back quickly. Hurt flashes in her eyes. But it shouldn’t—because she’s partially at fault for this. The other person I need to blame is dead. “Who was she having an affair with?”
She doesn’t answer me right away. But she doesn’t have to. I connected the dots as soon as she told me Monroe was having an affair. How else would I explain my wife being murdered and my business partner going missing? “Cooper,” she answers softly.
I shove to my feet. I walk over to the counter and place my hands at the edge of it. Sure, I connected the dots, but hearing the truth makes it worse. “How long?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“No. I’m not. I don’t know. I hadn’t spoken to Monroe in months because of the argument we had.”
She’s telling the truth. I had forgotten that the two of them weren’t on speaking terms. “Did Simone know?”
“She suspected. She found text messages in Cooper’s phone. Monroe was going to break it off with Cooper the day she was killed.”
Stop it!
“Cooper must have killed her when she tried to leave him.”
Shut up, please.
The more she speaks, the angrier I become. My emotions are conflicting. I’m angry at my wife, but she’s not here for me to question her. To lash out at. She’s dead. I’m suddenly hit with another emotion. Grief. It was my wife who was killed, not her sister. And I didn’t get a proper goodbye. I wasn’t close to Morgan. So, when I thought it was her who died, I was there for who I thought was my wife. I stepped up and helped with the arrangements. I held her while she sobbed in my arms. I was sad for her. And I did everything I could to help ease her pain. I felt sadness that I lost a sister-in-law. But that feeling is nowhere near compared to finding out that I’ve lost Monroe.
“Jasen, at first it was supposed to be a swap. But as I spent more time around you, I fell for you. I didn’t know I would feel this way. I didn’t know I would fall in love with you.”
I take my arm and angrily knock the pitcher of orange juice to the floor. It crashes loudly and juice splatters everywhere. I breathe heavily with my eyes shut tightly. “She was your sister, Morgan. My wife is lying dead in the ground, and you’re sitting here telling me you’re in love with me?”
“I just want you to know that this is real for me.”
I shake my head. “I can’t do this shit right now.”
She’s out of her seat in a flash and in front of me. “I understand. You have a right to be angry. But I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Hurt. You think I’m hurt? That’s at the bottom of the list of things I’m feeling right now, Morgan. Fury and betrayal are at the top.”
“I know.”
I take a few steps back to distance myself from her. “You can’t be here.”
“But where am I supposed to go? I put my house up for sale.”
I hold my hands up in surrender. “I know. I’m not kicking you out. I’m going to take the guest room until I figure this out.”
“What about the baby?”
“Are you sure it’s mine?”
She nods. “I hadn’t been with anyone before you.”
“Then I’ll figure that out too.”
I slept about an hour before I decided it was useless trying to sleep. I lie awake and stare at the ceiling, thinking about Monroe. How could she? I knew we were having problems, but I didn’t think they were bad enough for her to go this far. Los Angeles is huge. You’re talking millions of people. And she had to have an affair with my business partner. Typical, selfish Monroe. My thoughts shift to my time spent with Morgan. I was happy. The happiest I’ve been in a long time. But it was all a lie. Morgan pretended to be Monroe. And I missed all the signs. Now that the truth is out, I see that the signs were right under my nose. Her doing dishes by hand. Apologizing. Refusing expensive gifts. Now it all makes sense. Monroe would have never done any of that. But instead of paying more attention, I was caught up in accepting the new and improved her. I knew Monroe could be brutal. I knew she could be selfish. I knew she was the type of person to go above and beyond to get what she wanted. But this? I never imagined she’d do something so fucked-up like this. Because of her selfishness, she’s dead and her sister is pregnant with my baby.