Page 14 of The Homewrecker's Fate

The adversity I would face as a single mother already reared its ugly head in this situation. When Tuesday rolled around after the longest, most emotionally exhausting Monday in the history of Mondays, I found myself walking back into the building where I worked while dreading every step I took toward my office. It didn’t take a genius to know how everyone would see me. I was the homewrecker in their eyes. The blame always fell on the other woman in these situations because the men couldn’t be bothered to be ashamed of their actions.

“Don’t forget you’re needed in HR first thing,” Mrs. Gardner, the floor’s receptionist informed me the moment I stepped off the elevator. I also didn’t miss her mumbled, “Homewrecker,” comment.

Sighing, I stepped right back on before the doors could close and pushed the button to go up one more level. The moment I stepped off the elevator, he was there.

“Avi!” His tone was almost relieved, like he expected I wouldn’t show up. “Thank God you’re here.”

I laughed in his face and continued walking toward the offices that housed our human resources division.

“Avi! Please, stop! We need to…”

“Are you trying to talk to me about work?” Rich stopped abruptly and shook his head, though his eyes held confusion. “Then do not speak to me. We have nothing to say here that doesn’t involve work. This is my job. Keeping it is necessary, as it is the only money I will have, not to mention the only health insurance, to pay for my pregnancy and for my daughter when she gets here.”

“You act as though I won’t support you.”

“You are not someone who is reliable and can be counted on. Now, we are done here, unless you need to speak to me specifically about work.”

I turned on my heel and continued to the HR office where Phillip Herring, Director of HR along with our CEO, Mr. Higgins sat waiting for us.

I was too old to feel as though I’d been summoned to the principal’s office for being a naughty girl, but there I was feeling that special kind of shame burning up my face and reddening the tips of my ears.

“Both of you have a seat.” Mr. Higgins ordered while indicating the chairs opposite where he and Mr. Herring sat. “Everyone knew what was going on between the two of you,” he started and quickly turned his sole focus to Rich. “Mr. Thomlinson, we were unaware, at the time, that you had a family.”

Rich attempted to speak up for himself but was immediately silenced.

“Now, listen, I’m not here to cast aspersions at you – either of you.” His judgmental gaze landed on me and then my belly, as if to insinuate he thought I knew exactly what I had been doing.

“I was just as shocked yesterday as the rest of you.” My interruption startled the CEO as well as Herring who both turned their gazes on Rich, whose face reddened with embarrassment.

“It’s true,” Rich admitted. “I never once told Aviva or hinted toward having a family. She did not know. I even tried to convince her to swap positions with me, so that neither she nor my wife would ever find out when I moved here.” Both men gave him a look that said he was a complete idiot. And he was. It had been a terrible plan. Even if I had gone along with it, everyone in the office knew that we were together. It would only be a matter of time before that got back to me, if not his wife.

“Aviva didn’t know. No one knew. This is all on me. If you would like me to step down,” he offered, but Mr. Higgins shook his head.

“That won’t be necessary. You have a family to care for.” He then slid his eyes to my stomach again before adding, “A growing family.”

I scoffed at that, but wisely kept my mouth shut about the fact that Richard Thomlinson couldn’t be counted on for anything.

“We will do what we can to mitigate your interactions. However, you both know that there are accounts you will need to work on together.” He left his statement hanging there between all parties present.

“It won’t be a problem for me.”

Every man in the room looked at me skeptically and I had to laugh. They gave me a moment to collect myself and then I laid it out for everyone present.

“I always looked to my parents’ relationship for what I wanted in a life partner. My father has been gone for years and my mom still wears his ring and won’t hear of stepping out on her man. She has no hope to ever see him, touch him, be with him again, unless the afterlife is real and then I have no doubt that he’s there waiting patiently on the other side until they can be together again.

“As much as I don’t want to see my mother sad and lonely, I envy that type of dedication and loyalty to another person. It is something I strive for. To have been so thoroughly deceived by someone as to be made the catalyst coming between a bond two other people made – it tears me up inside. I never, in a million years, thought I would be that woman. The other woman. The homewrecker,” as I was called earlier. I threw a scathing glance at Rich then, because he was the one who turned me into that person.

“The person I was involved with no longer exists to me. He is nothing but a memory of a man who betrayed me and is never going to be in my life again.” I stood and stared at Rich for a moment before turning my attention back to the other two. “It won’t be a problem for me to work with Richard Thomlinson, because that man is a complete stranger to me.”

When all three men sat speechless for too many minutes, I moved toward the door. “If that’s all, I have work to get to since I missed yesterday for no good reason.”

“Y-yes, of course. Thank you for being a consummate professional, Ms. Acker.”

“My pleasure,” I told him as I left Rich to sit there in that office with the other two men. I closed the door gently behind me and walked confidently to the elevator where I then took it down one level to the floor where my office was. I held my head high as I passed the judgmental eyes of my coworkers. People who I had once thought of as friends, or at the very least friendly work acquaintances, either turned their backs on me or narrowed their gazes. I heard the murmured whispers.

“Homewrecker.”

“Whore.”

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