I picked up the phone and called Gwen.
“Gwen, is there a pregnant patient named Lila Mercer at your hospital?”
Gwyneth Sullivan sounded surprised for a moment. “Let me check for you right now.”
She seemed to be in the middle of eating. I heard her set something down, then the rapid clatter of a keyboard.
A minute later, she said, “There is one.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Can you send me the surveillance footage?”
“Done.”
One look.
That was all it took.
Curt Dudley had been cheating on me for a long time.
In the footage, he was guiding Lila by the arm, careful and intimate. Her belly was visibly rounded, five or six months along at least.
He leaned down and murmured something near her ear.
Lila's eyes curved into crescents as she laughed, reaching up to give his chest a playful little punch.
There was no audio, but the picture said everything.
Gwyneth's call came right after.
“Georgia, did you see the video?”
“Yeah.”
“That Lila……”
Gwyneth's voice went careful. “She's pregnant. Six months along—that's when the chart was created.”
“And the father listed on the record is Curt Dudley.”
My fingers went white around the phone.
“Confirmed?”
“Confirmed. I checked the system. Her OB is a colleague of mine, and I asked. Curt has been at every single prenatal checkup. Hasn't missed one.”
Gwyneth hesitated, then couldn't hold it back. “Georgia, has Curt been cheating on you this whole time?!”
I nodded, even though she couldn't see me. “Yes. And he's been lying to me for three full years.”
The other end of the line went quiet for a few seconds.
“What?”
“Three years of marriage, and he has never once touched me.”
My smile tasted like ash. “Every night, the man who walked into my room was a stand-in he hired.”
“He was at the hospital holding Lila's hand through her checkups. His stand-in was in my bed, playing house.”
Gwyneth sucked in a sharp breath.
“Holy shit.” She swore, then, “Is Curt Dudley even human?”
“He's not.”
My voice was calm. “He's an animal.”
“So what are you going to do?”
I took a slow breath. “Delete the footage.”
Gwyneth was stunned.
“Georgia Pruitt, have you lost your mind?”
“That evidence took real effort to dig up! Even if you file for divorce down the line, you could use it in court!”
“You'd just delete it and let those two walk away clean?”
I smiled faintly. “Divorce? Why would I want a divorce?”
Men were the one thing this world never ran out of.
Curt Dudley played me for three years.
So why couldn't I return the favor?
Gwyneth wanted to press further.
But I told her to keep it quiet and hung up.
As expected, the person who came to see me during the day was the real Curt Dudley.
Richard only appeared at night.
But right now, I wanted Curt to……disappear.
So I paid off a few people and had a handful of dried beans scattered across the path Lila walked every day.
That afternoon, sure enough, Curt's face drained of color the moment he took a call. He grabbed his jacket and bolted for the door.
I poked my head out of the study.
“Honey, where are you going?”
Curt didn't even turn around. “Important client I need to meet. Have the housekeeper make you dinner. I'll be back to keep you company later!”
Before, even when he was lying to my face,
he would at least commit to the devoted-husband act. He'd never slipped this obviously.
But I let a slow smile settle on my mouth and turned toward the attic.
