Chapter 12 - Claire Meets Karen
Claire asked to meet her.
I did not attend.
Good.
Two women who had each known a different version of my life did not need me controlling the conversation.
Karen later told me some of what happened.
Claire asked:
“Did Megan hate me?”
Karen answered:
“No.”
“Resent me?”
“Sometimes.”
Fair.
“Did she want Daniel?”
“No.”
That mattered to Claire.
Not because hiding a child became acceptable.
Because affair betrayal was different from concealment betrayal.
Karen explained Megan never resumed a romantic relationship with me.
No secret weekends as lovers.
No sex after Ryan’s conception period.
No second household.
She dated other people.
Had a long-term partner for three years who moved to Seattle after they broke up amicably.
Ryan knew him.
Megan’s life had not revolved around waiting for me.
Claire asked:
“Then why did she keep agreeing?”
“She stopped agreeing.”
There.
Karen showed the emails.
Claire cried.
Later she told me:
“I almost preferred the affair.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“Because an affair would be desire.”
“And this?”
“Decision.”
She looked at me.
“You decided every week that I could handle being your wife but not the truth.”
That was harder to defend because it was exact.
Then Claire said something else.
“Megan tried to stop you.”
“Yes.”
“So the eight years are yours.”
Not entirely.
The first period was mutual secrecy.
But her point stood.
The long tail belonged to me.
I stopped saying:
Megan wanted privacy
without adding:
and later she asked me to tell Claire.
May you like
Accuracy can be morally corrective.
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