Chapter 13 - She Took the Bait
I did not sleep after reading Derek’s message to Olivia.
She took the bait.
We are on B.
Four words erased every remaining excuse.
Derek had not reacted badly after I left.
He had wanted me to leave.
He had known exactly what kind of humiliation might push a woman in active labor past the final limit.
He had put fifteen dollars on the counter because he knew I had secret savings.
He knew Rachel would come.
He knew I had considered Pittsburgh.
He knew enough about me to predict the escape he later described as proof that I was unstable.
At 2:13 in the morning, I sat in Rachel’s kitchen with Emily asleep against my chest and reread every message Amelia had sent me.
There were facts I could finally arrange without guessing.
Derek read my private email.
He learned about Rachel’s offer to help me leave.
He contacted a custody firm the next day.
He opened accounts that treated Carol as Emily’s caregiver.
He hired an investigator.
He helped create a clinical-looking narrative about my mental state.
He copied my signature into a care authorization.
He planned two versions of separation.
Then he provoked the version that gave him the most dramatic opening argument.
He had called it bait.
I looked at Emily.
“I’m sorry.”
The words came out as a whisper.
Rachel, who had come downstairs for water, stopped behind me.
“For what?”
“For letting him build all of this around her before she was even born.”
Rachel pulled out a chair.
“You did not let him.”
“I lived in the same house.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“I missed everything.”
“You missed a secret plan designed to be secret.”
I knew she was right.
Knowing did not remove the guilt.
That was another thing Derek had trained into me.
If he hid something successfully, I blamed myself for not seeing it.
If he spent money secretly, I should have checked.
If he lied, I should have asked better questions.
If he hurt me, I should have chosen a better time to bring it up.
Leaving him meant learning how many of his habits had moved into my own voice.
Olivia’s deposition began at ten the next morning.
I was not required to attend, but Amelia arranged for me to listen remotely with my camera off.
Olivia appeared from a law office in Cincinnati.
She wore a cream blouse and no engagement ring.
I had met her perhaps six times during my marriage.
At our wedding, she toasted Derek’s ambition.
At a company holiday party, she told me I was lucky to have a man who worked so hard.
At my baby shower, she sent the blanket addressed to Madison.
Now she sat under oath and explained when the affair began.
Seven months before Emily’s birth.
I closed my eyes.
Seven months.
I had been pregnant for two.
Derek had started sleeping with Olivia while I was still carrying crackers in my purse because morning sickness could hit without warning.
Olivia said Derek told her our marriage had been emotionally over for more than a year.
He said we remained together only because of the pregnancy.
He said the pregnancy itself had been unplanned.
That was another lie.
Derek and I had tried for eleven months.
We had tracked cycles.
We had discussed names.
We had celebrated the positive test with takeout because I was too nauseated for the dinner reservation he made.
Olivia said Derek told her I regretted becoming pregnant almost immediately.
That was another lie.
I had been terrified.
I had also wanted Emily with a ferocity I did not know a person could feel before meeting someone.
Then Olivia described the first time Derek mentioned custody.
It was three months before birth.
They were in a hotel in Indianapolis after a regional conference.
Derek told her he was worried I would use the baby to control him when he eventually left.
He said his mother believed I was too fragile for full-time parenting.
He said he needed to “structure the exit” carefully.
Martin Pike objected to Olivia interpreting phrases.
Thomas asked only what words she remembered.
Olivia answered.
“He said, ‘If she thinks leaving is her idea, I start ahead.’”
My hands became cold.
Thomas asked whether Olivia understood what that meant at the time.
“No.”
“What did you think it meant?”
“I thought he meant he wanted Megan to initiate the separation so there would be less conflict.”
“Did he ever tell you he was monitoring her private email?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you he hired an investigator?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you he consulted Dr. Cross?”
“He said he had spoken to a professional about concerns.”
“Did he tell you Dr. Cross had never examined Megan?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you he copied her signature into a temporary care form?”
Olivia looked genuinely shocked.
“No.”
Pike objected again.
The deposition continued.
Thomas asked about the night I went into labor.
Olivia said Derek arrived at the restaurant at approximately 9:05.
He was late.
He seemed irritated rather than worried.
His phone rang repeatedly.
She asked whether something was wrong.
He said, “Megan picked tonight to make a point.”
Olivia asked whether I was in labor.
Derek said he did not think so.
That detail made me furious in a new way.
He had watched me stop speaking through contractions five minutes apart.
He knew.
Olivia believed him because, according to her, he was calm enough to order wine.
The ring came after dinner.
Derek told Olivia the separation would become official very soon.
