Chapter 8 - The Cost of a Secret LifeThe hidden credit card carried $14,782.
Pierce learned that the next morning.
Hotels.
Restaurants.
A spa weekend.
The Pennsylvania cabin.
Furniture deposits for the White Plains apartment.
None of the charges were catastrophic by themselves.
Together, they told a story.
Morgan had financed a parallel life.
Pierce sat at the dining table while she placed printed statements in front of him.
“This is everything.”
He looked at her.
“You’ve said that before.”
“I know.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
The answer surprised him.
Morgan sat across from him.
“I’m done asking you to trust statements you can verify.”
She slid another page forward.
“Here are the accounts. Passwords. Balances.”
Pierce did not touch them.
“I don’t want your passwords.”
“They affect marital finances.”
“Then attorneys can handle it.”
Morgan nodded.
Something had changed in her overnight.
Not enough to repair anything.
But the frantic effort to control the narrative had weakened.
Maybe Sierra’s betrayal forced her to see how exhausting lies became when everyone used them.
“Where’s Ava?” Morgan asked.
“With Camille.”
“Can I pick her up?”
“Yes.”
Morgan’s eyes filled.
“I thought you’d—”
“Stop.”
She did.
Pierce leaned forward.
“I will never punish Ava for what you did.”
“I know.”
“No.”
His voice sharpened.
“You didn’t know that.”
Morgan looked down.
“That’s why you documented my travel.”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you planned the apartment.”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you prepared before telling me.”
“Yes.”
“You decided who I would become before giving me the chance to become anything.”
Morgan began crying.
“I was scared you would hate me.”
“I do not know what I feel yet.”
That was the truth.
Some moments he hated her.
Other moments he remembered being twenty-three and dancing with her at a terrible bar near Columbia University.
He remembered Ava’s birth.
Morgan squeezing his hand so hard his fingers went numb.
He remembered her sitting beside his mother through chemotherapy.
People did not become strangers instantly just because they betrayed you.
That made betrayal harder.
“Do you still love Sierra?”
Morgan stared.
“Yes.”
Pierce nodded.
The honesty hurt less than another lie would have.
“Are you going to live with her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why not?”
“She hasn’t answered me since last night.”
Pierce looked at her.
“Because of Talia?”
“Because everything.”
Morgan laughed bitterly.
“She says she needs space.”
Pierce could not help it.
He almost smiled.
Morgan noticed.
“You can laugh.”
“I’m trying not to.”
“I deserve that.”
“This is not about deserving humiliation.”
Pierce thought of Ava.
“I’m done with that kind of thinking.”
Morgan wiped her eyes.
Pierce asked:
“Did Sierra know about the money?”
“Yes.”
“The emergency account?”
“She thought it was mine too.”
“It was.”
Morgan looked surprised.
Pierce continued.
“That’s why this is complicated.”
“What?”
“It was jointly ours. You had legal access.”
“I still shouldn’t have used it like that.”
“No.”
“Are you going to tell everyone?”
“Tell everyone what?”
“About us.”
Pierce stared.
“You mean expose you?”
“Yes.”
He thought of the photograph.
The anonymous texts.
Sierra’s recording.
He already hated how other people had inserted themselves.
“No.”
Morgan looked stunned.
“Why?”
“Because Ava goes to school in this town.”
“So?”
“Because I refuse to make her parents’ private disaster public entertainment.”
Morgan cried harder.
Pierce felt no satisfaction.
“You can tell people whatever you need to tell them.”
“What will you say?”
“The truth.”
“What truth?”
“That we are separating because trust was broken.”
Morgan stared.
“You won’t say affair?”
“If someone directly asks me, I won’t lie.”
He paused.
“But I’m not starting a campaign.”
Morgan looked away.
“I thought you would.”
“I know.”
Pierce stood.
“That’s part of what hurts.”
His phone buzzed.
Unknown number again.
He almost ignored it.
Then read:
Sierra told you about Talia. She didn’t tell you why I was at the cabin.
Pierce typed:
You’re Talia?
Reply:
Yes.
Pierce stared.
Another message:
I’m not trying to help you. I wanted Morgan to know Sierra lies too.
At least she was honest about motive.
Pierce replied:
Then stop contacting me.
A pause.
One final message appeared.
I will. But before I do, ask Sierra why she wanted Morgan to move before August 1.
Pierce frowned.
Why August first?
He showed Morgan.
She read it twice.
“I don’t know.”
“You were moving after summer.”
“Yes.”
“Was there a deadline?”
“No.”
Morgan’s face changed.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“Sierra’s lease.”
“What about it?”
“She said her current lease ended in August.”
“That sounds normal.”
Morgan shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“She owns her condo.”
Pierce stared.
“How do you know?”
“She told me she bought it three years ago.”
“Then why tell you the lease ended?”
Morgan grabbed her phone.
She searched old messages.
Scrolled.
Then stopped.
Her face tightened.
“She kept saying August first.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Pierce felt a new layer opening.
Morgan called Sierra.
Straight to voicemail.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Morgan found an email Sierra had forwarded months earlier.
Subject:
FINAL NOTICE — BUSINESS LOAN.
Morgan opened it.
Pierce read over her shoulder.
Amount due:
$186,400.
Deadline:
August 1.
Morgan went still.
Pierce looked at her.
“Did you know she owed this?”
“No.”
May you like
The affair had just acquired another motive.
And Morgan suddenly realized the woman she had planned to leave her family for might have been planning around something very different.
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