Page 13 of The Homewrecker's Fate

“She has nothing to worry about from me. You, on the other hand, should be very worried.” Mel’s voice was cold and laced with the venom of a woman scorned.

“What is this, Mel? You’re here to poison Avi against me now?”

She laughed at him, and I allowed this conversation to take place around me because there was some weird part of me that needed to hear it.

“You think you didn’t poison her enough by lying to her, trying to trick her into moving away from her only family and a better job to downgrade her life in all ways just so you wouldn’t get caught cheating? You think you didn’t completely corrupt the well of her love for you when you cleared your things out of this very space and disappeared for months before finally showing up at her job with your family – the one she never knew about?”

He staggered back as if her words had been weapons heaved against him in all-out war. If I squinted just so, his fresh wounds would probably be visible. If only. Maybe now he understood a fraction of what I’d gone through over the past couple months.

“You need to leave. The locks were changed. The alarm codes were changed. If you attempt to come back here, I will call the police and let them know that I have a stalker. Do not contact me. When my daughter is born, I will send word through a lawyer about how we will handle the logistics of co-parenting when I can’t stand to look at you. I will not allow my daughter to come to harm in all of this though, so if you step one toe out of line, say the wrong thing to her, do the wrong thing for her, or abandon her the way you have already proven you are capable of – there will be no second chances.”

“A daughter?” He asked, a tinge of awe evident in his voice. Then sadness crumpled his features. “I’m so sorry Aviva. If there is any good in this world, she will look just like you.”

“If there was any good in this world, I never would have met you.” I shut the door in his stunned face, threw the locks, set the alarm, and stepped back while curling my arms around my middle. I felt like I might fly apart at any moment, and then warm arms came around my shoulders as my physical opposite lent me her comfort.

“Look at us,” I whispered against her shoulder. “You’re a blonde haired, blue eyed, alabaster skinned angel while I’m all tans and browns and amber. How did we end up here? Total opposites standing on one side of a door while the man who destroyed us both stands beyond it feeling sorrier for himself than the destruction he caused.”

Melanie pulled me away from the door. “He never did have a type, even when we dated all those years ago. When I met him, he had just broken up with a redhead socialite that his family tried to get him to marry.”

“He should have stayed with her.”

She nodded her head. “They were made for one another. The reason they broke up was because she told him she would marry him but never remain faithful. That woman wasn’t built to be with just one person in life. While I can’t imagine that I respect the fact that at least she was honest and up front about her lifestyle.”

“Seriously? You’re right. They should have stayed together. Why can’t people like that admit what they are and stick with one another instead of ruining everyone else in the wake of their selfishness?”

“I wish I knew. His response to breaking things off with that woman was why I took him seriously when he asked me out and began courting me.” She laughed, though there was no humor in the sound. “Everything was a lie, right from the start. What a fool I have been.”

Shaking my head, I wrapped my arms around this woman who had far worse heartache to deal with than I did. My heartache was fresh and ripe, hers was long grown from years of loving and losing this man. I gave her the only solace I could. “Believing in what we are told and shown by those we love should never make us the fool. No, the fool is the one who betrays that faith you have placed in them.”

“How did you become so wise?” She asked.

A shake of the head was my only answer because my heart knew my own lies. It was true that I wasn’t a fool to have fallen for the man who had no business being with me. Still, my anger at myself for not realizing sooner, was something that was hard to overcome. It was far easier to give advice than to live by it.

Chapter 7

"You should come for dinner this weekend,” Mel offered as she got ready to leave my condo about an hour after Rich finally disappeared.

“Won’t your children be there?”

Mel sighed and appeared far more pained than I had ever seen her. “If I could shelter them from their father’s infidelity, I would. Eventually, that beautiful baby girl you are carrying is going to come into this world, and no matter what, she will already have a brother and sister waiting to meet her.”

How was it possible for this woman to be so gracious beyond measure? I wasn’t sure that I could be if our roles were reversed.

“Once again, I’m forced to realize that I am having the baby of a man who should have been too stupid to breed.”

Mel threw her head back in laughter. “Not that I disagree, but what brought that on?”

“You are entirely too good of a person, and he threw you away.”

“He did the same with you,” she reminded.

“Yeah, and that makes him an idiot twice over.” The wink I tossed her way was met with more laughter.

“At least we know he has one thing going for him – good taste in women.” After walking out my door, Mel turned back to me. “I think once the hurt has died down, for both of us, we will be grateful for all the vile things Richard did to us. In return for what he put us through, we have been given a unique gift. Our children will be siblings, and I can already tell that I will end up loving you like a sister. He gave us each more family, and with your mother in poor health, I think you could use a little more of that in your life, too.”

Tears blurred my vision and left me speechless as Mel simply nodded her head and walked away. We had exchanged numbers earlier in our conversation and I supposed the merging of our families would begin this weekend when I met the children of Richard Thomlinson, siblings to the child I carried in my belly. I closed the door and locked up while wondering how in the world my life managed to become so awful, beautiful, complicated, and full all at the same time.

When I woke the next morning, I knew exactly the type of day I would face. There was no calling in sick or taking a day or two off. Those days were being saved for when I needed to go out on maternity leave. Plus, I needed to be mindful just in case anything happened to prolong that leave of absence from work – like bedrest or something before going into labor.

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