Leah whispered.
Melissa answered.
“Because Harold needed everyone watching the wrong woman.”
Calvin sat down.
For seven years, he had believed he was protecting his wife.
Instead, he had been guarding a decoy who didn’t know she was a decoy.
Leah collapsed into a chair.
“I’m nobody.”
“No.”
Calvin crossed the room.
“You are not nobody.”
She stared at him.
“You lied to me.”
“I did.”
“You let me think I had a husband.”
His eyes filled.
“I was your husband in every way except history.”
“Don’t.”
“I know that doesn’t make it right.”
She looked away.
I watched them and realized something painful.
Their relationship was built on false identity.
But the tenderness between them was real.
Human emotions did not become counterfeit simply because the paperwork did.
I turned back to the recording.
Melissa continued.
“Rachel survived.”
Leah lifted her head.
“Where is she?”
“If Samuel kept his