Then he proposed.
“What did he say exactly?” Thomas asked.
Olivia looked down.
“He said the hard part was already handled.”
“What did you understand that to mean?”
“I thought he had finally told Megan the marriage was over.”
“Had he?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you she was driving toward Pennsylvania while he proposed?”
“No.”
“When did you learn that?”
“The next morning.”
Thomas displayed the message.
She took the bait.
We are on B.
Olivia confirmed it was authentic.
She confirmed Derek sent it at 8:38 p.m., before he arrived at the restaurant.
She said she had asked what B meant.
Derek replied, Backup plan.
She asked whether everything was okay.
Derek wrote, Better than okay.
Thomas displayed the next screenshot.
I felt physically ill.
Better than okay.
At 8:40 p.m., I had been breathing through a contraction in Rachel’s passenger seat.
Derek had been pleased.
Olivia’s testimony became less sympathetic when Thomas asked what she did after learning I had delivered.
She did not end the relationship.
She did not call me.
She did not ask why Derek had proposed while his wife was in active labor.
She accepted his explanation that I had abandoned him.
She believed his lawyers would sort out custody.
For nearly two weeks, she continued planning an apartment with him.
I needed that part to be true too.
Olivia was not an innocent rescuer arriving at the end of the story.
She had participated in the affair.
She had accepted convenient lies.
She had been willing to build a future on top of a marriage she knew was not legally over.
What she was not willing to do was sign a false affidavit.
That was why Derek turned on her.
Thomas showed her the proposed affidavit.
It stated that Olivia had personally heard me say I did not want primary custody of Emily.
Olivia had never heard me say anything about custody.
She had not spoken to me privately in more than a year.
Derek sent the affidavit to her two days after the emergency hearing failed.
He wrote, This just confirms what you already know.
Olivia replied, I do not know this.
Derek wrote, You know what I told you.
Olivia replied, That is not the same thing.
Then came the message that ended their relationship.
Derek wrote, If you cannot stand with me now, you are useless to me.
Olivia removed the ring that night.
She contacted a lawyer the next morning.
Thomas asked whether Derek had ever shown her a message supposedly written by me.
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
“What kind of message?”
“A letter.”
Olivia said Derek showed her a printed letter approximately five weeks before the birth.
It appeared to be from me.
The letter said I was overwhelmed by the pregnancy, afraid of motherhood, and considering staying with Rachel after delivery.
It also said I believed Derek would be the more stable parent if we separated.
I had never written that letter.
Olivia said my name was typed at the bottom.
There was no handwritten signature.
Derek told her I had left it in his office after an argument.
Thomas asked whether she still had a copy.
Olivia hesitated.
“Yes.”
Derek had photographed it and sent it to her.
The image appeared on screen.
I recognized the formatting immediately.
The font.
The spacing.
The wide margins.
It looked like the freelance templates I used for client correspondence.
Derek had access to my old laptop.
The same laptop he later hid in his filing cabinet.
The letter was not only false.
It had been designed to look like something I would produce.
Amelia messaged me privately.
Do not react publicly.
I was not on camera.
I still had to remind myself to breathe.
Thomas asked Olivia why she had not produced the letter sooner.
“Because I believed it was real.”
“When did you begin doubting it?”
“When I saw the court filings and realized Derek had lied to me about the timeline.”
“What timeline?”
“He told me Megan had agreed to separate in July.”
I had not.
“He told me she had chosen Pennsylvania months before delivery.”
I had not.
“He told me she had agreed his mother could care for the baby.”
I had not.
“He told me Megan knew about us by August.”
I had not.
By the end of the deposition, Olivia had confirmed more than an affair.
She had confirmed Derek built two separate realities at the same time.
In one, he told me we were married and merely stressed.
In the other, he told Olivia our marriage was already over and I had willingly surrendered the future he was taking from me.
He needed both women to remain inside different versions long enough for his legal plan to activate.
The deposition ended after four hours.
I thought the day could not become worse.
Then Amelia called.
The forensic examiner had found the fake letter on Derek’s home computer.
It had been created from a blank document under his user account.
The file was first saved thirty-seven minutes after he opened one of my old client letters to copy its formatting.
The original filename was not subtle.
Megan_statement_draft.docx.
There were six versions.
The earliest did not say I wanted Derek to have primary custody.
The second added that sentence.
The third changed “I feel tired” to “I feel unstable.”
The fourth added Rachel’s name.
The fifth added the sentence about Derek being the more stable parent.
The sixth was printed.
Derek had not found a letter from me.
May you like
He had written one for me.
And he had started drafting it before he hired the private investigator.
