Mark walked Ava toward the daycare entrance.
Then a woman appeared beside them.
She handed Ava a bottled drink and spoke to her warmly.
The woman wasn’t a stranger.
It was Lauren, one of Mark’s coworkers.
I recognized her immediately.
The footage showed Lauren touching Mark’s arm affectionately before the two of them walked away together.
My heart dropped.
Suddenly, months of strange behavior came rushing back.
The late-night texts.
The locked phone.
The endless “work dinners.”
The excuses.
I called Miss Greenwood, who admitted that Ava seemed unusually comfortable around Lauren.
That bothered me even more.
It suggested they had met before.
Part 2:
When Mark came home that evening, I confronted him.
The moment I mentioned Lauren, his expression changed.
After several painful minutes, he finally admitted the truth.
He and Lauren had been having an affair for six months.
The confession felt like another funeral.
