His face had drained of color, and he wouldn’t look at me.
“Who is the other mom?” I asked.
Simon glanced between us, suddenly unsure. The joy faded from his expression—he sensed something was wrong.
“Dad knows her,” he said. “She comes sometimes. She told me not to worry.”
Not to worry.Those words echoed in my head. Worry about what?
“Mike,” I said evenly. “Would you like to explain?”
He stared at me, panic flickering in his eyes. His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
“She said we’re going on a trip,” Simon added quietly. “Me, her, and Daddy. You’ll have to work, Mommy—that’s what she said.”
A trip.
It took everything I had to keep my voice calm. I refused to explode in front of my child.
Simon nodded, confirming it.
That was when Mike finally spoke.
“Let’s talk in the kitchen.”
I agreed. The moment the door closed behind us, I turned on him.
“Start talking. Who is this ‘other mom,’ and why is she giving our son expensive gifts?”
“It’s… Megan.”
“Megan?” I repeated. “The babysitter we fired because you said she was crossing boundaries?”
“Yes—but it’s not what you think. I swear.”
“So you’re not having an affair with her?” I asked. “Because that’s exactly what this sounds like.”
“I know how it looks, but no. I just—God, I’ve handled this so badly.”
He rubbed his hands together, a nervous habit I knew too well.
“I should explain from the beginning,” he said. “After we let her go, Megan started texting me. She apologized. Said she never meant to make me uncomfortable—that she was just being friendly.”
“Very friendly,” I said, folding my arms.
“I started thinking maybe I’d misread things,” he continued. “I told her it was fine, but that we’d already hired someone else. Then she asked me something…”
And that’s where everything truly began to unravel.
“She wanted to see Simon. She said she missed him, and she just wanted to stop by to say hi.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“The babysitter we fired asked to see our son, and you agreed? And never thought to discuss it with me?”
“I was going to,” he said quickly. “I just… I thought you’d say I was being stupid for even considering it. She sounded sincere, and you know how sad Simon was when we told him Megan wouldn’t be babysitting him anymore. I thought one visit wouldn’t hurt.”
“This doesn’t sound like it was just one visit, Mike.”He shook his head. “It wasn’t. It really did seem harmless at first. She’d come by when you were at work, sit with him, play for a bit, then leave.”
“And then?” I asked.
He hesitated.
That pause told me everything.
“Then I overheard her one day telling him to call her his ‘other mom.’ Telling our son to keep their visits secret and not worry about you because I said it was okay. I felt sick. I realized then that it had gone too far. I told her to stop coming. That she was crossing a line.”
“And?”
He shook his head slowly. “I made a huge mistake.”
“She cried. She… said she’d fallen in love with me. I told her she should never come back, but…” He looked at me with fear in his eyes. “I see now that it was the wrong thing to say because that gift Simon opened… I didn’t put it under the tree.”
“What are you talking about, Mike?”
“When I picked it up, I thought it was one of ours.”
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