On the whole, I also agree with you.
Like you, I think Neil knows more than he has told the MC. That Lynette is still alive one way or another, but Neil has decided it would be better to let the MC live with the knowledge that his mother is dead.
I have a new theory or fanfiction about this.
What if Lynette was wrongly sentenced to death for a jealousy murder. The MC is born in prison, whereupon Lynette and Neil decide together for the good of the MC to let the MC believe that his mother is dead.
Years later, however, the tide turns and Lynette's innocence is established. She is released, but cannot simply participate in her son's life. After all, the MC was lied to by his parents his entire life. So the MC has to be educated about the context of the story beforehand. He gets the diary. Neil doesn't have to read the diary because he knows everything.
I figure so Lynette was at the Halloween party. That's actually the perfect time for her to get closer to her son without being recognized. That's why my MC always writes to Neil to make sure he's wearing a Sparta costume so there's no confusion. The only problem now is so Lynette can't see her son's face through the helmet. But there could be several more cameras in the DIK Mansion.
Holy crap that's REALLY out there as far as fanfics go
All I know is that DPC doesn't waste ressources, if he bothers to render a chick you can be sure that sooner or later the MC will have the option to stick his dick into her. And he has put a lot of effort into Lynette !
All we have is hints and everyone, me included, ran with them and the consensus is : Lynette = Angel, Neil = Best dad in the world, Lynette's parents = devilish hell creatures.
The fact is : we don't know if any of that is actually true.
What do we know ? Lynette's father moved his family into a hotel he purchased - that's not evil. He wasn't happy with Neil pursueing his baby girl - what father ever is ? Lynette actually tried to run away before she ever met Neil, to live her life in her own way.
How is Lynette portrait to us ? Headstrong, self assured, independent and adventurous ? I think that's a fair description.
Wouldn't it be just as fair and likely to simply assume that Neil knocked her up, she told him she's pregnant and said "Dude, I'm 18, I wanna see the world and live my life before I settle down, I'm gonna have an abortion!" And Neil then told her he will raise the MC by himself and she said "Fine, but only if you tell him I died, I don't want anything to do with him/her!"
And then she ran away not to live happily ever after with Neil, but to have the child away from her parents and friends and it's actually the grandparents who have no clue that the MC exists.
Everything else would make so much more sense in that scenario, Neil's guilt for keeping the lie up eating away at him, the total absence of anyone from Lynette's side in the MC's life and last but not least, DPC pouring ressources into the Lynette arch to give us a cheeky banger of a plot twist at the end of that storyline. It's no burning house, but it's something !
